Massapequa Observer: Across The Great Divide
The Sayville native is so firm in wanting to work across the aisle that he signed on to a letter sent to the president early on Inauguration by a group of House GOP freshmen pledging to “rise above the partisan fray to negotiate meaningful change for Americans across the nation.” What started out as a note penned by Beth Van Duyne from Texas to express her freshman class’ desire to start on a fresh note with the administration was enthusiastically embraced by her GOP peers after it was shared on a group text thread.
“What I liked about the letter is you had people who signed it who voted for impeachment, who didn’t vote for impeachment, who voted for certification and who voted for objection,” Garbarino said. “I guarantee you that President Biden and I will not agree on everything—maybe even 80 percent of things. But when we can find that common ground, where we can work together and I can make the lives better not just for all Americans, but specifically New Yorkers and people in the Second Congressional District—I’m going to do that.”
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But if there is one committee appointment that allows the former New York State Assemblyman to truly partake in bipartisanship, it’s his inclusion on the Problem Solvers Caucus. The members of this group go into the 117th Congress with a total membership of 56 (up from 50)—28 Democrats and 28 Republicans including 16 new members. On it, Garbarino will be serving alongside fellow Long Island Congressman Tom Suozzi, a Democrat representing the neighboring Third Congressional District.
“The Problem Solvers Caucus provides bipartisan solutions to issues large and small,” Garbarino said. “That’s why my experience in Albany is going to help so much. I was in the extreme minority in Albany and I was still able to work with the other side and produce for my district. You need to find common ground or absolutely nothing will get done. Republicans and Democrats have to work together.”
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“I’ve experienced executive orders and regulations in Albany and they don’t work,” he said. “It doesn’t work when you circumvent the legislature. There is a lot of stuff that is vetted out, debated and corrected in the legislative process and to skip over it just to go to executive orders is when real issues happen. As a legislator, I’ve never liked when any executive has done it—Republican or Democrat. Laws are not supposed to be done by executive fiat—we have a legislature for a reason. I’m hoping that’s not the way we see things go because if it is in the first 100 days, [otherwise] I feel that’s where we’re going to be for the rest of the next two years.”
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Garbarino is already working across the aisle with Democrat Mondaire Jones to introduce the SALT Deductibility Act, bipartisan legislation which restores the full State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction. The proposal would allow taxpayers to fully deduct their state and local taxes on their federal income returns.