Democrats rallied outside the state Capitol in Hartford on Tuesday in a coordinated national “day of action” aimed at heading off what they say are inevitable cuts to Medicaid as the Trump administration and Republicans move to extend provisions of the 2017 tax cut law.
The White House insists that Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security are off limits, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that $880 billion in spending cuts sought by House Republicans are impossible without deep cuts to the social safety net.
“Medicaid is in mortal danger, my friends,” U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-3rd District, the senior member of the Connecticut delegation, told a Hartford crowd estimated by police at 400. “Congress is an institution that responds to external pressure. You are external pressure.”
In Connecticut, where every member of the state’s congressional delegation and every statewide office holder is a Democrat, there are no direct pressure points on President Donald J. Trump or the GOP majorities in the U.S. House and Senate. Protesters said it was important nonetheless to be heard.
“You just don’t stand there and watch your country and government dismantled. And you don’t watch the chief executive refuse to follow the rule of law and just say that’s OK with me, because it’s not,” said Claudia Allen of Thompson. “And it’s possible at a certain point when enough of the people in those Republican states are hurting or realize what’s happening to them, possibly they’ll grow a conscience and maybe start voting differently.”
Bette Marafino of West Hartford, a retired state employee and Social Security reform activist, told the late-afternoon crowd on the Capitol lawn to look beyond Connecticut in their activism and reach out to friends and family in other states, especially in red ones.
“We are flooding the country with requests: Don’t do this,” Marafino said.
The rally was organized by Disability Rights Connecticut and the office of U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat who has become one of the loudest voices for public displays of opposition to Trump and his scramble to rapidly shrink government and ignore congressional appropriations.
“Medicaid is a mainstream public health program in this country,” Murphy said. “And you know why they are cutting Medicaid? They’re cutting Medicaid because they want to fund a giant tax cut for the wealthiest 1%. This would be the biggest transfer of wealth in our country from the poor and middle class to the rich and the affluent.”
Gretchen Knauff, the president of the state Independent Living Council and one of the organizers, said a blue state demonstration during the congressional recess contributes to a larger sense of political momentum, allowing members to share the stories of their constituents’ concerns when they return to Washington.
“It’s letting people know. It’s also letting people know you are standing together, that there are other people who care, and if you are feeling deeply about it, you know others are, too,” Knauff said, an assessment that sounded more therapeutic than political. “Absolutely, it’s therapeutic.”
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal told the protesters they are being seen and heard.
“I’m going take this picture back to Washington with me,” Blumenthal said. “This picture is worth a thousand of my words.”
“This is what democracy looks like,” yelled Denise Hale of Farmington.
“This is what it’s all about,” said Gov. Ned Lamont, who joined the congressional delegation. “Hey, Washington, can you hear us? Donald Trump, can you hear us? This is Hartford shouting … this is happening all over the country. We have to make sure Washington hears us.”
Any significant cut to Medicaid, a state and federally funded program that provides health care for the poor and working poor, would upend Lamont’s negotiations with lawmakers over his proposed two-year budget for the biennium that begins July 1.
“Everybody has that right to good, affordable health care,’ Lamont said. “Don’t let him take it away.”
U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, said Medicaid is vital throughout the state, not just to distressed urban centers, as some believe.
“Nothing could be further from the truth — 40% of live births in this country are covered by Medicaid,” Courtney said. “Out in the Quiet Corner, in Day Kimball Hospital, over 50% of live births are provided by Medicaid.”
U.S. Rep. John B. Larson, D-1st District, a long-time defender of Social Security and its solvency, complained that Elon Musk, the billionaire tasked by Trump with shrinking government and slashing spending, is campaigning to undermine Social Security with a goal of privatizing it.
“Elon Musk needs to come before Congress and say what is his plan. What is his plan? Privatization, that is their focus. That is their goal,” Larson said.
Larson’s recent complaint at a congressional committee meeting that congressional Republicans were too timid to call Musk to testify went viral on social media.
After the rally, Larson said he sees a strategy in the cuts that often seem to be made in haste: Hobble the bureaucracy to make the case for privatization.
“They’re disabling these very structures, Social Security and others,” Larson said. “It’s a different approach to privatization, and it’s clever. What they want to say is that ‘It’s not efficient. It’s not working. They’re not returning your calls. It takes too long.’”