'All We Had Was An Empty Chair' | Letter To The Editor

The following Letter to the Editor was submitted by Lloyd Trufelman of Katonah.

With extremists in the House of Representatives holding the economy hostage by forcing an impossible choice on the debt limit between economic chaos and severe funding cuts that would plunge millions of hardworking families into poverty, a group of Rep. Mike Lawler’s Westchester constituents invited him to discuss the situation.

We wanted to find out if he supports a discharge petition to pass a clean debt limit increase or supports Kevin McCarthy’s MAGA default bill, about which he’s been sending mixed messages. Even though America has always managed to meet its financial obligations, we are now being pushed to the brink of default because of hostage-taking stunts that threaten life-saving benefits. McCarthy’s irresponsible approach to governing would have severe, wide-reaching impacts that we can’t afford, and would damage the country for decades to come. None the less, Rep. Lawler’s office declined the meeting without offering an alternate date, Zoom session or to send a staff representative.

So all we had was an empty chair.

Since being elected, Rep. Lawler hasn’t held a single general Town Hall event, nor any mobile office hours in this part of his district. He claims to be "bipartisan" but apparently is an "unrepresentative" who won’t meet with constituents on this or other important issues. Regardless, Rep. Lawler and his fellow Republicans should vote to allow the USA to pay its debts, as they’ve done in years past and stop trying to push through fake MAGA legislation that has no chance of success.

Lloyd Trufelman

Katonah

This Letter to the Editor was submitted by a reader. The views expressed here are the author's own.