Perry voted to gut Medicaid and explode the national debt – all so that he could fund tax cuts for billionaires
Scott Perry cast a decisive vote for Republicans’ Big, Ugly Bill, and now his Central Pennsylvania constituents are reading about just how devastating it could be for their communities.
The York Daily Record reports that thousands of Perry’s constituents could lose their health care and food assistance. The York Dispatch Editorial Board torches Perry’s budget bill as “nothing less than a giveaway to the wealthiest Americans and powerful corporations.” And the Dispatch reports that Perry’s vote will “raise the federal deficit,” despite his faux posturing as a deficit hawk.
See the brutal local coverage for yourself:
According to the governor’s projections, 18,720 residents of York County Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry’s 10th Congressional District will lose Medicaid coverage and 6,029 will lose SNAP benefits
“Pennsylvania can’t backfill this. We can’t fix this for them,” Shapiro said, referring to the federal legislators who approved of the bill and sent it to the president, who signed it into law. “They are taking billions of dollars away from Pennsylvania, and we can’t make up for that. This is our sad, new reality … and the consequences hang on them.”
Masked in patriotic flourish and rhetorical sleight of hand, this legislation is nothing less than a giveaway to the wealthiest Americans and powerful corporations at the expense of the poor, the sick and future generations.
More than 11 million people could lose health insurance. Another 3 million may lose SNAP benefits, including parents of teenagers now forced to work to qualify for food stamps. More than 13% of York County residents currently rely on SNAP benefits, incidentally. Nearly 21% are on Medicaid.
We should call it what it is: a tax on our conscience, a debt on our democracy, and a disgrace to the ideals we claim to celebrate.
One in five York County residents are on Medicaid. Thirteen percent, meanwhile, rely on SNAP food assistance. Those two facts have raised alarm among some residents and social service agencies after President Trump signed his so-called “big, beautiful bill” that calls for significant reductions to both programs.
Jenny Englerth, president and CEO of Family First Health, the York-based community health entity that serves vulnerable populations, said health care costs will increase for everyone as the number of uninsured people grows.
[Perry] touted the legislation as ‘America first’ despite the bill being anticipated to raise the federal deficit over the next several years
With smaller, rural hospitals already thin on resources, officials with the Hospital and Health system Association of Pennsylvania see the legislation destabilizing the remote facilities.
Read the article here.