Making progress is prioritizing policies that inherently benefit most of us and are shared issues of people of all ages.
Older Americans who had children needed child care and may see their own children/grandchildren struggle to access affordable, quality child care today. There is a need for government subsidies when they help families afford quality child care, particularly given the additional work requirement tacked onto the 900-plus-page Republican agenda, called “the big, beautiful bill.”
They also made deep cuts to SNAP. Food insecurity is real. These cuts were directly caused by the implementation of Project 2025. Some cases have led to the “appearance” of program elimination by some cancerous, unilateral, non-existent authority. Average households are experiencing more strained budgets and added expenses due to the senseless, unrestrained tariffs Americans pay, not importers.
House Democrats continue to respond with HR 6088 — Restoring Food Security for American Families and Farmers Act of 2025). Republicans have the majority, however.
Republicans cut the Medicaid budget and added Medicaid work requirements in the “big bill.” Days before passage, a YouGov poll found that only 36% of Americans supported the cuts. Medicaid covers 60% of pregnancies and newborn care, and about 60% of older Americans needing long-term care.
Everybody needs health care. This lack of leadership by the Republicans will cause at least 10.3 million people to lose their health insurance through Medicaid alone, with that number doubling when the expanded Affordable Care Act insurance credits and tax subsidies expire.
An estimated 20 to 30 million Americans will lose access to health care as a consequence. It may be you or a family member.
Long-term care insurance in this country is that if you can’t afford health care out of pocket, then you are Medicaid dependent. Less than 5% of Americans can afford health care. That means 95% of Americans require subsidies — either government or employer, and for many, they need both.
Democrats wanted to leverage the Republican shutdown of the government to negotiate the reversal of these Medicaid cuts made in the big bill, and to ensure that the Affordable Care Act subsidies, on which families have come to rely to afford private health care insurance, would be renewed. However, if the Republicans in the majority had been serious, they could have added them to the hefty bill. Trump has said he doesn’t want to revive the ACA subsidies. The programs were allegedly cut to pay for the 2017 deep tax cuts for the wealthy, which were made permanent in 2025.
But we know that isn’t true. They don’t want you to have access to health care. They are unwilling to adopt a single-payer system that would authorize the government to use its superior buying power to reduce health care costs.
Young adults starting their lives face many uncertainties, just like every other age group. To sum this up, the concentration of wealth is our No. 1 problem.
The government is the engine of the economy, but it isn’t currently focused on the priorities to best serve the public.
Helen Nowlin
Glenoma
