In last year’s presidential election, Donald Trump ominously promised voters: “I am your retribution,” a warning intended to terrorize those he considered his enemies and thus make them his political victims.
Turns out the actual victims are ordinary citizens who are becoming — or at risk of becoming — collateral damage of the Trump-Vance-Musk machine. Among them are employees at several federal entities that have served Americans well for years. The message, of course, is “no good work goes unpunished.”
The growing crisis demands that congressional Republicans and Democrats alike intercede on behalf of their constituents before the Trump administration so undermines our government that our enemies could try to make it worse. They can start by reversing the damage that has already put at risk the federal Medicaid program, the National Weather Service and its parent, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Internal Revenue Service and the Veterans Administration.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Medicaid, created in 1965, provides health insurance for some 72 million Americans with low incomes and serious disabilities. The increased cost of health care generally and thus federal spending has prompted the GOP threats to impose cuts. And yet, Medicaid is a vital safety net even in red states for low-income citizens, including many Trump voters.
While House Speaker Mike Johnson has not promised to cut Medicaid, the Congressional Budget Office last week said the GOP can’t hit its budget targets without taking hundreds of billions of dollars out of government health programs. The House and Senate could finesse the dilemma by cancelling the extension of a multi-trillion dollar tax cut that over a decade would increase the national debt.