It’s not Dickens—it’s the MAGA agenda

Taking food from children; healthcare from the infirmed

Given the scope of the MAGA assault on the foundations of our democracy, many Democrats, responsible media outlets, and concerned Americans have (understandably) been focused on its attempt to obliterate the rule of law, the separation of powers, and the First Amendment. But we should never lose track of the abject immorality that is part and parcel of an ideology based on vengeful victimhood, conspiracy-mongering, and repudiation of science.

From the outbreak of measles to stalling grants to the pursuit of cures for “diseases ranging from heart disease and cancer to Alzheimer's and allergies” to renewing the starvation crisis in Sudan to devasting cuts at the Veterans Administration to dismissal of patriotic, highly-trained trans members of the armed services…we cannot miss this administration’s abject cruelty; its almost-boisterous disregard for human life and dignity.

House and Senate Republicans bear just as much responsibility as President in Name Only (PINO) Donald Trump and acting president Elon Musk for mutely going along with these actions. Moreover, we must view the House budget as yet another exercise in cruelty and reckless endangerment of human life.

“Trump and Musk have slashed roughly 2,400 VA jobs…A decision that won’t make things more efficient, like they claimed, but will actually lead to longer wait times, more backlog and more chaos for Veterans,” Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois.) recently said at a virtual town hall. “They’ve also launched a wider purge of federal workers—firing, in total, an estimated 6,000 Veterans, including the folks behind the Veterans Crisis Line.” She emphasized, “The only reason they are doing this is to try to find enough loose change behind the couch cushions so that they can give even bigger tax breaks to the rich guys they pal around with on the golf course.”

Breaking the sacred obligation to care for our veterans is only one aspect of the onslaught. Perhaps the most egregious is the plan to slash $880B from Medicaid. The argument that cuts of that magnitude can be achieved by “reform” or by cutting “waste, fraud, and abuse,” frankly, insults our intelligence.

The impact of such cuts is immense given the reach of Medicaid. The Kaiser Family Foundation notes, “Medicaid is the primary program providing comprehensive health and long-term care to one in five people living in the U.S. and accounts for nearly $1 out of every $5 spent on health care.” Medicaid covers not only the poorest Americans, but seniors’ long-term health care, drug addicts, and the disabled. More than 72 million Americans are enrolled in some aspect of the program.

The results of capping the cost per beneficiary could be devastating. By 2034, 15 million fewer people would be receiving benefits including:

• 5.3 million children

• 4.8 million adults eligible through the ACA expansion

• 2.9 million parents and other adults under age 65

• 1.3 million people with disabilities

• 0.6 million people ages 65 and older.

KFF points out that an “additional 15 million expansion enrollees could lose Medicaid coverage (totaling about 20 million expansion enrollees by FY 2034) if the ACA expansion match rate is also eliminated.”

Especially hard-hit would be hospitals, in particular rural hospitals already facing economic distress. “Rural Americans would also be at risk of losing services,” ABC News reported. “Penn State professor Dennis Shea said many rural hospitals and community health centers have already closed and the ones that remain open already face funding challenges.” If they lose funding, hospitals will close and deprive rural residents of critical medical services. Moreover, since rural hospitals often are the major employer in their localities, a closure can have devastating ripple effects on the entire community.

In short, Republicans pushing these cuts are depriving their constituents of healthcare, consigning rural hospitals to closure, and potentially wrecking the economic lifeline for their communities.

Understand, they are doing this so that Trump, Musk, and the oligarch class can get more tax breaks.

As if that were not bad enough, House Republicans want to cut $230B from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over ten years. “[L]awmakers cannot cut $230 billion—or anything close to that amount — from SNAP without slashing benefits, restricting eligibility, or some combination of both,” the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities finds. “Republican lawmakers could make these benefit or eligibility cuts directly through changes to federal SNAP policy. But they could also enact them indirectly by shifting costs to states, forcing state officials to decide whose benefits will be cut and by how much.” Those changes amount to slashing “more than 20 percent from a program that helps more than 40 million people, including 1 in 5 children, afford groceries.” (About 90 percent of the households receiving SNAP benefits have “children, older adults, or people with disabilities.”)

Contrary to what you hear from Republicans, SNAP already imposes strict work requirements on most adults who are over the age of eighteen without children in the home. They can remain on benefits for only 3 months “unless they can demonstrate they are working at least 20 hours per week or prove they qualify for an exemption, such as having a disability.” These are not flimsy, free-loader-friendly programs. (Most SNAP beneficiaries already work; the notoriously cumbersome red tape will wind up depriving eligible people of benefits to which they are entitled.) Making such requirements even more exacting undoubtedly yields hardship for the most vulnerable Americans.

This might sound like a bone-chilling Dickens novel. (“Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”) Sadly, this very real scheme is MAGA nirvana: Take away healthcare benefits from grandma in a nursing home. Snatch food stamps away from a hungry, disabled child or elderly person. And boot out drug addicts from lifesaving treatment programs. (Not to mention massive cuts to Pell Grants, school lunches, and Head Start.) All of this is designed to give the richest people even more tax cuts.

“By voting for this cruel bill, you are betraying hardworking Americans by raising costs for all those already struggling to make ends meet,” former Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) told MAGA Republicans on the House floor. “Indeed, a vote for this budget is a vote against Medicaid, ripping away health care from children, people with disabilities, and seniors. And it is a vote against SNAP…taking food out of the mouths of babies. And you do that with glee.”

This GOP’s agenda is a moral abomination that no American, regardless of party, should support. If there is anything worth taking to the streets for peaceful protest, it is this sort of massive, regressive redistribution from the already-struggling to the no-amount-is-ever-enough billionaire class.