100+ constituents of Rep. Mike Lawler (NY-17) protested the roughly $700 billion in cuts to Medicaid
OSSINING, NY—Over a hundred local labor and community leaders rallied at Louis Engel Waterfront Park on Saturday in protest of the roughly $700 billion in cuts to Medicaid under the GOP’s budget plan.
Last month, House Republicans—including Rep. Mike Lawler—voted for a budget that would push millions of people off their health care, while handing massive tax breaks to corporations and the ultra-wealthy.
The rally was kicked off by Emily Feiner, who was forcibly removed from Rep. Lawler’s town hall in Somers recently. “When authoritarianism and the oligarchs come for your democracy: do not comply,” said Feiner, a social worker based in Nyack.
She was followed by Ossining Mayor Rika Levin, Ossining Supervisor Liz Feldman, State Assemblymember Dana Levenberg, Westchester County Legislator Emiljana Ulaj, as well as representatives from the Westchester-Putnam Central Labor Body, New York State United Teachers, 1199 Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Communication Workers of America (CWA), Make the Road Action, CCoHOPE, and the Westchester-Putnam Chapter of the Working Families Party.
“The ugly legislation that the House passed last month is not just a massive transfer of wealth from the poor to the ultra-rich; it is also a massive attack on public health. This bill would cut coverage for millions and undermine our healthcare system while simultaneously gutting environmental protection, virtually ensuring higher rates of asthma, cancer, and other pollution-related illnesses. It would also cause New York State to lose billions of dollars in federal funding while at the same time being burdened with huge new administrative costs,” said Assemblymember Dana Levenberg (AD-95). “This legislation is unconscionable and cannot be allowed to pass. I urge the Senate to reject it.”
“Cuts to public services don’t just affect numbers on a budget sheet—they affect real people, real families, and real futures right here in Ossining. Whether it’s our schools, healthcare, libraries, veterans, senior and youth programs, it’s detrimental to all of us,” said Ossining Mayor Rika Levin. “Use your voice and vote for those that build communities, not defund them.”
“The so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ cuts billions from healthcare—there’s nothing beautiful about it. Mike Lawler voted twice to gut the lifeline that holds our hospitals together. That’s a damn shame,” said Alex Pierre, 1199SEIU Member Political Organizer and Patient Care Partner at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern. “Medicaid cuts are a direct attack on the people who rely on Medicaid, not just for doctor’s visits, but for daily survival. We cannot allow Lawler and his ilk in Washington to balance the budget on our backs.”
“Medicaid cuts to New York will cost the state tens of thousands of good middle-class healthcare jobs. Hospitals will lay off nurses along with other patient-facing technologists just to make up for the billions of dollars lost in Medicaid reimbursements. Yet that won’t be enough, they will also increase costs for private insurance, which employers will pass on to workers as increased premium co-shares and co-pays,” said Joe Mayhew, CWA Local 1103 Secretary/Treasurer. “Rep. Mike Lawler needs to understand the billions of dollars in cuts in Medicaid he has voted for three times now will affect all New Yorkers not just those on Medicaid.”
“If this country can afford tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy, if we can spend billions on bombs and border walls, then we can afford textbooks without torn pages, roofs that don’t leak, and enough computers for every child. We can afford funding for special education, which provides support to students who are struggling with math and reading, and we can afford to fund ongoing training for our teachers,” said Samantha Rosado-Ciriello, President of the Yonkers Federation of Teachers and NYSUT Board Member.
“Our communities deserve so much better than Medicaid and SNAP cuts. When families have access to quality health care and good hospitals, we’re all better off,” said Jennifer Cabrera, Chair of the Westchester-Putnam Chapter of the Working Families Party. “But Rep. Mike Lawler wants to take that all away—all so he can hand more tax breaks to people like Elon Musk. These aren’t the values of NY-17.”
Community and labor groups plan to continue to draw attention to the threatened cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP under the GOP’s reconciliation package.
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