U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., met with Vice President-elect Mike Pence in Washington on Tuesday.
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“I expressed to Vice President-elect Pence my desire to work in a bipartisan fashion with the incoming administration on a plan to make a substantial, new investment in our nation’s infrastructure in order to rebuild roads, bridges and expand broadband in rural Pennsylvania,” Casey said in a prepared statement. “I also encouraged Vice President-elect Pence to move forward with President-elect (Donald) Trump’s stated desire to crack down on countries that cheat on trade.”
For several years, Casey said he’s disapproved of what he considers unfair trade deals and spearheaded efforts to hold countries, like China, accountable for their cheating.
“The incoming administration must take swift action to protect Pennsylvania workers and ensure that all countries are playing by the rules when it comes to trade,” Casey said. “For too long, Pennsylvania workers have gotten the short end of the economic stick on trade and that must change.”
Casey said he also told Pence that he has grave concerns about repealing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
“This action would raise premiums for middle-class families, hike the cost of prescription drugs for seniors and end vital consumer protections for the millions that had health insurance coverage before the Affordable Care Act became law or any plan to end the guaranteed benefit of Medicare and slash nursing home funding by block-granting Medicaid,” Casey said. “Despite promising not to touch important programs for seniors during the campaign, President-elect Trump has appointed the architect of efforts to end the guaranteed benefit of Medicare to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.”
Another concern Casey said he brought to Pence’s attention involved the incoming administration’s stated plans to cut taxes for millionaires, billionaires and corporations that ship jobs overseas at the expense of the middle class.
“Furthermore, I discussed with the Vice President-elect my deep concern about President-elect Trump’s refusal to remove himself from financial conflicts of interest,” Casey said.
Trump and Pence begin their terms on Friday during the inauguration ceremonies in Washington.
