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AN 10 26
Rural West Virginia town voted 76 percent for Trump — now it’s starving
BITE ASS
The Republicans' "One Big Beautiful Bill" ushered in such significant budget cuts that one rural West Virginia town is experiencing a hunger crisis.
Dunlow, West Virginia, has been hit particularly hard by cuts to two programs: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and federal food-purchasing cuts.
The GOP's budget bill mandated new eligibility and work-reporting requirements that have been particularly difficult in rural coal country, where jobs and training programs are scarce. While Trump claimed he'd bring back coal jobs during the 2024 campaign, he hasn't delivered. So, those who counted on those jobs are still struggling. Then Congress cut whatever safety net was left.
NBC reported Friday that approximately 24,000 West Virginians, including 8,000 children, have lost food-stamp benefits since last summer. Those are statewide figures, not counts specific to Dunlow or Matewan, but GOP Rep. Carol Miller, who covers that district, voted in support of the cuts. The state's senators, Jim Justice (R) and Shelley Moore Capito (R), also supported the legislation.
In fact, Wayne County, where Dunlow is located, voted 76 percent for President Donald Trump in 2024.
The second problem comes from the food-purchasing cuts. The GOP eliminated a $400 million program that purchased food from local farmers and put it in food banks to ensure that the needy could have access to healthy food. It also helped American farmers. The hit was twofold, hurting the food banks and farmers, who are also now suffering under tariffs and high diesel prices.
Facing Hunger told NBC News that its federal food supply has fallen by one-third. In Dunlow, that means the food pantry only has 2.5 pounds of USDA food per household in the entire month of August, said Bill Likens, who runs the pantry. A few years ago, that number was closer to 20 pounds a month.
The report noted that it isn't entirely the fault of the federal officials, however. Separate reporting by Mountain State Spotlight reported that West Virginia’s state allocation for food banks fell from $10 million annually under a previous funding to just $1.4 million in the current budget.
At a time when folks have less money for groceries because fuel costs and grocery prices have spiked, families are also losing programs designed to support them.
Speaking with residents, NBC News highlighted Washington D.C.'s distance from these kinds of communities and the struggles that they face. Dr. Mehmet Oz fumed at Molly Martinez of Gray Media's Washington News Bureau in an interview this week when she cited sweeping Medicaid spending cuts totaling $911 billion over the next 10 years. That includes $137 billion for rural America.
Now that hospitals and clinics are starting to close, the government is rushing to throw in $50 billion, but it hardly makes up for the $87 billion shortfall. The only response from the celebrity doctor was to allege the reporter was "deliberately duplicitous."
Retired school bus driver Bonnie Newsome told NBC News she remains affectionate toward Trump but admitted he has disappointed her. Without the food pantry, she said, couldn't survive.
Joanne Girvin, 73, told NBC that she has lost 20 pounds so far because she cannot afford enough food. She has started relying on eggs from backyard chickens and deer meat.
In an economically depleted region with limited jobs, significant disability and persistent child poverty, neighbors are sharing milk and redistributing pantry supplies.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly claimed, “President Trump is strengthening SNAP for the Americans who need it by ensuring these programs are sustainable for future generations." Thanks to him, she said, they can "crack down on waste, fraud and abuse.”
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mike rounds
an 926
'How could he?' GOP senator says red state voters being are 'hurt' by Trump
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AN 8 26
Officials in Trump-voting North Carolina say new requirements under President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful bill will place significant financial and administrative burdens on local SNAP operations, reports WTVD. The new strain arrives as state staff work desperately with growing demand and limited resources.
A provision of Trump’s law — that state Republicans did not like to talk about during its passage out of the Republican-controlled U.S. House and Senate — will increase costs associated with administering the state’s SNAP program beginning in October 2026.
“County officials said the federal government's share of those administrative costs will be reduced, leaving states responsible for a larger portion. North Carolina is passing those costs on to counties,” reports WTVD. “Those costs are estimated at $69 million annually for counties statewide.”
"We won't have the funds to do that," said Latoya Chambers, assistant director of the Family Economic Independence Division.
Chambers added that state concerns extend beyond expanded administrative costs. Beginning in October 2027, states with SNAP payment error rates of 6 percent or higher will be required to pay a portion of benefit costs.
To fund the extension of Trump’s controversial tax cuts, H.R. 1 punishes states for accounting errors, even if the errors are not intended. County staff must also implement new beneficiary requirements and policies under H.R. 1. The changes include expanded work requirements, changes to noncitizen eligibility, and additional eligibility checks and recertifications.
"We've seen an influx of people coming in applying for services," said Chambers, adding that the department does not have enough workers to meet current or new demands required by the Trump administration.
"We should have about 14 to 15 application workers, I only have nine workers determining eligibility for all residents in Durham County," she said.
Worse, if N.C. and other minimally staffed Southern states fail to process cases accurately, they could lose their SNAP program entirely because the payment error rate is going to also be attached to the administrative costs, Chambers said.
WTVD reports upwards of 500,000 children across the state could lose the ability to eat the only meal that they have to survive on each and every day, if that happens.
"It's going to be severely devastating,” warned 4th Congressional District U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee, one of only three Democrats representing the state. “We know that counties don't have the funding to provide for the number of people who will need that kind of assistance. And so to push the responsibility down to states who are now pushing that responsibility down to the counties, it is not going to work. And Congress needs to act and it needs to provide that funding that we know the states and the counties can not do.”
Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, called the megabill — supported by every congressional Republican from North Carolina with the exception of U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis — a “disgrace.” And now facing the ruin of a major social safety net, Republican legislators in many Trump-voting states are desperately trying to delay or navigate Trump’s rule change.
No North Carolina Congressional Republicans commented for this story.
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AN 8 26
The fallout from President Donald Trump’s unpopular Big Beautiful Bill keeps hitting impoverished red states harder than others a hospitals and voters come to terms with yawning debt and healthcare cuts threatening critical hospitals.
Mississippi Today reports state lawmakers face a “daunting task” trying to fill the holes Trump blasted into the state budget with his looming federal cuts. Unhappy with their options, the Republican-dominated legislature failed to address some of the most pressing issues with Trump’s cuts during the legislative session, so the looming blast holes are still waiting.
Mississippi is one of many impoverished state with a high percentage of uninsured population who do not reimbursement hospitals for visits. But Mississippi Today reports Medicaid is expected to lose $1 billion over the course of the next decade as a result of “Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill signed into law in July.” To further complicate matters, Republicans let federal enhanced premium tax credits for Affordable Care Act Marketplace insurance expire late last year, making health care much more expensive for “hundreds of thousands of Mississippians.”
The problem is such a big issue that Republican state Rep. Sam Creekmore predicted much of next year’s legislative session will involve patching over Trump’s federal cuts.
“I figure that will be a lot of our time going forward out of session and next year,” Creekmore said.
But Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, said people like Creekmore shouldn’t get their hopes up for a solution.
“As a general matter, states are not going to be able to fill the gaping hole that Congress and President Trump have created here,” Alker told MS Today. “[No] state, no matter how wealthy or well-intentioned, is going to be able to sustain that.”
Sen. Hob Bryan, a Democrat, lamented that state lawmakers were powerless to do anything about problems made at the federal level.
“… I’m absolutely terrified about what is going to happen to people in rural areas. Rural areas have been transformed by the big boys before,” Bryan said.
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ala also fail on work req?
an 8 26
The deep-red state of Alabama is staring down the barrel of having to repay millions of dollars back to the federal government as a result of President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. Now, Alabama.com reports Sen. Tommy Tuberville — who approved the bill — is frantically trying to do damage control.
“Sen. Tommy Tuberville is working with the state to ‘reduce the error rate’ in the local SNAP program, a metric that could lead to the state picking up a massive bill for the project in the near future,” reports AL.com. “Tuberville’s office made the statement Tuesday after Alabama food banks urged him and Sen. Katie Britt to support a two-year buffer before the state must begin making cost-sharing payments for its SNAP program.”
After Trump signed his signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law in July 2025, states with SNAP payment error rates greater than 6 percent must pay a share of benefit costs, with the amount depending on how far a state’s error rate exceeds that threshold. Poverty-stricken red states like Alabama and Mississippi are more likely to feel the sting of the loss while crunching their budgets in the next legislative session.
Alabama had a payment error rate of 9.52 percent in the fiscal year 2025 and would be responsible for 10 percent of its SNAP costs, or approximately $174 million.
In August, AL.com reported leaders and partners of Alabama food banks urged Tuberville and Britt to support a two-year waiver that would spare the state’s SNAP program from paying millions in cost-sharing payments until fiscal year 2029, and Tuberville’s office immediately signed on with delaying the worst damage of he and Trump’s budget law.
“Sen. Tuberville’s team is in talks with the state agency that manages the SNAP program to determine what efforts they can make to reduce the error rate,” stand-in Alabama governor’s communications director, Mallory Jaspers told AL.com
Tuberville and most Republican members of the U.S. House and Senate approved slapping states with reimbursement demands to fund the extension of Trump’s tax breaks, which critics say largely go to higher income brackets. But the errors they target rarely result from fraud, according to Michael Ledger, CEO of Feeding the Gulf Coast.
“We are talking about penalties to states because of administrative errors.
Administrative errors are not fraud. Fraud only runs 1 percent to 2 percent,” Ledger told AL.com, adding that Alabama’s Department of Human Resources is laboring to lower the state’s error rate, but it will “take time for results to appear.”
In the meantime, AL.com reports Alabama faces two possible outcomes if the waiver is not approved: the state will fund the cost-sharing payment, or it potentially could lose its SNAP program.
“To pay the cost share, state lawmakers would need to identify $174 million in the fiscal year 2027 budget. If lawmakers cannot or will not allocate the funding, Alabama would have to reduce the number of SNAP participants or opt out of the program entirely,” said AL.com reporter Michael Yielding.
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an 8 26
Layoffs bite deep into Trump country
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an 8 26
Trump’s $500/month Social Security cuts will go nuclear in Alabama: report
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an 8 26
From dismantling the Affordable Care Act to supporting Republican lawmakers’ attacks on Medicare and Medicaid, President Donald Trump has made it much more difficult for people to receive health care during his second term. Now a new report reveals how millions of Americans will literally die because of these policies — that is, once their votes for Trump are in the bag.
“When the Republican Congress enacted Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill in July 2025, it included massive cuts in the Medicaid program, totaling around $1 trillion over 10 years—but made sure to postpone them until 2027, conveniently after the midterm elections,” wrote The New Republic's Norman J. Ornstein on Sunday. “The cuts focused on adding onerous work and paperwork requirements, all designed to force recipients off the rolls, and will remove somewhere between 10 and 15 million people from the program, leaving them without any health coverage. That is in addition to the millions losing coverage or facing huge premium increases with the erasure of subsidies for the Affordable Care Act.”
Ornstein added, “But the impact will go far beyond those directly losing their health insurance. Medicaid money does not go to Medicaid recipients. It goes to the providers. The loss of a major chunk of the money going out to them will have big reverberations.”
After detailing how the cuts will harm hospitals and nursing homes in essential ways, Ornstein characterized the consequences as devastating to American patients. For example, when it comes to the hospital cuts, ERs will be overtaxed while hundreds of necessary workers will be thrown into unemployment. Patients will find it more difficult to receive care, even as health workers struggle to make ends meet.
“As for the nursing homes, some will close; others will cut staff and staff pay,” Ornstein wrote. “The ratio of residents to staff will decline, meaning residents unable to secure help when they need it for such vital tasks as getting medications when they require them, getting help going to the bathroom, getting help in bed to prevent bedsores or worse, having responsive care during a health trauma or emergency. More unqualified staff could mean more abuse of the residents.”
He concluded, “There will be more effects seen throughout the country, for everyone who is a part of our intertwined health care system, from those working in it to those using it. No wonder Republicans made sure none of the Medicaid cuts would happen before voters experienced the impact.”
Referring to America as a “kakistocracy,” or government run by the least competent and most corrupt, Ornstein opined that “it turns out that kakistocracy is not just a funny word, but a reality with horrific consequences.”
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AN 1 26
Inflation is on the rise thanks to President Donald Trump, and his own voters are about to get hit with the worst of it.
The New Statesman reported Thursday that MAGA world will be the ones that face the misery of a faltering economy.
Trump's war with the Federal Reserve kicked in to high gear over the weekend after Chairman Jerome Powell revealed he'd been subpoenaed by a grand jury for an investigation. The probe threatens "a criminal indictment," Powell said in a video statement.
The Fed's "rate-setting board alone employs several hundred researchers, almost all of whom have a PhD in economics," business reporter Will Dunn explained. "Their job is to come up with one of the world’s most important numbers: the Fed funds rate, which is effectively the price of money in the world’s most powerful economy, and which affects the prices of commodities and financial instruments around the world."
However, Trump wants to replace the "multi-billion-dollar system of data collection and careful economic modeling" with his own individual economic whims.
Powell has threatened, "we’re going to probably bring a lawsuit against him."
The chairman's term ends in May, but he will remain on the board of governors until Jan. 2028. Trump has already attempted to fire a previously appointed Democratic nominee. Her position is now being decided by the Supreme Court, said Dunn.
While lower rates could help promote business activity and boost stock markets, the problem is that economic populism can be expensive, the report says.
"The price for juicing the US economy enough to give Trump continued control of Congress at the end of the year will be paid, in the years that follow, by his own voters. Having stimulated demand in the US economy – by making debt cheaper and handing out free money – the US can expect to experience inflation," the piece promises.
The problem for Trump is that his team sees inflation in the "abstract." All of their money is in property, cash and other assets and there is so much of it that their spending barely impacts their lives. That's not the case for Trump voters, the report explained.
"The people who feel inflation most seriously are the people who have the least disposable income – in the US, the bottom quartile of earners. The majority of low-income households in the US voted for Trump in 2024," wrote the Statesman.
The report closed by promising that Trump "is preparing not only to dupe these low-income voters with the illusion of a functioning economy, but to make them pay for it.
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AN AH 10 25
In the United States' last three presidential elections, Donald Trump had a clear advantage in rural areas. But Trump's steep new tariffs are creating a great deal of hardship for many of the farmers who voted for him, and farmers are hoping that a bailout will enable them to make ends meet.
The New York Times' Michael Grunwald, in an op-ed published on October 21, points to the difficulties farmers are facing as an example of a pattern with Trump — who, according to Grunwald, creates a crisis, then proposes a solution at taxpayers' expense.
"Once again, President Trump says he's preparing an emergency bailout for struggling farmers," Grunwald explains. "And once again, it's because of an emergency he created. China has stopped buying U.S. soybeans to protest Mr. Trump's tariffs on imports. In response, Mr. Trump plans to send billions of dollars of tariff revenue to U.S. soybean farmers who no longer have buyers for their crops. At the same time, Argentina has taken advantage of Mr. Trump's tariffs to sell more of its own soybeans to China — yet Mr. Trump is planning to bail out Argentina, too."
Grunwald continues, "This may seem nonsensical, especially since Mr. Trump already shoveled at least $28 billion to farmers hurt by his first trade war in 2018. But it actually makes perfect sense. It's what happens when Mr. Trump's zero-sum philosophy of trade — which is that there are always winners and losers, and he should get to choose the winners — collides with Washington's sycophantic approach to agriculture, which ensures that farmers always win and taxpayers always lose. In the end, Mr. Trump's allies, including President Javier Milei of Argentina and the politically influential agricultural community, will get paid — and you will pay. I didn't say it was good. I just said it makes sense."
Trump's view of economics, Grunwald notes, is outlined in his 1987 book "The Art of the Deal."
"The most important thing to know about the former real estate developer and casino operator in the White House is that he doesn't believe in mutually beneficial transactions," the Times journalist observes. "The central theme of his book, 'The Art of the Deal,' is that every deal has a winner and a sucker. On trade, Mr. Trump sees America as a perennial sucker, and he vows to make it win so much that you'll get tired of winning."
Trump's protectionist approach to trade, according to Grunwald, is "lousy policy for America" but "works nicely for Mr. Trump, because it gives him enormous power to reward or punish specific companies or industries."
"We do not live in a zero-sum world," Grunwald argues. "The nice thing about free markets and free trade is that voluntary transactions between individuals or nations really can make both sides better off. Or we can keep paying farmers to farm soybeans, pay them more to convert some of those soybeans into wildly inefficient fuels, pay them even more when they can't sell their soybeans because we're in a trade war with their customers — and then pay extra to bail out one of the countries replacing them in the marketplace. That only makes sense in Mr. Trump's Washington."
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an 8 25
Red states are now confronting the unintended fallout of President Donald Trump’s signature Republican tax-and-spending package as crucial infrastructure grants that were once intended to reconnect communities and enhance pedestrian safety have been abruptly rescinded.
Politico reported Wednesday that lawmakers from these once-safe GOP districts are now being forced to answer to residents facing transportation and safety shortfalls.
The reported noted that a city in southwestern Utah was poised to benefit from an $87.6 million federal grant to help reconnect neighborhoods split by an increasingly congested Interstate 15. But the money intended for the project in St. George vanished after Trump signed the bill.
READ MORE:Aides sat 'helpless' as 'incoherent' Trump displayed 'stunning ignorance': biographer
"The solidly Republican community isn’t alone. Across the country, the new law rescinded more than $2.2 billion in unobligated dollars from a $3.2 billion Biden-era program aimed at helping reconnect disadvantaged neighborhoods divided by roadways," the report said.
In Montana, Rep. Ryan Zinke (R‑Mont.) saw his district affected too. A roughly $75 million award for reconstructing a stretch of roadway on the Flathead Reservation lost 84 percent of its funds, per the report.
"Areas hit by the cuts include some represented by GOP lawmakers who voted for the law — in the latest example of Trump’s most significant legislative triumph complicating life back home for his allies in Congress," the report noted.
According to the DOT’s awards summary, “the highway is the primary transportation corridor ... linking members of the [tribes] and other residents to jobs, schools, medical care, and other essential destinations,” yet “the road presents a significant barrier to community connectivity due to longstanding safety issues and a lack of adequate alternate routes.”
READ MORE:'Keeps me up at night': Veterans fear Trump is gunning for another 'Kent State' massacre
Moreover, all $24 million in federal grant money for a project from East Missoula to Missoula, including a reconstructed railroad crossing bridge, was eliminated.
Jimmie Hughes, a Republican city council member in St. George, told Politico: “There’s a 2‑mile stretch of that highway where you can’t get through."
He added: The project “really was an answer to a lot of congestion. It’s a little bit heartbreaking, but we’re not giving up.” Hughes mused that the city “may have been in a ‘baby out with the bathwater’ situation.”
READ MORE:Trump 'in a tailspin': Answers demanded about 'remarkably close relationship' with Epstein
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AN 8 25
'Their hospital might close': Dems look to Iowa State Fair as ground zero for majority rule
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an 8 25
In the southernmost town in Maryland, residents who backed President Donald Trump in the 2024 election are now grappling with the consequences of his administration’s decision to cancel a major FEMA flood‑relief program.
NBC Washington published a report Thursday spotlighting former businesses now claimed by flooding.
Mayor Darlene Taylor pointed to vacant storefronts while speaking with NBC. “That was Subway and it used to have to close all the time because of floods or even high tides,” she said, nodding to a windowless shell of a building.
READ MORE:'Wild': Outrage as GOP governors facilitate controversial Trump move 'for a photo op'
She added: “There’s nothing in Crisfield that’s not touched by our flooding issue.”
The report noted that Taylor leads a shrinking seaside town battling relentless flooding from the Chesapeake Bay and other climate‑related threats.
Last year, FEMA awarded a $36 million grant through its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program to flood‑proof Crisfield. But in April, the Trump administration abruptly terminated the BRIC program — canceling applications from 2020‑2023 and halting future awards.
Due to this development, Taylor and other townspeople are forced to scramble for alternatives — to “get it back.”
Records show a majority of voters in the town supported Trump in 2024, per the report.
“In an article that someone sent to me, it says, ‘Crisfield: Maryland’s Trumpiest city,” Taylor told NBC.
Taylor’s efforts to secure federal flood relief began early in her tenure — she took office in 2022 amid mounting concern from residents about rising water levels. With Crisfield only a few feet above sea level, flooding has hollowed out the local economy and left residents increasingly vulnerable.
When asked how voters felt about the canceled funding, despite their ideological leanings, Taylor noted, “People are tied to their philosophies and ideologies. So, they may see rationales in one way or another, but for me, I believe that that should play in our favor.”
Francis Martinez Myers, a member of of the Greater Crisfield Action Coalition, told NBC: “I feel like the government, the administration turned their back on the community."
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