By Rich McKay
(Reuters) -Boos, jeers and choruses of “do your job” greeted U.S. Representative Victoria Spartz at a town hall on Friday in her Indiana congressional district as she defended sweeping cuts across the federal government, the latest such event by a Republican lawmakers to generate loud voter backlash.
Spartz went ahead with the town hall even after House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson urged Republican lawmakers to avoid such meetings after some turned into angry confrontations with voters over President Donald Trump’s firing of federal workers and defunding of government programs. Johnson has claimed that Democrats and activists were responsible for the tumult at various meetings.
Spartz defended the jobs and program cuts led by billionaire Elon Musk, Trump’s hand-picked adviser who is spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency, and she repeated the Republican mantra that the actions are designed to “stop waste, fraud and abuse.”
“This is your money, this is your money,” Spartz said, as people shouted about cuts in government services. “If they can do a better job with less money, they should do that,” she said. “That is government efficiency.”
Spartz, a Ukrainian-born American politician, at times had little chance to fully answer questions.
Much of the meeting, held in a suburb of Indianapolis, was taken up by Spartz trying to calm the unruly audience, saying, “I will be honest with you, I want to have the conversation.”
Shortly before 7:30 p.m., about half the once-packed hall’s audience walked out, but chants of “do your job” could be heard from outside the meeting hall.
The meeting ended with people still talking over the lawmaker.
Spartz told the crowd, “President Trump was elected to be president by the majority of Americans, but I know you are frustrated with Elon Musk, I know you are very frustrated, I want to stay engaged.”
Spartz lasted for the full two hours planned.
(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; editing by Donna Bryson and Leslie Adler)