As the government entered its fourth week of the shutdown more and more Americans are beginning to grasp the critical issue: Democrats are adamant the budget maintain existing health care subsidies, while Republicans want to cut $1.1 trillion from Medicaid and Affordable Care Act marketplaces. 

That’s a stark difference in policy that impacts most Americans.

Trump’s “big beautiful bill,” pushed through this Republican Congress with the slimmest of margins on July 4, is anything but, as American voters are finding out. On health care alone, according to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates, the bill will cause 15 million people to lose health care coverage and become uninsured, while premiums will skyrocket for 22 million more in 2026, including 5 million small business owners and self-employed workers. The latter is because the Republican bill eliminates the premium tax credit enhancements passed in President Biden’s infrastructure bill. Those tax credits made health care more affordable for nearly 24 million Americans, including 30,000 Vermonters. 

Two stories on the front page of today’s Addison Independent explain the impact those cuts will have on Vermonters, and Americans across the country. Reporter Ian Curry interviewed Vermont Health Care Advocate Mike Fisher, who summed up the impact this way: “The loss of the enhanced tax credits is a substantial blow to affordability, and many Vermonters will be priced out of the ability to get coverage.”

Not only would the elimination of those tax credits cause premiums to skyrocket, Fisher continued, but Vermont’s already-stressed health care insurance companies will be severely hurt, which in turn harms Vermont’s hospitals. It’s a potential downward spiral that could have serious consequences for Vermonters. 

If Republicans in Congress don’t budge on the issue, and Democrats hold firm (which they should), Americans will see how the Democrats’ priority to protect health care tax credits for those who most need them are countered by Republicans’ preference to dole out tax cuts to the wealthy.

A question remains, however: How smart is the American voter? 

Many Trump supporters were misled during Trump’s re-election campaign and have buyers’ remorse, but many others still think Trump is king, even as they actively vote against their own self-interests and against America’s democracy. 

Indeed, if Trump is good at anything, it’s how to use social media, and artificial intelligence (AI), to craft false memes, photos, videos and other outlandish displays of propaganda. In the past, for example, he’s portrayed himself (an unfit, overweight, orange-tinged hump of a man) as a muscular titan. Most recently, a fake video portrayed him as a military bomber pilot dumping feces on No Kings protesters (when in fact, he’s a draft dodger who belittled Sen. John McCain and other prisoners of war as “losers” and brags about grabbing women by the… well, you know.) 

Indeed, Trump has been able to snooker enough conservative Americans to remake the Republican Party in his flawed image. Most troubling, however, is that his AI memes, lies, political attacks and misinformation campaigns are part of a strategy that has had a perverse effect: while (most) people understand the memes are political theater, many come to believe no news is real and no news can be trusted. That undermines the truth from legitimate sources and negates the public’s understanding of the issues that impact their lives — such as health care, vaccines, climate change, economic trends, education, cultural issues and on and on.

This month, Trump posted an A.I,-generated video depicting the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, in stereotypical Mexican garb, according to a report by the New York Time’s Stuart Thompson.  The video also used A.I. to make it sound as if Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was disparaging the Democratic Party. The purpose is simply to degrade our politics.

Dozens of the memes and fake videos have been created and produced by a guerrilla messaging outfit loyal to Trump, Stuart reported. Its leader, Brenden Dilley, a podcaster and defeated congressional candidate, wrote on X during the past presidential campaign: “The truth no longer matters, all you have to do is go viral.”

It’s a lesson of our times Americans should not ignore.

As Trump’s popularity wanes, and policy issues start hitting home, we can only hope Dilley’s assessment that the American public can’t distinguish and value truth from the garbage he’s producing is wrong — and Americans will come to understand the harm Trump and MAGA are inflicting on them and the country.

Angelo Lynn