‘The math isn’t mathing’

To Congressman John James: You voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that makes about $800 billion cuts to Medicaid and $300 billion cut to SNAP. One of the responses your office sent me said: “This continuing resolution does not include any cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, and I remain committed to strengthening and protecting these vital programs for the Michiganders that rely on them. However, we cannot continue to allow wasteful government spending. The people of Michigan’s 10th Congressional District sent me to Washington to fight for fiscal responsibility, transparency, and accountability, and not to fund the pet projects of D.C. bureaucrats.”

Then a different response the office sent me saying: “When it comes to Medicaid, the facts speak for themselves. In Michigan, nearly half of all seniors rely on Medicaid to age with dignity. Medicaid covers 38% of all births in our state. This is a program that matters, and it must be protected for the people it was meant to serve: low-income children, pregnant women, individuals with disabilities, and our seniors. Allowing ineligible recipients, illegal immigrants, and able-bodied adults who choose not to work to take funds away from those who need it is not protecting Medicaid—it’s weakening it. Every dollar misspent is a dollar taken from someone who truly needs it. Republicans are not cutting Medicaid.

We are prioritizing it. We are fighting to preserve it for those who depend on it—not to inflate it into a catch-all entitlement rife with waste, fraud, and abuse. In fact, a 2023 report from Michigan’s Inspector General identified $17.5 million in inappropriate Medicaid expenditures. That’s not just unacceptable—it’s exactly the kind of misuse we’re working to end.”

There are about 1.75 million veterans on Medicaid, and 72,000 veterans on Medicaid in the State of Michigan. There are 1.2 million veterans on SNAP. You said that the continuing resolution doesn’t have cuts for Medicaid as the bill you voted for has about $800 billion in cuts. Are veterans on Medicaid and SNAP a “pet project of the D.C. bureaucrats?” Your office said that there are about 1.4 million undocumented immigrants on Medicaid when it is already illegal for undocumented immigrants to be on Medicaid and there is $17.5 million in inappropriate spending of Medicaid in the State of Michigan. How does that wastefully spending add up to $800 billion cuts to Medicaid?

So the office told me around 1.4 million undocumented immigrants are on Medicaid but the bill will throw off about 10 million people off of Medicaid. The math isn’t mathing. You said, “Republicans are not cutting Medicaid. We are prioritizing it,” when you are doing the opposite. This is going to hit the veteran community hard and people will get sicker and die without proper healthcare. Why are you OK with this?

Edward Boone

Macomb Twp.

Masking the loss of rule of law

I find it ironic that the ICE and adjacent law enforcement communities claim they need the masks to protect the identities of the officers from DOXing. A few years back there was a big fuss about Islamic women that wear a full face covering and indeed we had some ugly incidents of arrests and forceful removal of head covering. Additionally, if an arrested party has any claim resulting from the arrest they need to identify the specific officer or officers. I fear our country is no longer a country under the rule of law.

Ronald Fisch

Shelby Twp.

Politicians acting out of order

Quite a change of positions lately, seems not long ago we heard the preachings “No one is above the law.” Today we witness elected officials acting as though they are. Officials announcing their inherent right of visiting a criminal and demanding his release and return to his family. Congressmen and women demanding admission to a detention facility, and verbally demeaning law enforcement in L.A., taunting them. We expect that type of reaction from professional protesters, not part-time politicians who have entrenched themselves into cozy jobs by appearing to care for their constituents. We have a few of these in Michigan, too, but some have seen the writing on the wall and decided to use their past positions to seek greater rewards in other areas. The late Harry Reid was an example of those that would say anything to achieve his goal and did. Officials crying President Trump has overstepped and ignored laws by sending troops to LA, just imagine where Detroit would be today if LBJ and Romney hadn’t sent troops in 1967. Sad how we can’t remember the cause back then wasn’t due to detaining illegals.

Ronald Navickas

Shelby Twp.