The House just voted 218-214 to send the Big, Ugly Bill to the Oval Office, where Donald Trump will use his sharpie to get it on the books on Friday, and Ben Cline, among others in the MAGAsphere, couldn’t be happier.
Cline, calling the passage of the bill “a great victory for American families,” appears not to have read the bill that he voted for, since he claimed in a statement that it will “lower taxes for working Americans” and “rein in wasteful Washington spending,” when the truth is, the working class will pay more taxes – $1,600 more a year, according to the Congressional Budget Office – and even with the massive cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP and other welfare programs, the Big Ugly will still add $3.4 trillion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years.
“While it did not include everything we initially sought, the bill is a great step forward for America. I’m encouraged we successfully moved it across the finish line today and will deliver it to President Trump to be signed into law on the Fourth of July,” said Cline, who didn’t even get signed swag from Trump in exchange for his vote against the best interests of his constituents in the Sixth District.
Six rural Virginia hospitals are put at risk of having to close because of the trillion-dollar cuts to Medicaid, and our local hospital here, Augusta Health, which serves an area that is more urban than rural, told us all yesterday that it expects to take a hit, because 28 percent of its patients pay for their services with Medicaid, which already doesn’t pay its bills – and now Medicaid is going to have a lot less to spread around.
ICYMI
Gotta love the MAGA spin on this.
“Our Medicaid system is facing a critical crisis, and comprehensive reforms are essential to ensure that those who truly need assistance receive it, while also safeguarding the program’s long-term sustainability. This legislation is designed to do exactly that. It strengthens, secures, and preserves Medicaid for our most vulnerable populations, including pregnant women, single mothers, children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities,” Second District Republican Rob Wittman said, raising a lot of questions in the process.
If “comprehensive reforms” were the aim, why not focus on actual reforms – for example, changing the laws to get the mythical 35-year-old guy living in his parents’ basement playing online video games supposed draining the system off the Medicaid rolls – instead of using Chad to justify pre-emptively cut a trillion dollars from Medicaid, which will put those “most vulnerable populations, including pregnant women, single mothers, children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities,” at risk of losing access to health coverage?
The answer: the cruelty is the whole point to what they’re doing.
“House Republicans passed a cruel and immoral tax and budget scheme that prioritizes billionaires over working people and puts the health, safety, and economic security of Virginians at risk,” Fourth District Democrat Jennifer McClellan said. “Their One Big, Ugly Bill to enact President Trump’s agenda is not just unpopular — it’s one of the largest transfers of wealth from the poor and middle class to the ultra-rich in U.S. history, with the bottom-earning 80 percent of Americans paying for tax cuts for the wealthiest few.
“This bill rips health insurance away from nearly 17 million people, including hundreds of thousands of Virginians, and slashes federal support for Medicaid, forcing Virginians to foot the bill while getting less. Moreover, by shifting more Medicaid and SNAP costs to the states, this bill will force the Virginia General Assembly to make the impossible choice of raising taxes or cutting essential services,” McClellan said.
“Every Virginian will feel the impact — through shuttered hospitals, overcrowded emergency rooms, and rising healthcare costs across the board,” McClellan said.
Some of you reading this will lose your local hospital.
Others will see their hospital cut services to be able to keep the lights on.
None of you reading this – Google Analytics tells me my demo doesn’t include any centimillionaires or billionaires – get the, on average, $309,000 annual tax cut that goes to the 1 percent.
You pay a little more, some of you lose your access to Medicare or Medicaid, all of you are going to pay more for health insurance.
“It will make college less affordable. Three million people will lose access to food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. And up to 16 million students could lose access to free school meals. The Republican bill does all of this to fund tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires and corporations. And it makes annual deficits and the national debt worse than they would be if we did nothing,” Third District Democrat Bobby Scott said.
And our home base – the Greater Augusta County area – y’all voted for this.
Augusta County went 73 percent for Trump.
Waynesboro, shame on you, 52 percent for Trump.
Even Staunton, which gave a majority to Kamala Harris, still 42 percent voted for Trump there.
Our biggest problems here: an economy that has our standard of living lagging behind our neighbors, a dramatic lack of affordable housing, a suicide rate that is almost double the national average, and now because of the Big Ugly, a hospital that could soon be on the brink.
None of us here being billionaires, our lives are about to get a lot harder going forward.
Share
Chris Graham
