Reed's Focus on Community Outreach

Congressman Tom Reed spent his time in New York's 23rd district last week holding a series of conference calls with hospital administrators, school superintendents, college presidents, and local elected officials, in addition to a number of meetings with groups including AARP and constituents throughout the district. These discussions were part of a continued outreach plan to remain proactive and keep the lines of communication open with local residents.

“What I am hearing around the district from our mayors, superintendents, those in the healthcare field – all types of groups in our community – is overwhelming support for the need to cut spending to combat our debt crisis as well as a renewed call for no additional tax increases,” Reed said. “While people are understandably concerned about the looming sequester cuts and their impact on our communities, they realize intuitively that in order to get out of this crisis, we need to get spending under control. It is time the President and Democratic Party recognize their tax increases are further hurting an already burdened taxpayer base.”

The President spent last week advocating for yet another tax increase, rather than reaching out to Congress to find a bipartisan solution to address sequestration.

“Families and businesses here in the district are saying they cannot sustain another tax increase and yet the White House and Democrats claim a permanent tax increase is needed to cover this year’s cut,” Reed continued. “If the White House is not going to present any realistic solutions to protecting those on the front lines of these cuts, the President should be managing and deciding specific spending reductions rather than using press conferences and campaign-like appearances to scare Americans.”

With less than a week until sequestration cuts take effect, Reed again called on the Senate to take action. The Democratic-led Senate has not produced draft legislation scored by the Congressional Budget Office to replace the cuts. The House passed legislation on two separate occasions to realign cuts associated with sequestration.

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