Out of touch LaMalfa holds town halls, spreads misinformation, gaslights constituents

Congressman LaMalfa’s recent town halls demonstrated he’s as out of touch with the needs of his constituents as any wealthily billionaire.

He dismissed complaints that Elon Musk and DOGE are hanging local farmers out to dry by cancelling programs that were supposed to reimburse farmers for improvements they already paid for.

Now, they are out thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars, but a wealthy LaMalfa isn’t going to lose his farm, so why does he care? Adding insult to injury, DOGE fired many workers who processed those claims, costing our area precious jobs.

Instead of addressing the plight of local farmers facing financial hardship as tariffs cause other countries to stop buying US agricultural products and USAID’s shutdown eliminates more than $3 billion in agricultural purchases, LaMalfa characterized the chaos in Washington as “a little bit of a disruption.”

When confronted with concerns that the current administration has cost individual 401k holders tens of thousands of dollars each, the wealthy congressman mostly ignored the concerns of constituents who said this was forcing them to consider delaying retirement, claiming the damage is only “temporary” but also suggesting the tariffs would be reconsidered only “if it’s not working in a year or two.” Which is it? Are they temporary or going to remain in place for years?

He then tried to blame Wall Street for being skittish instead of the current administration for recklessly destroying trillions of dollars in value.

LaMalfa also dismissed concerns about DOGE accessing the private financial information of hundreds of millions of American citizens at the Social Security Administration and Health and Human Services. Information that has tremendous resale value on the open market. LaMalfa claimed that DOGE staff were not removing the data from government offices but offered no evidence to back up this claim. One caller summed up the situation by saying simply, “I don’t trust Elon Musk.” Tens of thousands of Americans echoed this sentiment this weekend as they took to the streets in roughly 1,200 cities this weekend.

Nor was LaMalfa honest when responding to questions about pending cuts to Medicare/Medicaid, insisting that “no cuts are coming.” Yet, he made it clear that he doesn’t view returning to pre-2020 funding levels as a cut. Further, he’s using some sleight of hand. The reconciliation bill that the GOP just passed doesn’t directly cut Medicare/Medicaid. Instead, it directs the committee that oversees those programs to cut almost $900 billion from their budget. The only possible way to do that is to cut benefits from one or both of those programs, which are used by a huge percentage of LaMalfa’s constituents.

The congressman expressed more sympathy to a California business owner exasperated by the new Trump-imposed tariffs destroying his business, but only to the extent of offering to try and get a carveout for that one business. While we’re all in favor of California’s small businesses, creating carveouts for some businesses and not others is dangerous because it lets government officials pick winners and losers. It’s the difference between a democracy where everyone plays by the same rules and authoritarian regimes where those with access get special exemptions, generally in exchange for favors that only the wealthy can afford.

Expressing support for tariffs, LaMalfa claimed that Canada has tariffs on US dairy products, which is also misleading. Under the USMCA, which Trump negotiated in his first term, US dairy producers can export significant quantities of product to Canada tariff free. Only after those limits are reached do tariffs apply. A measure meant to ensure Canadian dairy producers aren’t put out of business.

The congressman also bemoaned the use of Canadian instead of American lumber in construction but failed to note that this is mostly for practical reasons. Canadian lumber is more often used for construction framing because the colder climate makes for generally stronger wood with fewer knots. American lumber, conversely, is more often used for interior use like baseboards because it’s softer and thus easier to finish, though American Douglas Fur is often used in high-stress situations, and redwood remains popular for outdoor use. While this author applauds LaMalfa’s stated goals of improving forest management in the United States, it seems quite worrisome that a Congressman who claims to spend so much effort on this subject is seemingly unaware of these basic facts.

LaMalfa ignore other facts too, castigating California water managers for not pumping enough water out of the San Juaquin River and for releasing water from reservoirs – which they do almost every year to prevent spring runoff overflowing the lakes – while ignoring that Trump dumped 2.2 billion gallons of water from northern California reservoirs over the objections of California water managers as part of a publicity stunt.

The congressman started his call this week by attacking a rare bi-partisan effort in Congress. In this case, two new mothers brought forward a bill to allow new parents in Congress to vote by proxy for up to 12 weeks so they wouldn’t again need to bring newborns to the House floor to participate in critical votes.

The congressman’s response, “you’re going to miss a few votes” means either he doesn’t believe votes in Congress are important, or that he simply doesn’t care about young families. Perhaps he’s just too old to remember what it’s like to have newborn children, or does he oppose just working mothers? Meanwhile, Trump backed these women.

Instead, LaMalfa did the equivalent of the curmudgeonly grandpa saying, “in my day, we walked up hill both ways in the snow” by citing “our founding fathers traveling hundreds of miles on horseback”, as though technology hasn’t advanced in 250 years. Multiple attendees noted the hypocrisy of LaMalfa espousing the importance of in-person communication while holding a townhall via telephone.

LaMalfa’s attacks on women went further. In discussing the SAVE Act, he claimed that it wouldn’t prevent married women from voting, but neglected to mention that married women would typically need to show more documentation than their husbands. The Act also ignores the fact that the government already has these records. For someone who decries government red tape, LaMalfa seems intent on adding more.

Of course, if the congressman cared about election security instead of voter suppression, he wouldn’t blithely accept DOGE making major cuts to teams at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency that worked to ensure the electronic systems supporting our elections remain secure or the elimination of the FBI taskforce that worked to prevent foreign governments influencing our elections. Instead, he seems happy to follow the administration’s lead that this is a state-level problem, while ignoring that individual states and counties, especially small red ones, are not equipped to counter countries that can pit the resources of a billion people against them.

After these two townhalls, this author is left with two questions. How long will we let an out of touch LaMalfa feed us half-truths and contradictions? And aren’t we ready for someone who will give us real answers and is in touch with the needs of California District 1?

Sydney Jackson.