Washington, DC - Today, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) met with Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Photo attached. Casey is releasing the below statement following their meeting at the Senator’s D.C. office.
“I appreciated the opportunity to meet with Vice President-elect Mike Pence today to discuss the challenges facing our nation. 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. I also encouraged Vice President-elect Pence to move forward with President-elect Trump’s stated desire to crackdown on countries that cheat on trade. For years, I have opposed unfair trade deals and led 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. For too long, Pennsylvania workers have gotten the short end of the economic stick on trade and that must change.
I also expressed to Vice President-elect Pence my significant concerns with any plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act. 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. 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. Additionally, Speaker Paul Ryan and Congressional Republicans have vowed to pursue their plan which will undermine Medicare and Medicaid. I made it clear that I would hold the incoming Administration accountable on protecting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. I also discussed my concerns with the Administration’s stated plans to cut taxes for millionaires, billionaires and corporations who 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.”
