'They Could Stop A Lot Of This': Kathy Hochul Calls On GOP New York Lawmakers To Oppose Trump Cuts

4 days ago

At a press briefing, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) discussed the impact of possible Department of Education and Medicaid cuts on New York.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00If any, even Department of Education.

00:03I was trying to follow the President's press conference when he started naming different

00:08counties and how happy they're going to be.

00:11I don't know whether that meant he's going to give us the five or six billion dollars

00:15we receive now in a block grant for us to allocate so I can still put two billion toward

00:20Pell Grants, I can still put two billion dollars toward school lunches, I can still fund programs

00:25for disability.

00:26I don't know that right now and we're not going to know for quite a while.

00:29What we always have the opportunity to do is deal with the budget with the facts we

00:34have in front of us, but nothing prohibits us from coming back in a special session to

00:39deal with anything that comes our way from the federal government.

00:43But we're having conversations about what cuts in education would do, what cuts in Medicaid

00:49would do, and also one is always optimistic that these seven Republicans who claim to

00:56represent the state of New York in Congress, if people are vocal and get them to be more

01:05persuasive, if they banded together, they could stop a lot of this.

01:09If you think about the House of Representatives, how close those votes are, if seven New York

01:13members of Congress stood up and said, I don't want Medicaid cuts, I don't want the Social

01:17Security office cut in White Plains because seniors are going to have to travel dozens

01:22and dozens of miles.

01:23So we also have a responsibility to put them on the spot and say, what are you doing to

01:28make sure that your home state of New York is not hurt?

01:31But we always can come back and have another session if we need to.

01:34Do you think it's wise maybe to be trying to put more money in an unallocated fund?

01:40I guess it's just when the cuts are so clearly coming, I appreciate the idea that you could

01:45come back, but you guys are moving forward with something.

01:48I've said since day one, $93 billion will not be made up by the state of New York.

01:54It will not be made up by any state.

01:56And that is just unrealistic to think that will be the case.

01:59It's not going to happen.

02:00We have said that over and over.

02:02Nick?

02:03To that point about a potential special session or to come to something like that, is it possible

02:09that portions of the budget remain unresolved until, say, the summertime or something along

02:15those lines?

02:16Just to follow up on that, you mentioned the House Republicans.

02:20Would you potentially be in favor of just kind of displaying to New Yorkers, here are

02:25the effects of these federal cuts on state spending?

02:30We already are.

02:31I've done a number of press events.

02:32I was at a hospital at St. Mary's with Congressman Meeks and Grace Lee when they first started

02:38talking about the Medicaid cuts and how devastating it would be for a place that is often the

02:43last place any child goes to who is terribly ill.

02:46These are complex cases and a lot of these kids are not going home.

02:49I stood there and said, can you imagine a member of Congress coming here and looking

02:54in the eyes of these children and their parents and saying, I'm going to Washington to cut

02:57Medicaid, which is what keeps your child alive?

03:00I will continue raising my voice loudly about the impact of cuts on families and on seniors.

03:06We just spoke about it when I was at a school here in Albany, Friday I think it was, talking

03:11about what it would mean if there were cuts in school nutrition programs and school lunch

03:16programs.

03:17A lot of these kids are going to have their stomachs growling throughout the day if they

03:20don't have that money.

03:22So I will always be the voice explaining to the residents of New York the impact of these

03:28changes, but given the dynamics in Washington, the power that seven members of the majority

03:35party from our home state have cannot be underestimated and they need to be called out to use their

03:39voices.

'They Could Stop A Lot Of This': Kathy Hochul Calls On GOP New York Lawmakers To Oppose Trump Cuts

Category

Transcript

Recommended