I’ve lived in West Virginia for 17 years. When I first moved here, I had a Democratic governor, a Democratic state house, 2 Dem Senators, and a Dem House rep. Now they are all Republicans, and some of the worst Republicans imaginable, to boot.

The ascendancy of the WV GOP has also meant a downward trajectory for all quality of life metrics for WV. There is a dogged determination on the part of voters to reward the people who are polluting their water, destroying their public education system, degrading their environment with outside companies coming in to take our groundwater and pollute our air, and refuse to do even the minimum to keep residents safe from flooding.

And it’s not just WV—red states across the country keep electing people who don’t give a shit about their lives, their health, their kids and grandkids, their jobs, or anything else. I know part of it is that GOP voters have this weird and kind of psychopathic belief that it’s OK if something bad happens to them as long as the party is hurting the “right people”.

And now their beloved party is coming for them:

For WVians on Medicaid:

For WVians using the ACA exchanges:

And Republican senators have been getting earfuls from their rural constituents, which you can see reflected in their new idea—to create a slush fund of $15 billion to keep rural hospitals afloat. Because that $15 billion definitely offsets the cuts of $1 trillion. Mmhmm, yes, because all of those people WHO LOST THEIR MEDICAL COVERAGE will definitely be able to afford to go to one of those hospitals kept open by the slush fund.

I cannot even with these people. And by “these people” I mean both the GOP legislators who wrote and who want to pass this garbage AND the GOP voters who keep signing up to get kicked in the teeth over and over and over.

And, of course because we are talking about the brainless GOP zombies who populate the government under President Grievance, even the $15 billion slush fund is ineffective, and therefore meaningless:

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1) would result in 1.8 million individuals in rural communities losing their Medicaid coverage by 2034. In addition, select Medicaid provisions in H.R. 1 would result in a $50.4 billion reduction in federal Medicaid spending on rural hospitals over 10 years.¹

Or this from Thom Tillis:

And if things weren’t bad enough, on Thursday morning the Roberts court (the worst court since the Taney court, and currently giving the Taney court a run for its money) ruled that while the Medicaid law allows you to choose a provider, that is not a right that is enforceable in court. Add that to the fact that it’s difficult to find a provider who will take publicly-funded insurance and you end up with people without healthcare. The specific case involved Planned Parenthood and while PP can’t take public funds for abortions it provides a wide range of health care services for men and women, and is a vital heath care supplier for low-income people, which is also part of the reason the GOP is so hot to kill it.

And once again the weird contradiction is on display:  GOP voters are willing to get kicked in the teeth—or left to die—and GOP politicians are willing to kill their own voters.

Now there are a bunch of reports that there won’t be enough GOP votes in the Senate to pass the Medicaid cuts, but that football always gets moved at the last second. I did call my senators to (literally) ask them not to screw West Virginians with their vote, but both of them are spineless bootlickers.

I’ll leave you with this: