Dear Editor,

I listened recently to a Republican congressman touting the virtues of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed by Republicans this summer. He claimed that all taxpayers would be getting tax benefits. 

Nearly all major media outlets instead stated that the largest beneficiaries of this act are corporations and the most wealthy. The rest of us get crumbs. 

When DOGE and Russel Vought from the Office of Management and Budget cut large numbers of employees from the IRS, they cut the folks who would investigate the ultra-rich and corporations who use an array of tax dodges to pay little or, in some cases, no federal income taxes whatsoever. 

Trump fought against releasing SNAP funding (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) to increase pressure on Democrats to cave in on reopening the government, despite the fact that 1/8 of all Americans depend on it to put food on the table. 

Earth to Congress: There is a lot of poverty in the richest country in the world. 

Republican lawmakers fought against lowering Affordable Care Act premiums or restoring Medicaid cuts, knowing that 24 million Americans will find health care unaffordable. Both of these actions seem tone deaf and cruel.

How does making health insurance more expensive (between 2 to 5 times more) help the average American? One woman with two children interviewed on NPR saw her premiums go from $500 to $2,500 each month.

How many Americans are homeless because of crushing medical bills? How many more will be pushed into homelessness? 

Republicans resisted any compromise on health care. Why? Because that’s how they would pay for their large tax cuts.

We saw how much the president cares. He leveraged the hunger and desperation of many Americans to increase the pressure on Democrats to cave in. He ordered SNAP benefits to be halted despite an existing dedicated fund voted for by Congress to fill the gap. 

When he lost in the lower courts, he went to the Supreme Court, appealing for a stay of this order to tap these existing funds. He pretends to care about average Americans, but we saw his true colors.

Bill Thibedeau

Gilpin County