The leaders of a deep-red state's legislature are now publicly railing against President Donald Trump's major domestic policy package, arguing its provisions would be uniquely harmful to their constituents.
In a Friday op-ed for the New York Times, Alaska House Speaker Bryce Edgmon (I) and Alaska state senator Catherine Giessel (R) — who is the majority leader for the Alaska Senate Bipartisan Coalition – detailed the numerous reasons why the Republican budget bill is particularly disastrous for the Last Frontier.
The two began the op-ed by pointing out that the current version of the bill's cuts to Medicaid would throw approximately 40,000 Alaskans off of their health insurance plans, and its cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) would mean "thousands of families will go hungry." They also called attention to the provision in the bill that would put states partially on the hook for funding food stamps for the first time in history: Edgmon and Giessel warned that "the shift in costs from the federal government to the state will plunge our budget into a severe deficit, cripple our state economy and make it harder to provide basic services."
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"The likely impacts from the 'big, beautiful bill' are particularly ugly for our home state, Alaska," they wrote.
"This is not about partisanship. One of us is a Republican and the other is an independent," they continued. "In the Alaska Legislature, our State Senate and House are led by a bipartisan governing coalition. Our focus is squarely on the survival of the people we represent."
Edgmon and Giessel observed that roughly one in three Alaskans depend on Medicaid — including more than half of the state's children. The lawmakers further argued that the proposed Medicaid cuts would make it exceedingly difficult for residents in "roadless villages" to be able to travel to hospitals when they're in need of medical care. They also noted that roughly 70,000 Alaska residents rely on food stamps in order to afford groceries and buy other "subsistence gear" that many Alaskans count on for "essential hunting and fishing."
"In order to make up for this cost-shifting legislation, Alaska would need to find in its already stressed budget hundreds of millions of dollars for Medicaid and tens of millions for SNAP," Edgmon and Giessel wrote. "Such cuts could not come at a worse time. We’re already struggling to stabilize our budget amid sharply lower oil revenue and a decade of out-migration. If this bill passes, it will mean less money for road maintenance and snow clearing, larger K-12 class sizes, school closings and the defunding of state public safety agencies."
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The legislative leaders went on argue that the new work requirements for Medicaid recipients that Congressional Republicans inserted into the bill would prove "untenable for rural Alaska" given the lack of job opportunities and internet access across much of the state. They lamented that many residents will likely avoid seeking medical care unless it's an emergency, meaning that emergency rooms could be overwhelmed with uninsured patients, resulting in higher insurance premiums for everyone else.
"The reality is that most Alaskans on Medicaid are already working, and these provisions just create more barriers and bureaucracy," they wrote in the op-ed. "... We fear that if this bill passes, a village in rural Alaska might lose its one and only grocery store because of a drastic decline in SNAP dollars. It might also lose its sole health care clinic or hospital because it cannot sustain its services with decreased Medicaid reimbursements. The reconciliation bill does not take into account the uniqueness of Alaskan lifestyles and geographic remoteness."
"What is the end game here? How does it help anyone to terminate health care coverage for our most vulnerable through red tape or take away food for families who have limited to no options for gainful employment?" They added. "As long-serving members of the Alaska House of Representatives and the Alaska State Senate, we’ve faced many daunting economic and fiscal challenges, but we’ve never seen federal policy whose impacts are so far-reaching and damaging as what is before us now. Alaska is one of the most amazing places in our country and Congress is risking our way of life to give money to the rich."
Click here to read Edgmon and Giessel's full op-ed in its entirety (subscription required).
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