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During his campaign, President Donald Trump promised to lower costs, curb inflation and bring manufacturing back to the United States. More than two months into his presidency, none of that has happened.
Instead, the administration has imposed sweeping tariffs and started a trade war that has jacked up prices, cost hundreds of jobs in Minnesota and decimated retirement accounts. With the help of unelected billionaire Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), they’ve taken a sledgehammer to our federal agencies, laying off veterans, public health employees and FSA loan officers and jeopardizing the critical services Minnesotans rely on. They’ve frozen federal funding for local police departments, rural development programs and nonprofits. They’ve shuttered USAID and defunded the Department of Education, and now they’re targeting massive cuts to the Social Security Administration to strip Minnesotans of their hard-earned benefits.
We have three branches of government for a reason, but my Republican colleagues in Congress are letting this administration’s power go completely unchecked. Instead of standing up for their constituents against these reckless tariffs and workforce cuts, House Republicans seem hell-bent on advancing the president’s agenda and screwing over middle-class Minnesotans in the process.
Their budget proposal includes massive cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Gutting Medicaid would increase health care costs for folks across the country and put more than 100,000 Minnesotans at risk of losing their coverage. Cutting $230 billion from SNAP would decimate our agricultural economy and take food straight from the mouths of hungry kids, seniors and veterans — all to pay for taxpayer-funded giveaways to billionaires like Musk.
No wonder Republican representatives have refused to show up and do town halls in person — where they would have to look Minnesotans in the eye — because they can’t defend what’s happening. Between Rep. Brad Finstad (Minnesota’s First District), Rep. Tom Emmer (Sixth District), Rep. Michelle Fischbach (Seventh) and Rep. Pete Stauber (Eighth), not one of my Republican colleagues has hosted their own in-person, no-tickets-required town hall. It’s a disgrace.
Our job as members of Congress is to answer to Minnesotans — listen to them and take their feedback back to Washington. Simply put, it’s to stand up for our constituents — even when it’s hard.
