(The Center Square) – One of Wisconsin’s Republican congressmen says he’s not going to let potential protesters scare him away from talking to voters.
Congressman Bryan Steil was on News Talk 1130 WISN recently and said he has no plans to change his town hall meeting schedule.
‘I’ve done a series of town halls already this year across southeast Wisconsin,” Steil said. “I hold town halls with a history of being available and accessible, and we’re going to continue to do that.”
A number of Republicans have recently seen angry crowds at town halls protesting potential Medicaid cuts.
Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, including President Donald Trump, have called them “protesters professionals.”
Richard Hudson, the, National Republican Congressional Committee chair told Republican congressmen earlier this week to stop holding in-person town halls because of the protests.
Steil said the “fear mongering on the left is really unhelpful.”
“We have to go out and explain to people what is actually occurring in Washington, D.C.,” Steil said. “So, we have to go back and tell our side of the story. And continuing that pattern of being available and accessible is something that I plan on continuing to do.”
Steil framed any talk of cuts to Medicaid as protecting the system for “the least among us.”
“The program has expanded to pick up people that shouldn’t be receiving benefits in the manner they are,” Steil said.
Steil said Trump has made it clear there’s no intention to cut benefits for the single parents, elderly folks, or people with disabilities who Medicaid has traditionally cared for.
Northwoods Congressman Tom Tiffany and Congressman Glenn Grothman have also said they also plan to continue with town hall meetings.
