Faso firm on health care, raps Cuomo
Congressman, in TV forum, says he opposes entering war in Syria
U.S. Rep. John Faso has called town hall meetings “shouting-and-screaming sessions,” but there was none of that Thursday night as he met with several dozen fired-up but respectful voters at a question-and-answer forum broadcast live on public television.
They applauded calls from audience members for more gun control, legal abortion and higher taxes on the rich, and they murmured disapproval when Faso, a first-term congressman, dismissed as a “Washington parlor game” calls for President Donald Trump to release his tax returns. But there were no fireworks during the hourlong event held in the studios of public TV station WMHT.
“I want to see the same things as you want,” Faso said, speaking to a Catskill woman who criticized his support repealing and replacing Obam-
acare. “We may have a different way of getting there. .... There’s no perfect system that is going to solve all these problems, but I believe if we work together cooperatively, we will come closer to achieving those goals.”
Faso said parts of Obamacare — the Affordable Care Act signed by President Barack Obama in 2010 — were worth preserving, mentioning coverage of pre-existing conditions and letting children stay on their parents’ health insurance until age 26.
Todd Tesman, a town official in Pittstown and business operator in Schaghticoke, Rensselaer County, said Obamacare “is killing our businesses.”
“We have to do something,” he said.
“One of the unintended consequences of the ACA was that it discouraged full-time employment,” Faso replied. He cited conversations with business owners who are holding down full-time employment because of the coverage mandate.
Thursday night’s event, moderated by WMHT’s Matt Ryan and the Albany Times Union’s Casey Seiler, included about 80 attendees who signed up online, and judging by the questions and occasional applause, most were Democrats. Among the topics they raised were Russia, North Korea, illegal aliens and taxes.
Outside the TV studio, a small group of demonstrators was led in chanting by a woman wearing a nurses’ union T-shirt. One of the protesters wore a costume made of money and a Faso mask.
Faso said he opposes the U.S. getting into a war in Syria and also that he sees no need to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Russian hacking and interference in last fall’s presidential campaign.
He also expressed support for funding the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program, Medicaid abortion services and legal services for the poor.
A number of audience member wore Planned Parenthood shirts, and Faso said the right to abortion is the law.
“I personally am more pro-life on this topic, but ... I respect the law, and the law is a right to privacy that encompasses a right to legal abortion.”
Faso criticized Gov. Andrew Cuomo, with whom he often is at odds, for proposing and authorizing free SUNY college tuition for eligible students.
“I think there’s nothing in life that’s free, and I’m very dubious about how that program is going to unfold,” said Faso, a former state Assembly
minority leader and one-time candidate for governor.
Faso also criticized Cuomo for opposing a GOP plan for the state to take over Medicaid costs currently incurred by county governments in New York.
“I’m bound and determined we are going to end this,” Faso said of counties footing the bill, noting that Cuomo’s father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, “proposed the same thing back in the 1980s.”
Asked about water contamination issues in Hoosick Falls and other rural communities, Faso said the issue is not partisan.
“If something is contaminated, we should make every effort to clean it up,” he said.
Like other GOP members of Congress from upstate New York and elsewhere in the United States, Faso has been targeted by activists who hold demonstrations and demand town hall forums to speak out about issues important to them.
More than 700 people showed up for a town hall meeting in late February in Kingston to which Faso was invited but did not attend.
Asked why he has no plans to hold a public town hall meeting in Kingston or another community in the state’s 19th Congressional District, Faso said he wants to avoid disruptions that would interfere with his ability to meet with constituents.
Faso is scheduled to be interviewed by Freeman reporters at 9 a.m. April 19 in the newspaper’s Kingston office. The interview will be streamed live at dailyfreeman.com, and the public will have the opportunity to submit questions.