Joe Linus: If Fitzpatrick wants the votes he’ll need next year, he needs to grow a spine
The Big Beautiful Bill passed the House and was signed into law by Donald Trump on July 4. Every U.S. House Republican save for two holdouts supported the bill because of its America First agenda of lower taxes, border security, military spending, and pro-growth worker agenda. Middle income families like the residents of Bucks and Montgomery counties are the beneficiaries.
Unfortunately, our Republican congressman, Brian Fitzpatrick, was one of only two Republicans who voted against it. His excuse was that the cuts to Medicaid made by the Senate would be harmful to people in his district. Apparently, Brian is more concerned about illegal aliens and able-bodied citizens of working age who refuse to work. Handouts for illegals and able-bodied citizens need to stop if we are ever going to get our federal budget under control. Democrats pander to illegals and those ne’er-do-wells prone to live off the government teat. It seems our congressman has joined them in that regard.
Democrats say Medicaid is an important social safety net and provisions in the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) will lead to millions of unnecessary deaths. Republicans agree it is an important safety net but also believe there is lots of waste, fraud, and illegal payments that are driving up the cost of the program, making it unsustainable. State and federal taxpayers support Medicaid to the tune of $900 billion annually, or $5,590 on average per taxpayer. The federal government (i.e. taxpayers) foots most of the $900 billion. Hence, Congress wants to get the spending under control to preserve the program going forward.
As originally conceived, Medicaid was intended for low-income Americans as a health care safety net. Today, there are 1.4 million illegal aliens receiving Medicaid and another 7+ million prime-age men who are neither working nor looking for work receiving Medicaid benefits. The men in this group aged 25-54 represent a significant portion of the population not participating in the labor force. In 1967, 97% of men in this demographic were employed or actively looking for work. I suspect a similar number of prime aged women are also not working and contributing to the wasteful spending.
Donald Trump won Bucks County in 2024 because working class voters were fed up with the humiliating presidency of Joe Biden, millions of illegals overrunning our borders and receiving handouts, and the high cost of government. Perhaps these voters didn’t think of it in terms of $5,590 per year for Medicaid benefits, but they intuitively understood there is a lot of waste in the federal government. I don’t suppose they’d be happy knowing that much of their hard-earned tax money goes to pay for health care of noncitizens and ne’er-do-well Americans.
Brian is understandably worried about his reelection next year. His First Congressional District includes all of Bucks County and parts of heavily Democratic Montgomery County. He’s worried about the 300 delusional Democrats who protested with cardboard tombstones in front of his office. I suspect that many of those protesting are in the same class as the ne’er-do-wells living off the government. Instead of pandering to this group, he should explain that no deserving citizen is going to lose their health care. He should explain Medicaid is costing every taxpayer on average $5,590 per year. He should explain the estimated Medicaid cost savings in the BBB amount to $1 trillion over ten years.
What ever happened to self-reliance and self-responsibility? Being a good citizen means you are expected to contribute to society, not take from society. As a former Democrat, I remember the words of John F. Kennedy: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Brian should appeal to the JFK wing of the Democratic Party. There are still many of them out there who haven’t been taken over by their party’s socialist wing.
If Brian wants working-class Democrats’ and Republicans’ votes next year, he needs to grow a spine.
Joe Linus is a retired industrial plant engineer and technology contracts administrator for Fortune 500 companies living in Washington Crossing.
