Congressman Suhas Subramanyam
Appearances
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
Yeah, you know, she said a couple interesting things. She also said that Congress couldn't cut Medicaid, but that's exactly what they're trying to do right now. But, you know, I represent a lot of federal workers and contractors And those are real jobs. They're real people with real families. So certainly the government does actually employ a lot of people that many of them are veterans.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
But second, you know, aside from just that, I mean, you know, think of someone who's an employee at the IRS. They actually generate revenue for the government. They can make sure that taxes are collected to make sure waste, fraud and abuse is found and removed. And so a lot of the federal civil service actually saves taxpayers money in the long run. That's why a lot of these programs exist.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
They were authorized by Congress to do just that. So, you know, what she said is not true. It doesn't make any sense. And, but, you know, we shouldn't be surprised, right? What we shouldn't be surprised about is a good thing, which is what you were saying before. I think now even Republicans are starting to understand that Trump's agenda was really just about helping the most vulnerable
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
the richest billionaires and richest corporations at the expense of kids who want to be fed and people who just want basic care on programs like Medicaid.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
What's your response to that? We had one town hall in my district that we had room for about 150 people in the room. 500 people came and people left. Yeah, but a lot of people actually just stayed in the lobby of the building just to hear what we were saying and then came and talked to me afterwards. We have one tonight where we decided to increase the capacity of the room to 650, got a new venue.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
And 800 signups, we had to close signups. And these are all real people. Not one of them is paid. And a few of them are even more than a few are Republicans, actually, who are really, really pissed off, to be honest. And so I think that that's, you know, he's got to say what he's got to say to cover his tracks. But he's not living in reality if that's what he actually thinks.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
Yeah, someone once described the economy to me and the president's relationship to it as like a baseball manager and a baseball team where the manager can set the lineup, but they can't always hit, they can't always catch players. And but in this case, you know, this president has actually given us a lot of self inflicted wounds. You talk about the tariffs, for instance, and the threat of tariffs.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
Now, private sector and the markets don't really want to make big investments right now. They're afraid of actually moving on, investing in the United States. A lot of business has come to a standstill here in Virginia. A lot of government contractors spend hundreds of thousands of millions. trying to implement government contracts.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
And now they've been canceled overnight and they're never going to work with the government again. And they're trying to figure out where they are in this economy. But a lot of the disruption that's happened has directly led to this. And now you talk about getting rid of federal civil servants, scientists, workers who are very essential to our government's operations.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
And so if you fire the person, for instance, involved in crop safety and health at the USDA, well, yeah, you know, you saved $100,000 maybe in the short term, but it's going to cost us millions over the next five years as we see damage to our crops. And that's just one example. You spread that across hundreds of thousands of federal civil servants and you end up in a really bad position.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
So I think this is different than when we had struggles under previous presidents and that this is actually self-inflicted and caused directly by the president and his administration.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
Yeah, absolutely. You know, first I'll say, you know, I come from the state legislature and where no one really paid attention to what we did. So coming to Congress, when I saw I had the opportunity to speak on the floor. Whenever I wanted to, like I've taken advantage of that. And I think some of my colleagues are starting to as well.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
I think we in Congress do have a megaphone and we've encouraged each other to use that as much as we can. So even if we don't call the hearings or we can go on the House floor and call out the hypocrisy, call out the bad stuff that's happening and bring attention to it. And I've also tried to, you know, be on different social media platforms because we have to find people where they are. Right.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
It's no, everyone's not on, you know, in front of their TV at six o'clock listening to Dan Rather anymore. Right. Where things have changed. Right. They listen to you. They listen to a lot of other mediums. And so we're trying to get out there as much as possible. In Virginia, we have elections every year. And so I've told people now is the time to sign up with our campaign, sign up with
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
with any campaign and certainly the governor's campaign here because we have a chance to send a message to the United States and to voters across the country right now. And then there's special elections as well too. So you can get involved that way.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
And third, you know, especially if they're going to ignore court orders or, you know, really ignore the will of Congress and the American people and continue to break the law, like let's take to the streets, let's do whatever we can, you know, I know the rallies don't feel like they make a difference. I know showing up to the Republican town halls doesn't feel like it makes a difference.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
But let's keep putting the pressure. There's three Republicans that won districts that Kamala Harris won. Let's start there. And let's go all the way out to these vulnerable Republicans. All we need is three people on any issue to stop it from happening. And certainly, we should use all the leverage we can as members of Congress. But
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam on Trump Fallout
We cannot put the pressure without you, the people, we, the people, working together and doing everything we can every day to make sure that this administration and all the Republicans in Congress know that we mean business.