Members of West Virginia Citizen Action Group (WVCAG) turned out in Charleston for an “Empty Chair” Town Hall on April 18 to draw attention to Congressional Republicans’ plans to cut more than $1 billion in essential services from the 2025 budget to fund tax breaks for billionaires.
West Virginia’s U.S. Senators Shelly Moore Capito and Jim Justice, and Representatives Riley Moore and Carol Miller, were all invited, yet like most Congressional Republicans have followed House Speaker Mike Johnson’s advice to not meet with constituents to talk about the deep cuts they plan to make to essential services like SNAP food assistance, Medicaire and Medicaid. There’s a good reason why they’re laying low: these cuts will cause great harm to their constituents.
“Lack of Medicaid, and lack of access to food, will kill people,” said Mindy Holcomb, a member of WVCAG, at the event.
“Our public representatives are public servants, and our public here in West Virginia is dependent on this health care,” said pediatric care doctor Kate Waldeck, speaking to the local news station WCHS.
Waldeck pointed out that a full third of pediatric patients in the state rely on Medicaid or CHIP, and that at many hospitals as many as half of all patients rely on these public programs. “A budget reconciliation that cuts federal funding for Medicaid is not going to reduce the cost or expenses of taking care of these children. It’s going to shift it to the hospitals and the clinics and the parents.”