Democrats would rather shut down government than help rural America

OPINION:

Democrats don’t just ignore rural America nowadays. They are actively fighting to hurt everyone who lives there.

Senate Democrats made that clear last week when they announced they wouldn’t vote for a clean budget bill before the Tuesday deadline unless Republicans agreed to defund rural health care. Specifically, Democrats want to repeal the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program that President Trump signed into the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It’s one of their main conditions for funding the government.

That’s right: Democrats would rather shut down the federal government than help rural Americans get health care.

This may be the most telling thing Democrats have done in years. They love to talk a big game about expanding access to health care. It’s one of the signature plans in their agenda. They also love to talk about throwing federal money at rural parts of the country. See the broadband blowout they passed under President Biden.

Now, the Democrats are doing the opposite. They didn’t really mean what they’ve been saying for years. They are far more interested in playing politics than helping people, especially people who need the most help.

Make no mistake: Rural America needs the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program. Outside big cities, hospitals and doctors’ offices are much more spread out. Rural areas have less of the latest technologies. People living in rural communities often face worse health outcomes. These communities also need help because Democrats have already hurt rural hospitals.

The left’s signature health care policy is Obamacare, which expanded Medicaid to cover millions of able-bodied adults. As research from my organization shows, Medicaid expansion hurts medical providers. It pays significantly less than private insurance, pushing hospitals to the financial brink. Rural hospitals have been hit the hardest. At least 12 rural hospitals have closed in states that expanded Medicaid, ruined by Democrats’ unaffordable, government-run health care mandates.

Rural hospitals, doctors and clinics can use this $50 billion to invest in new medical technology, expand to reach more people and continue to provide the services and treatments that help millions of people, especially in the middle of the country. Without it, it’s all but certain that more hospitals will close and more people will struggle to get the care they need.

Democrats now claim they are fighting to save rural hospitals. They are saying Republicans are the ones putting hospitals at risk. If that’s true — and it’s not — then why are they demanding the repeal of $50 billion for rural health care? Why are Democrats voting to defund rural America?

Rarely will you see a more blatant example of putting politics ahead of people. Rural Americans need the help. Republicans delivered for them with $50 billion. Now, Democrats want to take every penny away, and they’re willing to shut down the government to do it.

Republicans should call their bluff, and if Democrats aren’t bluffing, Republicans should refuse to cave. The last thing they should do is give in to the left’s absurd, insulting and harmful demands. If Democrats are willing to shut down the government over this, let them. They will own the rural crisis that follows, and it won’t be long before they give in and let Republicans do what’s right.

Americans are seeing Democrats’ true colors. For all their talk of expanding health care and helping rural communities, it’s now clear the Democrats never meant it. All they really care about is resisting President Trump and playing politics, even if that means that millions of rural Americans lose the health care funding they desperately need.

• Tarren Bragdon is CEO at the Foundation for Government Accountability.