Kiley Tele-Town Hall About Fraud Falls Flat
-Special to the PlacerDems Blog by William Forseth, former Editor-in-Chief with the American River Current and Roseville resident
Not long before Kevin Kiley’s Teleconference Town Hall, Rep. Doug LaMalfa of California’s 1st District went viral online following a scathing town hall. Residents of the 1st District came out in droves to a packed hall to viciously reprimand LaMalfa's ineffectiveness to save the Medi-Cal funding their community relies upon to stay healthy. It’s from this backdrop that Kiley remains illusive, preferring the controlled environment of the teleconference phone call where questions can be directed or dismissed.
The teleconference included guests from the FTC and AARP whose names would be difficult to include in this article directly as this event came with no additional information or documentation, at least not for the author of this article which is being written within the boundaries of Kiley’s district.
The presentations on fraud were informative, and the links provided in the town hall will be available at the end of this article. The people that came to speak from the FTC and AARP offered recommendations on how to stay safe from fraud, including keeping your personal information private and ignoring calls and texts from unknown phone numbers.
A couple of the policies that Kiley mentioned during the first half of the hour was his work on the SALT tax deductions, as well as future legislation.
Following the presentation, the question and answer portion finished out the latter half of the hour. Further fraud and fraud related questions, with the exception of a few talking points outside of that. Kiley was asked if he would be putting pressure on President Trump to end the Texas redistricting debacle, to which he replied that he was pushing forward legislation to end mid-decade redistricting nationwide, noticeably omitting any mentions of President Trump and Texas.
Listen to an audio clip of the tele-town hall here
Faith from Quincy had what could be considered the most universally relevant question, a question that would at least be relevant to over half of the U.S. population.
“While you were in the California Assembly, you voted against a woman's right to privacy twice. A woman's protection from retaliation or discrimination for her reproductive choices twice, reproductive choice and access to reproductive care. As a congressional representative, you voted to prohibit ACF administration for Children and Families from interfering with state decisions on how to use this federal funding for temporary assistance to needy families with respect to certain pregnancy centers.” Faith from Quincy prefaced. “My question to you is, do you feel this is discrimination against women, and if not, why?”
Kiley’s response was less than informative.
“Thank you. I appreciate you calling in. You gave a long list of items there, and I, I honestly don't know what most of them are even referring to. So, if you'd like to follow up with us and kind of let me know the specific bills you're talking about, then I'd be able to, to give you an informed response. Going now to Mary from Auburn.” Kiley replied.
To clarify, the legislation that Faith was talking about was the laundry list of women’s rights legislation that he’s opposed, including the right to abortion and contraception for women in California.
When inquired about taxation upon Social Security benefits, a policy which his office said would not be happening, he informed his electorate that tax benefits such as the SALT deductions are designed to offset the social security taxation that will now be occurring under the new budget, despite promises previously made by Republicans.
What the town hall tells us more than anything is that while Kiley alleges to be doing his best to protect the older generation of Placer County, a more thorough appraisal found these details to be misleading. When residents voice their concerns about women’s rights, Kiley’s own votes fall out of his memory. When seniors ask about the taxation to social security that was previously considered untouchable, Kiley told them not to worry.
Rep. Kiley, we are worried, and we plan to show that in the midterms.
Listen to an audio clip of the tele-town hall here
IC3.gov to report fraud to the FTC.
Consumer.gov are the FTC’s online money management tools.
FTC.gov/consumeralerts to subscribe to the consumer alerts email newsletter.
AARP Fraud Watch Network for keeping up to date on the latest in scams and fraud detection.
AARP Fraud Hotline: 877-908-3360
Listen to an audio clip of the tele-town hall here
-Special to the PlacerDems Blog by William Forseth, former Editor-in-Chief with the American River Current and Roseville resident.
This blog post was contributed by a member of our community. The views expressed are those of the author and may not reflect the official position of the Placer County Democratic Party or the Placer County Democratic Central Committee (PCDCC). We believe in amplifying voices and encouraging open, respectful dialogue.
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