Speaking Thursday in Shreveport, new Louisiana Sixth District Congressman Cleo Fields calmly dismissed the Trump Administration’s early moves on government spending and predicted the U.S. Supreme Court will uphold Congress’s constitutional role as author of the federal budget.

“We don’t elect kings in this country,” Fields said before a packed house at the Southern University downtown Metro Campus on Texas Street.

In the first of what he said would be regular town-hall meetings in Shreveport, Fields said the savings in public spending claimed by Trump and Elon Musk are “not real” and will be rejected by Congress.

“We will send the President a message: You can’t walk over people,” Fields said.

“Members of Congress will hold it together.  We have to be the adults in the room.”

Fields, 62, is a Baton Rouge attorney, Democrat and longtime politician representing the Baton Rouge area.  He called it “unconscionable” that Trump has given Musk “unfettered power to take your personal information.”

Fields said all government programs can benefit from scrutiny to detect waste, “but the way the President is going about it is wrong.

“We don’t live in a dictatorship.”

Fields said he is seven weeks into his job as Sixth District Congressman and is gaining committee assignments and assembling a staff.  He said all of his assistants will be from Louisiana and will be familiar with the state.

In attendance with Fields at the town hall were new staffers Quentin Aught, Lindora Baker, Nicholas Campbell, Cheredith Rhone and others.  Fields said they will all have business cards with their cellphone numbers and will be able to pronounce Louisiana place names.

The newly configured, minority-majority Sixth Congressional District runs from black voter precincts in North Baton Rouge through Alexandria and into Shreveport.  Federal courts last year ordered Louisiana to create a second African-American district to account for the state’s one-third black population.

Previous Sixth District incumbent Garrett Graves of Baton Rouge chose not to seek reelection.

Facing a supportive audience with questions centered on Trump’s early moves, Fields predicted reversal by Congress of “draconian” cuts proposed to programs like Medicaid and moves to eliminate the Education Department, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“If there’s one state that needs FEMA, it’s Louisiana,” he said.

Fields urged caution by federal employees offered buyouts by Trump to quit their jobs.

“The president doesn’t have the authority to offer buyouts,” he said.  “He can only operate with the money in the budget as appropriated by Congress.”

Fields urged the audience to call the president and members of the Louisiana Congressional Delegation to voice their concerns.

“We will vote on a budget in a few weeks.  There won’t be a single Democrat not trying to make it better, and we only need three Republicans to make sense of it.

“Advocate in your own way, in your neighborhood, on social media or otherwise.”

Fields said his priorities include funding for Head Start and early childhood education.  He said, “You can’t wait until third grade to discover that little Johnny can’t read.”

To a statement by an attendee complaining of low voter turnout among Democrats in last fall’s election, Fields said, “Elections have consequences.

“We are in this position because we put ourselves in this position.  We have to be more zealous about elections in the future.”

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