U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, D-12, spoke with constituents during a virtual town hall meeting Dec. 12.
By Charles W. Kim, Packet Media Group
U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, D-12, spoke with constituents during a virtual town hall meeting Dec. 12.
Rep. Holt covered a number of wide-ranging topics during the conference telephone call, addressing questions from residents throughout the district, including the communities of Princeton, Lawrence, Hopewell and the Somerset section of Franklin Township among others.
The questions dealt with a variety of issues such as climate change, the new budget agreement, extending unemployment benefits, gun control and gay rights.
Rep. Holt expressed his opposition to the current budget agreement being considered that would extend many of the federal “sequester” cuts through the year, but increase funding levels for defense and other programs.
In a statement earlier in the day, Rep. Holt said the agreement, House Joint Resolution 59, would further hurt the economy and not increase spending on needed infrastructure and research projects.
”Make no mistake about it; this budget agreement is the direct result of the Budget Control Act, which I strongly opposed when it was being debated 2011, and this agreement takes us backwards,” Rep. Holt said in the statement. “I knew then the sequester would wreak havoc on our economy, threaten our quality of life, and squeeze the most vulnerable among us.”
He said “the worst” of the sequesters impacts are “coming true” and that the spending control measure passed in 2011 is hurting the country’s recovery from the Great Recession.
”The sequester has cut research, education, infrastructure, Medicare, and a number of other critical investments that are vital to a growing economy,” he said. “It is robbing America of the opportunity to rise from the Great Recession as a stronger, more vibrant nation.”
Calling the 2011 law “a meat cleaver approach” to government spending, Rep. Holt said that the across-the-board reductions cut some $480 million that has led to many layoffs in the New York and New Jersey, especially on trial courts.
He was especially critical of the plan not extending unemployment benefits to the long-term jobless.
He told district residents that there are a “historically” greater number of the long-term unemployed in the country, and that allowing the benefit extension to expire does not make sense given the fragile nature of the recovery.
”We are not giving the money away,” Rep. Holt said. “The return (of benefit dollars) to the economy is real. It makes good sense.”
Rep. Holt said the agreement is short-sighted and should not be an issue for the richest country in the world.
”We are acting like a poor nation,” Rep. Holt said. “We should be acting as if there is a tomorrow (in spending on infrastructure and research.)”
On the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, Rep. Holt said the law is not just about signing up online or how congressmen get their plans.
”The Affordable Care Act has many parts,” he said.
Rep. Holt said that members of Congress and their staff get their policies from a Washington, D.C., exchange set up by the A.F.A., but the act has done so much more for people in the country like closing the prescription “doughnut” hole in Medicare, allowing young people to remain on their parents’ policies until age 26, and making sure insurance companies spend 80 percent of premiums on actual health care expenses.
”Anybody with a policy can do that,” he said.
He also said many insurers are now using Medicare’s “best practices” to evaluate payments to care givers to make the system more efficient.
”That is mostly to the good,” he said. “Medicare sets the standards (for reimbursement).”
He said many points being made about the act by those opposing it are false.
”Not all of those things are true,” he said.
Talking about gun control Rep. Holt said federal laws should, at least in part, mirror New Jersey’s strict measures.
”We have not had meaningful gun control laws for years,” he said. “(Sandy Hook) was so horrendous and heart wrenching.”
He said New Jersey’s laws may be some of the strictest in the nation, but have not impacted citizen’s Second Amendment rights.
”We (in New Jersey) live quite comfortably (with these laws),” Rep. Holt said. “I wish we could think of (the issue) as a public health issue. It would be more rational.”
Returning to his theme of spending more on infrastructure and research, Rep. Holt said the nation was “in denial” regarding climate change, and that we should be planning and rebuilding with that in mind for the future.
”The storms are coming,” he said.
Rep. Holt said he spent quite a bit of time talking to the utility companies during recent storms and is concerned about how seemingly vulnerable our electric grid may be to the weather and even solar storms that could black out millions.
”The municipal utilities were up and running quickly (during the storms),” Rep. Holt said. “Even though they took a beating.”
He said the answer is in more federal studies about just how vulnerable our power grid might be.
”There should have been more planning sooner,” he said.

