Democrats have been gloating over Senator Thom Tillis’ political demise. We should be quoting him.
Tillis is the single best validator of Democrats’ single most powerful issue against Trump and Republicans: the deep, devastating and life-threatening cuts in healthcare they rammed through Congress last week.
He challenged them in a floor speech: “So, what do I tell 663,000 people in two years or three years when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding is not there anymore, guys?”
Tillis released an analysis of what the $32 billion in Medicaid cuts for North Carolina will mean:
- “Termination of Medicaid expansion” to 663,000 people in our state.
- Cutbacks in hospitals’ “maternity services in rural areas … current workforce and physician recruitment, and … services to meet the needs of individuals and of our aging population.”
- Deep cuts in hospital care, including home and community-based services, postpartum care for women 12 months post-birth and graduate medical education.
Cuts in “graduate medical education” doesn’t sound bad, but it means fewer doctors in hospitals, longer wait times, higher costs, and compromised quality of care. In time, it will mean fewer doctors – period. Good luck finding one.
Trump and congressional Republicans are going to lie about the Medicaid cuts. Fox News and the right-wing media chorus will echo the lies.
But Tillis told the truth.
What he said has credibility, coming from a Republican.
Let’s weaponize it.
