tariffs.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n\n \u201cI was under the impression that Congress was responsible for issuing tariffs,\u201d he said. \u201cI really feel that this is a terrible tax that\u2019s going to be placed on the citizens of the United States.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The congressman began to respond, by saying, \u201cThis really at its core needs to be an opportunity to make sure that other countries are treating the United States fairly,\u201d a remark that was met with booing.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhat we need to do is work with our allies, put trade agreements in place,\u201d he said as he was repeatedly interrupted by yelling from the crowd.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI think part of this is what gives Trump the authority to put in place the tariffs. The authority that he\u2019s operating under is, as it relates to the imbalance of trade,\u201d Steil said. \u201cThere\u2019s a court case that\u2019s going on right now where there\u2019ll be more clarity provided on this, but that\u2019s the authority that he\u2019s operating under.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The event\u2019s moderator had to interject on multiple occasions in an effort to get the crowd to quiet down. At one point, moderator interrupted a yelling outburst by jokingly asking if the crowd would\u201crather the congressman go to lunch and you get to shout for the next 45 minutes?\u201d and called out a specific audience member as \u201cvery obnoxious and very disrespectful.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The congressman said, \u201cThe civil discourse that is a cornerstone of our democracy is challenged right now.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Not long after, he said, \u201cI don\u2019t support anybody denigrating anyone else. People have a right of free speech. But a lot of our discourse, writ large, is really challenged. It\u2019s challenged on all sides. So I think we have a real opportunity to improve our discourse a little bit. I\u2019d say the overwhelming majority of people here want to learn and understand my perspective, want to hear the questions, and then there\u2019s a small group of people that are challenging and are booing and yelling at each other. The same occurs in Washington. I share the frustration.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n On Trump\u2019s sweeping tax and spending law known as the \u201cbig, beautiful bill,\u201d one person asked what is being done to protect individuals who are not wealthy, raising concerns that tax breaks under the legislation will only accrue to higher-earners.\n <\/p>\n
\n The congressman responded, \u201cIn part, I would disagree with the way you framed it. As I look at the provisions of the bill, and what was in large part done, was keeping the 2017 tax reforms in place, that\u2019s the bulk of the bill,\u201d but was soon interrupted by shouting from the crowd.\n <\/p>\n
\n He added, \u201cIt builds onto that additional tax reforms for hard-working families.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Towards the end of the event, a man jumped up from his seat to question Steil on the war in Gaza.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cTwo million people in Gaza are starving \u2013 what do you have to say about that?\u201d the man shouted, then stood up and waved his arms in the air. A police officer approached the man, who then sat back down. The officer appeared to say something to the man and then walked away.\n <\/p>\n
\n Shortly after the outburst, a different audience member pressed the congressman to answer the earlier question.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cTo me, the easy answer to address this crisis is for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages. That ends the war tomorrow,\u201d Steil said. \u201cIsrael was unfairly, unjustly attacked, their civilians were killed and kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Steil said, \u201cIsrael has a right to defend itself,\u201d but paused amid shouting from the crowd. Soon after, amid continued disruptions from the audience, the moderator moved to conclude the event, saying \u201cWe\u2019re gonna close it off here because there\u2019s no point in continuing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Separately, Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat, told a crowd at a different event Thursday night he knew it was \u201ca little douchey\u201d to hold a town hall in the Wisconsin congressional district \u2013 and hometown \u2013 of neighboring Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden.\n <\/p>\n
\n But Van Orden is \u201cmissing in action,\u201d refusing to hold town halls of his own, and Democrats need to push back harder against the GOP\u2019s massive tax and domestic policy bill, Pocan said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI think doing, bluntly, town halls in Republican districts where they refuse to do them is one of the best things we can do,\u201d Pocan said. He called himself an \u201cearly adopter\u201d of the tactic and said other progressive lawmakers are following suit.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI think this is what we need to do. I mean, is this in your face. Is this a little douchey? Yes,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you know what? Taking away your health care and taking away your education funding and adding $4 trillion to the national debt so that the richest people are getting a tax cut is enough that we need to push back.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Pocan told CNN after the town hall that he\u2019d come to Prairie du Chien to goad Van Orden into publicly defending the GOP bill that President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cCome on down the road, Derrick,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you really think this bill\u2019s as good as you\u2019ve been saying it is, not in front of people, let\u2019s have an actual debate. Let\u2019s talk about the various parts of it. The fact he won\u2019t doesn\u2019t pass the Wisconsin smell test.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Pocan\u2019s hour-long town hall, in front of an audience of about 50 people in the town of about 5,000 was a friendly one with none of the fiery exchanges that other town halls across the nation have featured.\n <\/p>\n
\n Pocan was asked questions largely from the left, about ways Democrats can be more aggressive in taking on Trump. He was also asked about immigration policies, the sustainability of Social Security and Medicare, and about whether he fears Trump will declare martial law and cancel upcoming elections.\n <\/p>\n
\n He focused most of his comments on railing against Trump\u2019s so-called \u201cbig, beautiful bill\u201d \u2014 but peppered the entire hour with jabs at Van Orden for failing to host town halls.\n <\/p>\n
\n Van Orden\u2019s office did not respond to CNN\u2019s request for comment on Pocan\u2019s town hall.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link Republican Rep. Bryan Steil faced a rowdy crowd at a town hall-style event in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":112219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[210,1141,1142,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-112218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114957621967711460","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}