Monica Escalante, a home care provider from California, has a message for her congressman, Rep. David Valadao: “Your promises were not upheld. You have some explaining to do.”
Escalante, a member of United Domestic Workers, is holding Valadao accountable for supporting a budget bill that will make devastating cuts to Medicaid and health care. Those cuts will directly harm the people Escalante cares for in California’s 22nd Congressional District — the district Valadao represents.
It will also put the jobs of home care providers like her at risk.
Escalante has been a caregiver her entire life. First for her grandmother, who had both legs amputated due to diabetes. Later, she became a caregiver for her husband, who became a quadriplegic after an accident. Now, she cares for a client who is 35 years old and suffers from an autoimmune disorder and is unable to care for herself.
“I don’t remember not being a care provider. I help my clients with the day-to-day activities of living. I provide a clean, healthy environment,” Escalante says.
Medicaid is a true lifeline for Escalante’s clients. It helps fund the work that Escalante and caregivers like her provide.
Escalante can’t understand how lawmakers like Valadao are serving their constituents by supporting legislation that will not only make deep cuts to Medicaid and health care, but also to nutrition assistance, Medicare and public services.
She can’t understand why anyone would make cuts to these critical programs to pay for tax breaks for billionaires.
Escalante asks Valadao: “How do you plan on helping your constituents after these cuts are made? You need to show up and answer the questions that your constituents have. You have failed to do that time and time and time again. Your position as a representative in our district is severely at risk.”
Escalante is frustrated by the fact that lawmakers like Valadao have chosen to side with billionaires, who will rake in trillions of dollars of tax cuts from this budget bill, while working families like hers — and the people she serves — will be harmed.
Though she is angry at her representative and the administration, she is also determined: “Hopefully, we can make a change.”
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