The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.
I have written extensively about the “Big Beautiful Act”: draconian health care coverage and funding cuts — Medicaid and Affordable Care Act (ACA) private insurance; slashing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); severe limitations on higher education loans; climate change funding cuts; and more tax dodges for the rich, adding $trillions to the national debt. The rich will make out like bandits, but regular folks get left behind.
Moreover, Trump and congressional Republicans, including all Wisconsin GOP members of Congress, had another trick: blowup the bipartisan rural, suburban and urban coalition supporting a farm bill. The GOP-led House has failed for years to reauthorize help for struggling farmers and the hungry. But they saw a path for a vehicle to crush those who wanted a bipartisan approach.
Republicans cut SNAP for millions, including 90,000 Wisconsinites, while slipping other regressive farm provisions into the “Big Beautiful Act”. “They included several changes to the way farm aid is distributed, significantly increasing subsidies especially for large and profitable farms as well as farmers in Southern states. The bill eliminated a cap restricting farmers with incomes of $900,000 or more from receiving certain federal subsidies. And it raised federal subsidies for the largest producers of corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, peanuts and rice, and allowed producers to claim subsidies for more acres of land” (NYT).
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The National Farmers Union highlighted the good, bad and ugly: “The bill strengthens the farm safety net (Dairy Margin Coverage Program covers 80 percent of Wisconsin dairy farmers and offers assistance to mitigate swings in milk and feed prices), supports biofuels and conservation, and extends key tax incentives … . However, these gains are paired with harmful tradeoffs. Cuts to SNAP divide the farm bill coalition and reductions in Medicaid will have harmful effects on millions of Americans. Farm policy should unite us. This approach undermines the foundation of the farm bill and puts its future at risk.”
Trump with little dissent from congressional Republicans wants to eliminate food assistance programs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has cut over $1.5 billion that buys food from U.S. farmers for schools and food banks. And, Trump has dissolved the Agency for International Development resulting in U.S. farmers losing a $2.2 billion market to reduce world hunger. Moreover, Trump wants to end the bipartisan Food for Peace and McGovern-Dole Programs that address world hunger and support U.S. farmers.
Finally, the Medicaid and ACA cuts in the “Big Beautiful Act” will hit rural Wisconsin hard. 276,175 Wisconsinites will lose health care coverage. The ACA private insurance cuts begin in 2025: enrollment will face unnecessary barriers and people will lose coverage. Biden’s increased and expanded federal tax credits were not renewed by Republicans; soaring insurance premiums will reduce coverage. The extreme Medicaid cuts will take longer to phase in: “It’s very clear that Medicaid cuts will result in rural hospital closures” (National Rural Health Association).
Trump and Wisconsin congressional Republicans (all voted for the “Big Beautiful Act”) have betrayed rural Wisconsin and its farmers.
– Kaplan wrote a guest column from Washington, D.C., for the Wisconsin State Journal from 1995 – 2009.
