#pa-08

I listened to this because you probably won't. You can thank me later. (Or please thank me now, it was an hour long and facebook does not have an option to do 1.5x speed.) (crossposted from my newsletter)

The tele town hall recording is available on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/RepBresnahan/videos/1902035860200636/

I have to start out with my particular concern, one of my ongoing and most serious concerns politically right now:

"You're going to see these AI data centers pop up around northeastern Pennsylvania and the rest of the country but there is going to be a limiting agent and the limiting agent is going to be power availability. So we have to make sure we are investing intelligently to keep up with the demands but also make sure we have the workers." – Rob Bresnahan, March 25, 2025

(The quote is in the segment about 45 minutes in where someone asks about his position on the transportation committee.)

I’m going to try to be a limiting agent!

The weird thing about this is that data centers do not create a lot of jobs, and the whole point of AI - and they tell us this - is that AI is promising to ELIMINATE jobs and replace humans and put people out of work. So this makes no sense whatsoever. And we absolutely do not want these monstrosities going through our backyards, burning tires to print cryptocurrency, or creating noise so bad it wrecks home values and causes problems so bad people say they're going mad from it. And even tycoons admit this is really unsustainable. If they were so great why do they want corporate welfare and boondoggles? And if AI is all it's hyped up to be, why is Microsoft pulling back now on data center investments after they'd floated a plan to turn Three Mile Island back on?

I'm concerned that this politician has fallen for the hype and is setting us up for a boondoggle, and that's something people need to disabuse him of immediately before he sells out our district to scams and tax money grant giveaways for no good reason that will wreck the living environment, wreck home values, and wreck our communities and everything we actually do have going for us here.

About the passenger train project from Scranton to NYC through the Poconos, which was much championed by the representative Bresnahan replaced – Matt Cartwright who now sits on some board for the project, Bresnahan said: “We’re going to keep pedal to the medal and get that train out of the station.”

Rob Bresnahan was promoting his cosponsoring something to "simplify forms" for veterans claims, for example when someone passes away or needs to apply for something. I just hope we still need to simplify the paperwork, because it seems like they're trying to cut the veterans services in the first place.

The poll results for attendees on Bresnahan's tele town hall phone call about what people are most concerned about from the choices given was 52% social security and medicare medicaid, 14% inflation, 6% infrastructure, 5% safety, 24% other.

Another poll asked "Should non citizens be allowed to vote?" Which was an obviously stupid question, because non-citizens are not allowed to vote in federal elections already. And they're really not. But he was pushing the SAVE Act which will make things much harder for a lot of people if it passes, but Bresnahan has claimed this is misinformation in the past, even though it sure sounds like it will create more voter suppression to me.

Someone named Lorna in Wilkes-Barre asked if he was getting positive feedback about Trump's border policy "after all the disastrous years". Bresnahan pivoted immediately to fentanyl on this. Bresnahan said he personally lost someone to the fentanyl crisis. He said it's deadly and dangerous. Fentanyl is of course already a controlled substance that's used commonly in hospitals for legitimate medicinal purposes. Bresnahan didn't specify if he was concerned about the Canadian border.

A guy named Richard said he was excited that a young guy was worried about things that are important to old people, but then now Trump's in there things changed, and that he was very concerned about Elon Musk cutting stuff seniors rely upon like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Bresnahan said his position has not changed. But he voted for that bill. Bresnahan claimed Medicaid wasn't mentioned in the bill he voted for, and that suggests that he's either very naive or lying that it wouldn't affect Medicaid, because it's been absolutely proven mathematically that it would have to cut Medicaid. He claims Speaker Mike Johnson insisted that they "would not gut Medicaid" and that he wouldn't vote for anything that would. But I don't know if we can trust him to know that he was doing that. Bresnahan claimed there was a need to "remove illegal aliens from the Medicaid rolls" but undocumented aren't getting federal Medicaid money. For the most part undocumented immigrants don't even qualify for state funded preventative care in Pennsylvania and then when their health issues progress they're treated when they're most expensive in the ER, where hospitals can't turn them away, and then the state bails them out to a degree, but for the most part, the same as any other uninsured patients, the providers have to eat the cost and pass those costs on, and that raises the prices for everyone resulting in higher health insurance copays, coinsurance, deductibles.

A woman said she was so happy to have "A new era of truth in government and government that serves the people." And then she complained about the television ad where the guy who works in the nursing home is "fear mongering" and she sees this ad a lot. I see it a lot too. She said he says the commercials say it like it's already cut it, and that's not true, and the commercials I have seen the healthcare worker says "if" it would be cut, it would be bad for the residents he cares for. Rob Bresnahan said his position has not and will not change and that "those who the program was designed for will have access to them". But then he qualified it saying he's against "multiple people receiving different benefits." and referred to "illegal" immigrants on the benefits or people stealing our money. He supports cutting it from people who are stealing. I mean that's why there are auditors already, and it's rare, but it happens and people are caught when they do it already. But who will determine who really deserves these benefits exactly? Elon Musk? Or how about Howard Lutnik who said that anyone who complains when the benefits are shut off are fraudsters? Lutnick is literally claiming that when the benefits stop, the first people who complain will be deemed fraudsters when we know the first people who would complain are the people who are living month to month check to check, which is a lot of people who deserve our consideration not to be smeared as fraudsters and treated who knows how! In his closing remarks Bresnahan said he "stands with President Trump on opposing gutting Medicaid". But I'm not sure that Trump actually does oppose gutting Medicaid, and who can trust anything anymore?

Rob Bresnahan expressed reverence for northeastern Pennsylvania and the Poconos having a lot of natural beauty, parks and a lot of outdoor recreation, and seemed economically focused about it, but ok at least there's that. But then he said that methane extraction is supportive of conservation, which is not encouraging.

Someone asked Rob Bresnahan what he was doing to lower inflation. Bresnahan's answer was that he immediately said "energy dominance" would stop inflation. And this is where it ties in with his having run on utility costs and I believe he's sent a strongly worded letter to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. He's not in the Pennsylvania government though.

Rob Bresnahan said that he visited the Tobyhanna Army Depot where over 3,000 people are employed and he said that he believes it needs to be prioritized for war fighting capabilities, and wants to protect "family sustaining jobs of Northeastern Pennsylvania".

Someone had mentioned the threat of a primary for Rob Bresnahan by Elon Musk, and I'd like to point out that this threat is very low. While it's true that Elon Musk and other tycoons are threatening to primary Republicans that don't fall in line with Trump and they get a talking to... I do not think this is a serious threat for Rob Bresnahan because almost everyone Republicans get to run here as Republicans in this area wind up being some kind of carpetbaggers with serious baggage, and are unlikely to win against someone who actually keeps his promises, like not totally screwing his constituents for example. Rob Bresnahan is a local person to the district with roots here and that's why he won his election. The real threat is in the general against a Democrat of whatever stripe, because the district is competitive and has voted for progressives, and Elon Musk is doing things that are incredibly unpopular with the public, and the Republican American President's lawless behaviour is awakening a lot of previously non-political people who may come out to the polls to oppose the whole party up & down the ballot in the coming elections.

When asked about Rob Bresnahan was asked about the Hegseth Vance war plan Signal groupchat, Bresnahan said that he's not on a committee about that, and he's tracking it. I've noticed that anything he's asked about by anyone that is outside his wheelhouse Bresnahan leans heavy on "I'm not on that committee". I always thought it was weird how Matt Cartwright would always crow about the committees he's on relentlessly at every opportunity, and it's like Bresnahan had noted that about Cartwright and decided that was the secret to his success and decided to triple down on talking about his committees. He was rattling off transportation statistics for example, and he's on the transportation committee. And he really seemed pleased when someone frustrated in Nanticoke asked him about the West Nanticoke Bridge closing, and he could report that he had been having meetings with the county commissioner and PA Secretary Duffy, and he said that we have to prioritize getting across the Susquehanna River. Because he's the vice chair of the transportation committee. And his office is across the street from the West Pittston Bridge, which is also apparently closed right now. And then another person actually asked him what he does as Vice Chair on the transportation committee and what the committee does, and he said "We like to build things!" and that he wants to "maximize impact" and remove haphazard spending, but he wants to "rebuild family sustaining jobs" in our region.

Rob Bresnahan said he considers life in prison for a murder "no justice" if it doesn't involve the death penalty, and complained that in one case one juror was against the death penalty, so they couldn't do the death penalty, and he wants to change that.