Lifeboat:  A recap of John McGuire’s call-in Town Hall

Representative John McGuire of Virginia’s 5^th Congressional District held a call-in town hall meeting recently.  I don’t know how many folks attended the town hall, but I do know that when folks were selected to ask McGuire questions the majority queried him about Medicaid cuts and DOGE. Funny, no talks of eggs.

McGuire started the town hall by asking listeners to participate in a poll.  The first question was, “do they want to root out waste, fraud, and abuse? “ That’s like asking Medieval folks if they want to root out Black Death, the plague.  Of course they did.  It’s the methodology that they had quibbles over.  In 17^th century England, if a household member got plague, the whole household was locked inside the house for 30 or 45 days, a guard posted outside.  That quarantine was extended as other household members sickened and died.  Normally, everyone perished.  Sounds a bit like DOGE’s methodology regarding USAID and lifesaving anti-viral drugs for millions of Africans. 

But back to the town hall.  The first question McGuire was asked sounded the alarm about the proposed $880 billion dollar cut to government agencies overseen by the energy and commerce committee.  This would entail massive cuts to Medicaid, the caller thought.  McGuire’s response was to happily, almost joyfully, point out that Medicaid was not mentioned once in the proposed budget blueprint.  Duh!  The New York Times reported that if the committee cut all other non-safety net programs under their oversight, they would still have to eliminate an additional $600 billion in funding.  That means Medicaid would be hit….hard.

Another caller, a preacher, pointed out that 24 percent of his district receives Medicaid.   I asked myself, did it ever dawn on McGuire to ask himself, “why do so many folks who work full-time jobs in my district can’t afford medical insurance or care? “ Piss poor wages dude!  Nationwide, over 64 percent of Medicaid recipients work.  In Louisa County, 17 percent receive Medicaid, and this is in a county where unemployment is just a smidge over 2 percent. According to Virginia law, if Medicaid expansion funding from the Federal government drops to a certain level, the program is abandoned.  Yes, abandoned.  That would mean 600,000 Virginians would lose access to health care, many of whom are kids.  Later callers, it was clear, weren’t buying McGuire’s Trumpian responses.

The same went for DOGE.  Near universal condemnation of DOGE’s chainsaw approach, many pointing out its cold-heartedness.  One caller, from the Charlottesville area, said folks in her organization – which she specified — were worried about the haphazard cuts and potential cuts to come.  In perhaps a Freudian slip, McGuire spoke of her position and organization in the past tense.   Which he corrected quickly.  I am sure that that slip was noted by listeners.

During overwhelmingly negative comments and questions regarding DOGE’s incompetence and draconian Medicaid cuts, McGuire’s aid interjected and offered an email question.  The email question was quite flattering of McGuire.  Really, were not dumb!

Overall, McGuire got an earful, but I don’t think he listened.  Too often he used rehearsed and prepared talking points (you heard papers shuffling) instead of genuine concern.  Given the tenure of other town halls I seen or heard about, I was surprised at how calm the questioners were.  Very civil, very polite, but direct as well.  McGuire was civil himself, but too often resorting to the same phrase, saying, ‘I still love you even though we disagree.’  

I think McGuire forgot a cardinal rule in politics:  He forgot who he works for.  We expect our politicians to omit and lie and obfuscate, but we don’t expect them to work against our interests.  It was obvious he works for Trump and not us.  Ben Franklin at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 said it best I think:  “In free governments, the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors and sovereigns.”

You may be wondering why Lifeboat” is in the title of this essay. I remember as a kid watching a black and white war movie telling the story of the survivors of a torpedoed merchant ship.  The drama takes place in the overcrowded lifeboat: too many people, not enough space, too little food or water.  As time passed people died or were killed.  I realized later with age and little bit of wisdom, that the lifeboat was a parable about class and society.  The passengers represented a spectrum of society:  a wealthy socialite, working class ship hands, upper class passengers, the young and elderly, a vulnerable woman with a dead child, an enemy portrayed by the German U-boat captain. Conflicts ensued as resources, and hope, dwindled.  Winners and losers.  Everyone dead or morally tainted.

That’s the paradigm that sticks in my mind when I think of politics in America today.  America the Lifeboat.  Billions, tens of billions in cuts to Medicaid and other safety-net programs — mostly to working class folks – to pay for $4 trillion in tax cuts, the bulk of the dollars going to the wealthiest Americans.   I think that’s not the ‘golden age’ most folks who voted for Trump envisioned or want.