SALISBURY TWP., Pa. — The winter months have given way to summer weather outside U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie's office, but protesters continued their weekly demonstrations following his vote for President Donald Trump's "big beautiful" tax and spending bill.
About 125 people drew some hostile shouts and a lot of supportive honks during an hourlong protest Monday as they lined Cedar Crest Boulevard.
The crowd, mostly senior citizens, stood behind orange cones in the highway's shoulder, waving homemade signs and American and Ukrainian flags. A few parked themselves in lawn chairs.
Regular attendees said the protest was an average turnout for the Mondays with Mackenzie demonstrations. It was the first since he voted in favor of the bill, which now awaits debate in the U.S. Senate. (Demonstrators didn't turn out on Memorial Day.)
Nancy Giangiulio traveled a few blocks from her home to show her disapproval of Mackenzie, holding up a sign with the freshman Republican's face glued to the body of the Cowardly Lion from "The Wizard of Oz."
"GET COURAGE!" it read.
She, like many in attendance, expressed outrage at his vote to limit access to Medicaid and SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps, by adding new work requirements. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the new requirements would cause 10.6 million people to lose their health care while raising the federal deficit by $3.8 trillion.
"I don't think that he cares about what his constituents have to say," Giangiulio said.
Protestors and activists have made regular appearances outside Mackenzie's office since he opened it in February. Back then, people fumed over the mass firings of federal employees overseen by Elon Musk and the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.
But others were already sounding alarm bells over Trump's desire to slash Medicaid to fund extensions and expansions of Trump's 2017 tax cuts. As many as one-third of Allentown residents rely on the health care program, City Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach said at the time.
Mackenzie didn't rush to commit himself to the bill, even saying on a CNN town hall in April that he was still weighing his options. But last month, he cast an essential vote allowing Trump's signature legislative policy to pass the House by one vote.
Mackenzie praised the bill for securing the border and raising the child tax credit. He also approved of how the bill would preserve Medicaid for children and seniors while cutting benefits to people illegally in the country.
In a prepared statement Monday, Mackenzie's staff cast the criticisms of the Medicaid vote as the cries of out-of-touch liberals.
Mackenzie has previously noted that polling showed the American public broadly supports adding work requirements to federal benefits.
"The commonsense budget passed by the House will save working people and seniors thousands of dollars, secure the border once and for all, and protect vital services for vulnerable Americans. Congressman Mackenzie will keep fighting to deliver on the things he has promised the people of the Greater Lehigh Valley,” said Arnaud Armstrong, a spokesman.
But those points didn't sway the protesters who showed up Monday.
Many believed the work requirements would be too onerous; others doubted poor parents could afford the cost of the child care they would need to meet the new requirements.
Some expressed concern that the extra income would prevent people from qualifying for Medicaid but leave them too poor to afford health care for their families.
In between profanities, a furious Hannah Zabit of Bethlehem called Mackenzie a Quisling — Norway's equivalent of Benedict Arnold — for selling out society's most vulnerable to grant a tax break to billionaires.
Zabit said she had low expectations for Mackenzie coming into office, but she still found herself somewhat surprised by his vote in support.
She assumed Mackenzie's own sense of self-preservation would lead him to hold out against the bill, she said. Since Donald Trump came to power, the Republican Party's demographics have shifted to include more poor, working class people. Mackenzie's base may wind up being the ones most affected should the work requirements get signed into law, she said.
"He's screwing over his own voters!" Zabit said.
Democratic strategists have been seizing on the vote, hoping the Medicaid cuts will galvanize voters ahead of next year's midterm elections. An electronic billboard visible from Interstate 78 at the Lehigh Street exit in Allentown flashed Mackenzie's face and highlighted his vote.
Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District is some of the most politically contested real estate in America.
The battleground district is nearly evenly split between registered Republicans and Democrats, and both parties and their allies have pumped tens of millions of dollars into the congressional race this decade.
The district covers all of Carbon, Lehigh and Northampton counties plus a sliver of Monroe County.
