Suing MTA over Congestion pricing

0:00 Speaker 1 With us today is Congressman Mike Lawler, and he’s the congressman up in Westchester County and further north in Rockland, Congressman congestion pricing. That’s gonna hurt your your people the most, your constituents, if they have to come into Manhattan to go to the theater, if they have to come into Manhattan to go to their doctor. I mean, how do

0:27 you feel about it. It’s just you know, a lot of people that are on the war path with this is it’s a money grab by the MTA. What say you?

0:36 Speaker 2 It’s absolutely a money grab, John. The MTA is the worst run authority in America. Uh. And this is nothing more than trying to fill their coffers. Why else would you say that you need to raise a billion dollars And that’s why they’ve set up this, this scam that goes after hard working commuters from the suburbs, districts, the

0:59 district direct Present as well as the outer boroughs here in New York City and on Long Island. And so you know, for me, I’ve been opposed to this from the very beginning. When I was in the State Assembly, I introduced legislation to repeal congestion pricing. As a member of Congress, I’ve worked with Josh Gotttheimer, a Democrat from

1:17 New Jersey, to introduce legislation to try and block congestion pricing. Uh.

1:23 Speaker 2 And you know, just recently, Josh and I wrote a joint up ed in the Wall Street Journal, you know, highlighting the fact that this really is nothing but a scam. Uh. And it’s going to cost the average New Yorker, you know, thousands of dollars if they commute to the city daily on an annual basis. And it really is outrageous.

1:45 Speaker 1 And I just you know what I’ve said to all the politicians and in Albany, and but I said to all the politicians in the Long Island, I said, look, Manhattan has one nail in a co Why can’t we wait a couple of years before we least talk about it?

2:05 No question?

2:06 Speaker 2 I mean you look, Manhattan is dealing with a commercial real estate crisis. Obviously, New York City continues to have a challenge with crime. We have a migrant crisis here. You’re trying to get people to come back into the city, to come back for work, to come back for leisure, to come back and stay in the hotels and go

2:24 to the Broadway shows, come to the restaurants, and adding a fifteen to twenty two dollars fee on top of that is going to hurt the hard working business owners here. It’s going to hurt, you know, the storefront employees. It’s going to hurt all the people that we’re trying to help on a daily basis, and make it harder for

2:47 people to afford to come into New York City, to live in New York City, and to work in New York City. And it’s exactly the wrong thing we should be doing at this moment. As New York continues to lead the nation and out migration, we should be focused on reducing the cost of living, reducing the cost of

3:05 doing business. This will cripple businesses in New York.

3:09 Speaker 1 I agree one hundred and ten percent a congressman. Besides congestion, pricing, is there anything else that keeps you up at night the Sunday morning.

3:19 Speaker 2 Well, obviously, the migrant crisis continues to be a major challenge. Since Joe Biden took office, nearly ten million migrants have crossed our southern border, most of them illegally, ninety percent of them released into our country within thirty six to forty eight hours of being detained. You know, John, you’re an immigrant. My wife is an immigrant. She came here

3:41 from Moldova over a decade ago in search of a better life. We welcome immigrants. Immigrants enrich our community, our culture, our economy. But there has to be a process. And what’s happening now at our southern border is an absolute catastrophe and it needs to stop. And so that is a major challenge that keeps me up at nights.

4:02 Speaker 1 Well, Congressman, I’m an immigrant, and I’ve said to all my Democratic friends, and I have a lot of Democratic friends, that we don’t mind immigration. But how about Ellis Island where we check have checks and balances? Who comes and goes?

4:17 I mean immigration, yes, but let’s have some checks and balances. Let’s say you no question.

4:23 Speaker 2 And you know, look, my great grandparents came through Ellis Island. Our immigration system needs to be fixed. We want a much more merit based immigration system to fill the economic needs of our country. We have a population decline in this country and we’re gonna need to fill the jobs of doctors, nurses, engineers, home health aids. These are critical

4:46 jobs going forward. But there has to be a process and we need to have a system that works.

4:51 Speaker 1 Yes, one hundred and ten percent. We can’t just invite the whole world to come here and then our city has become responsible to feed them. And it’s just a little bit silly, a little bit crazy. But Congressman, I want to thank you for coming calling in this Sunday morning, and let’s catch up again real soon.

5:09 Speaker 2 Absolutely thanks for having me. John