To quote Winston Churchill; “Healthy citizens are the greatest asset a country can have.”

I think this is true, although I’ve been concerned about the state of our US healthcare for awhile. Unfortunately, it looks like the situation is getting much worse, since it doesn’t appear that Elon Musk and Donald Trump are focused on health as an asset. They’re too busy working on their own assets by enriching themselves rather than worry about the health of our American citizenry. Indiscriminate cuts at US healthcare agencies such as the Center for Disease Control or the National Institutes of Health, etc. have curtailed necessary research and health assistance to the American people.

Now, we are seeing a widespread outbreak of measles in Texas, New Mexico, and other states. Washington State just had its first case of measles recently and healthcare officials are trying to track down those who were exposed, hoping to keep the disease under control.

During his first term, we had to live through Trump’s awful handling of COVID, a deadly, airborne illness. I lost a close relative to COVID back then and the death toll during Trump’s term was horrific. Here we are again in Trump’s second administration dealing with a measles outbreak, which is another potentially deadly, airborne illness. I remember having measles as a child (before the MMR vaccine was available) and having a high fever with a miserable rash; but I was lucky and survived. The unvaccinated today may not be as lucky.

I’m sure Musk’s children and all of Trump’s kids and grandkids have been vaccinated. But, the Republicans (whose families have also undoubtedly been vaccinated) voted to confirm Trump’s choice of RFK Jr., an “anti-vax” oddball with absolutely no medical background, to head US Health and Human Services. When asked about the child in Texas who died from Measles, RFK Jr. dismissed it as just a common occurrence, spouting inaccuracies and expressing no sympathy for the child or the family.

Wealthy individuals like Trump, Musk and RFK Jr. can afford topnotch healthcare, which many citizens cannot. Those families in a lower income bracket and those with disabilities rely on Federal Medicaid dollars to subsidize state-allocated funding for their medical costs. Many MAGA voters fall in this category; but, it doesn’t look like Trump feels that he needs to honor his promise to his voters that he wouldn’t cut Medicaid.

As for Musk, I doubt he cares anything about the healthcare of U.S. citizens. Right now, the Republicans are looking at putting the details on a budget that will make major cuts to programs including Medicaid so they can give tax cuts to the wealthy. Wealth for the few, not health for the many seems to be the goal of the Trump/Musk administration.

Donna Smith

Enumclaw