Summary
The Trump administration’s aggressive cost-cutting efforts are hitting red states hard.
Cuts to Medicaid, NIH research funding, and foreign aid programs disproportionately impact rural areas and pro-Trump regions reliant on these resources.
GOP lawmakers, including Senators Katie Britt and Bill Cassidy, have voiced concerns over funding losses that could hurt jobs and healthcare access.
Meanwhile, Trump’s appointment of vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as HHS Secretary signals a shift in health policy, potentially exacerbating public health risks in conservative-leaning communities.
I commented on this yesterday, quoted a Cato article specifically raising the point that RFK Jr’s favored policies are very likely to do much more to hurt Republican voters than Democratic voters.
It’s a bit amusing to see Cato (small-government, right-libertarian) and The Huffington Post (progressive) simultaneously running articles, both critical of the Trump administration, that roughly say the same thing. It’s not exactly the same – HuffPo is emphasizing cuts to federal funding, and Cato is irate about antivax promotion, and Cato was trying to get the guy not confirmed, whereas HuffPo is taking a whack at him after he is confirmed, but they’re both not happy about the same guy in the administration and both at least talking about the same thing and his impact on Republican voters. Not something one sees every day.
I thought the Kochs were MAGA?
Kochs like immigration and hate tariffs. They’re the ones who refine Alberta’s tar sand oil.