Any Vermonter who has been following the dire straits of the state’s health care system immediately understands the threat posed by the cuts to Medicaid. Under Trump’s big, bad bill an estimated $1 trillion will be cut from the program that helps subsidize health care to the poorest Americans. About 17 million Americans will lose the health care they currently have, including 45,000 Vermonters.

“At a time when our current health care system is broken, dysfunctional and cruel — 85 million Americans today are underinsured or uninsured — this bill will make a horrible situation even worse,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders at a congressional hearing on July 9. “Make no mistake about it,” Sanders continued, “this bill is a death sentence for working-class and low-income Americans.”

Sanders further noted that more than 300 rural hospitals across the country are now at risk of closing (because of the cuts to Medicaid) and the bill significantly harms nursing homes across the country.

The cuts have the full attention of hospital officials at Middlebury-based Porter Medical Center, which recently submitted its budget for fiscal year 2026 that shows a tough financial year ahead.

Reporter John Flowers covers these budget presentations each year so local readers can understand the financial underpinnings of one of the most critical services in the county: Without a viable hospital, the county’s (and Middlebury’s) ability to attract businesses, services and industry to support a thriving community is greatly diminished.

Many of the provisions of Trump’s bill will drive populations to larger urban centers and prompt the decline of rural America — not exactly what the MAGA faithful had been promised. But it also enacts a devastating immigration policy, cuts foreign aid to promote democracy, compromises the nation’s independent judiciary, and so much more that it figuratively and literally adds oil to the fire in his effort to torch the very bipartisan principles that have made America great.

The job of every American is to understand the impacts of this legislation, to reject the lies Trump tells so effortlessly, and question the claims made by a Republican party intent on inflicting harm on Americans most in need. Certainly there is room for improvement in government programs, but no one benefits when legitimate aid is denied, essential programs are slashed, the poor get poorer, the rich richer and our environment is threatened by fires, floods and heedless exploitation. That’s not the America most Americans want. It’s up to all of us to counter Trump’s effort to make it so.

Angelo Lynn