Two piles of money, one $45 million the other $50 million: What do they say about America?
The latter is the amount of money that American taxpayers are spending every day to pay for Trump’s War on Iran. A week or so after hosting his Board of Peace, the president announced his preemptive war against Iran from his lavish country estate in Florida, the same night he hosted a million dollar a plate fund raiser.
The former is the value of medical care provided to Virginians by Remote Area Medicine over the years. This includes 30,000 glasses, 56,000 tooth extractions, 38,000 filing, thousands of exams, mammograms, and hearing aids.
While Trump offers to send a hospital ship to Greenland, ostensibly because, he says, he understands their medical care is not very good. Meanwhile, rural American healthcare languishes and degrades under Trump. This month Remote Area Medicine will offer a clinic in Fisherville, Virginia. That’s an hour and a half from Louisa, and where about 21 percent of folks in that Shenandoah congressional district are on Medicaid. Additional Remote Area Medical clinics in Virginia are also scheduled for Emporia (April), Luray (September), and Grundy (October). Welcome to Trump’s Golden Age.
This past September, following the passing of the Big Beautiful Bill, the Augusta Medical Group, which provides medical clinics in the Shenandoah Valley, announced the closure of three rural clinics: One urgent care and two primary care clinics. They blamed the closings and consolidation of services on Trump’s signature bill.
Trump’s promised golden era was supposed to be one with prosperity, no foreign wars, no regime changes. He is failing. On the other hand, he and his Epstein Class are living in a golden era. Trump has lined his pockets with gold and literally lined the White House walls with gold, putting his name on anything that can’t move. Meanwhile, everyday Americans suffer through stubborn inflations (it just grew again), unaffordable housing, low wage growth, and shrinking job opportunities.
He is detached from the suffering he has caused in America in general, and the carnage he is causing by his illegal and unjust war against Iran. He callously characterized the death of American servicemen as, “that’s the way things are.” As a reminder, he has a history of calling those who died in the service of our country “suckers.”
To hone this point about Trump’s disinterest, the other day when giving remarks at a Medal of Honor award ceremony, of all things, Trump drifted off point and began talking about the golden drapes behind him, saving money, and the magnificent ball room he is building. All about him as is his usual style. Americans and Iranians are dying, and he talks about is himself and the golden drapes?
Americans in November have an opportunity to change the trajectory of this country. Make our own regime change. A change of power in Congress is just the start, however. We can’t just pat ourselves on the back and say America is back. Our reputation is destroyed. No one trusts us, no one likes us, no one wishes us well, no one will come to our aid. We are the axis of evil.
Yet, we see the work of Remote Area Medicine, and if you squint your eyes, you can make out that embryo of American goodness. A country that once prided itself on the rule of law, civil society, volunteerism, fairness, and justice. We can reclaim that title, but we need to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work not for days, weeks, or months, but in the years and decades to follow.
