Wonking With Neal

Western Mass Congressman Richard Neal was at UMass yesterday afternoon as seen below in this photo taken at the event by Judith Gibson-Okunieff.

Of course I attended, and when I arrived at the Old Chapel where the event was held, there were protesters by the door.

The socialist flavor of the moment.

Suddenly Neal himself appeared in our midst, waving a greeting.

One of the woman protesters shouted at Neal, "Why are you the only member of the Massachusetts delegation that hasn't endorsed the Green New Deal?" Neal then stopped to directly confront her.

First he asked her who she was, to which she replied, "I'm from Easthampton, I'm one of your constituents," and then she added, "When are you going to hold a town meeting so we can tell you why we want the Green New Deal?"

Neal responded firmly, "I already agree with a lot of its aspirations, but sorry, I can't support anything until I can find the money to pay for it."

The Congressman then entered the Chapel, as the woman turned to the other protesters and asked, "What do we say when told we can't afford it?" The tone of her voice suggested she had never thought of the fiscal side of the Green New Deal before.

The Old Chapel, which holds around a 120 people, was over 90% full, but not nearly the crowd of students that showed up at Amherst College last month for former Republican Governor John Kasich.

As it turned out, the doorway confrontation with the protesters was about as lively as the event got, with Neal's talk being heavy on insider insights into pending legislation before Neal's Ways and Means Committee. I found most of these topics interesting, but I suspect a lot of Neal's talk about pension reform, infrastructure negotiations and changes in tax law pretty much went over the heads of most of the people present.

The average person doesn't usually follow these fiscal issues to the degree of depth to be able to fully appreciate what Neal was talking about. In fact, the moderator, Professor Lee Badgett of the Department of Economics, repeatedly requested Neal to provide background information, such as the meaning of something he kept referring to as SALT, which Neal then explained as being an acronym for state and local taxes.

You can read more about the whole policy wonk fest here.