Dear [firstname]:
This shutdown isn’t some abstract fight over tax credits. It’s about real people—families right here in Central and Western Mass who are already struggling to make ends meet.
I’m talking about our neighbors who sit at kitchen tables staring at medical bills they don’t know how to pay. Families in Leominster and Auburn who put groceries back on the shelf because their insurance premiums are sucking up more and more of their pay. Parents in Northfield and Northampton picking out insurance plans for next year during open enrollment who are about to see their costs skyrocket because Republicans refuse to work with Democrats to keep costs down.
Why is this happening right now? Because Republicans want a shutdown. They control the House. They control the Senate. They control the White House. It is their job to keep the government funded. In fact, Donald Trump said so himself when Barack Obama was President:
“If there is a shutdown, I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the President of the United States. He’s the one that has to get people together.”
—Donald Trump
Yet Republicans refuse to negotiate. Instead, they are asking Democrats to abandon our values and blindly swallow a budget that will screw over regular Americans. A budget which means the price of healthcare premiums for 24 million people would more than double, including some 37,000 people here in my district in Massachusetts who get their health care through the Affordable Care Act.
And that’s in addition to Trump’s big ugly cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act—the largest cuts to healthcare in American history, which are going to kick millions more off their insurance altogether.
We all know that America has a broken, dysfunctional healthcare system. And I cannot, in good conscience, vote for a budget that makes things worse. More than half of all Americans live paycheck to paycheck, healthcare costs are draining people’s budgets—and Republicans in Washington continue to give tax breaks to billionaires. And now they're asking for help to pass a budget that makes life even more painful for working people? No way.
So that’s what this is about. It isn’t complicated. It’s about whose side you’re on. If Republicans want to stand with regular people and bring healthcare costs down, they have my vote. But if they want to keep passing tax break after tax break for billionaires while everyday Americans get screwed—then they are in for one hell of a fight.
Know that my team and I are here and working for Massachusetts during this shutdown. We will continue to answer your calls, help navigate federal resources that are available to you, and provide guidance during this challenging time. If you need help, do not hesitate to call.
�� Worcester Office: (508) 831-7356
�� Northampton Office: (413) 341-8700
�� Leominster Office: (978) 466-3552
�� Washington, D.C. Office: (202) 225-6101
Yours in Service,
