Past Events

4.25.2025 Indivisible El Dorado Report on Tom McClintock Office visit

After being turned away last week when we attempted to deliver a basket full of Easter goodies and notes from constituents to Representative Tom McClintock’s district office, we emailed his office with pictures and our regrets that we were not welcomed. After receipt of our email, Matt Reed, Rep. McClintock district chief of staff, contacted our leadership to schedule an appointment! While he originally offered only 15 minutes, he seemed comfortable with it going much longer (about an hour).

The key topics we had concerns about and to which we want responses were: Tariffs; Fix the Forest Act; Social Security/Retirement Security; Healthcare and Medicaid, and adherence to Constitutional norms and principles. We gave our input candidly, and asked that we receive reactions from the Congressman directly.

On the use of tariffs and their negative effects on our local economy (including agriculture and small business), we were told by Mr. Reed that while McClintock opposes broad tariffs generally, he supports President Trump’s invocation of a “national emergency” and will do so until such time that it may be challenged and overturned; he has no intention of seeking to return specified constitutional power of Congress (Article I, Section 8) to assess tariffs on imports.

On the issue of the Fix the Forest Act, a bipartisan bill which has been referred to the committee on which Tom McClintock sits, Matt was unsure when action will be taken. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate, but right now there is no scheduled action in that chamber, as well. Matt shared that McClintock believes that the forests generate their own income, and that should be sufficient and therefore they do not need to use tax dollars. In regards to concerns about clear cutting, Matt shared that the Congressman does not believe in clearcutting, as it is an antiquated way to manage forests; but when asked about the impacts of the tariffs and the lumber industry bleeding over to use of US land/resources he said “we have plenty of lumber”. Our ask was that, as our Representative, Mr. McClintock ensure that the bill be fully funded, cuts and workforce reinstated to ensure our forests are appropriately staffed in order to implement his bill with fidelity and protect his constituents from wildfire.

On the issue of Retirement Security and the impact the continual threats to Medicare and the elimination of Social Security, as well as the reduction of staff and offices around the country are having on seniors’ access, Matt stated that these programs as now authorized are unsustainable, that McClintock is not concerned about staff related deductions, is supportive of DOGE cuts overall and is only concerned about “service related cuts” that affect access. He went on to claim that service complaints have been plentiful over the years, so they (the district staff), are not hearing about any new issues directly related to cuts by DOGE. We pointed out that 60% of voters in Eldorado County receive these benefits and this is an entitlement program because people have paid into it their entire lives and rely on this for income and health care. We further pointed out that this is not— and should be —a partisan issue and that by confabulating information, and spreading inaccurate and inflammatory misinformation such as “hundreds of children are on social security” as if it is fraud is disingenuous, as these benefits are paid to children after the death of a parent. We asked that no cuts be made to Social Security and Medicare to ensure tax breaks for the wealthy.

On the issues of hiring freezes and potential cuts to HealthCare and Medicaid, with 228,000 people in CD 5 being enrolled in MediCal we ask that Tom McClintock actively take care of his community, as “healthy citizens are more productive and contribute not only by paying taxes“ but in many other ways to a healthily functioning society. Matt’s response to this was that many issues are state and local issues that constituents need to take up with their locally elected leaders, and that the Federal government is limited in what it can provide citizens (thus effectively passing the buck to others).

Finally we made two more very important asks of our representative:

1. Follow the constitution by taking back your congressional powers and focusing on Liberty and JUSTICE for ALL-which means following the rule of law and due process.

2. We stated our concerns of not having access to our representative directly and limited access to staff. We pointed out that this was a top issue in the 117 constituent notes we collected. We therefore requested that our representative see us in person, and if not directly in person then upgrade the Tele Town Halls to zoom so we can see him and he can see us! If they were not willing to do that, we requested that they at least pre-announce the date & time of the Tele Town Halls both on McClintock’s .gov website and by email to all constituents signed up to receive communicants so they can plan in advance to participate. Matt expressed that they liked the flexibility that not announcing town halls allows for them to cancel or move them. Matt stated that they believe the current tele town halls “are working for us” and they are reaching their constituents, therefore are unlikely to change this position. We stated that they aren’t working for the people.

We handed over the constituent notes and got a verbal agreement from Matt that they would all be read.

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