Opinion: Healthcare with ‘heart’? Don’t let children in pro-Trump areas suffer Medicaid cuts

To the editor: Big cities have their blight, violent crime, homelessness and lack of jobs. This is not good. These conditions must be resolved if we are to prosper as a great nation.

And now, under the latest healthcare proposal of the Republican Party, our rural areas and small towns like those in West Virginia are under attack by the very people to whom the voters there turned for help. (“Kids in pro-Trump rural areas have a lot to lose if GOP rolls back Medicaid,” July 6)

Children and their poor or under-employed parents who live in these rural areas face certain misery and loss under the GOP legislation that slashes Medicaid and deprives those most in need. If this is healthcare with a “heart,” as President Trump has said he wants the Republicans to offer, then spare me the details.

Can’t we abandon the crippling partisan politics that divide us, stop blaming President Obama for all the problems occurring on Trump’s watch, act responsibly and with compassion and get something smart done? If we can build and sustain a great military with advanced weaponry and put men in space, we can certainly agree on how to care for the most vulnerable and needy in our society — especially our beautiful children.

Bette Mason, Corona del Mar

..

To the editor: It should be obvious by now that Trump’s “strategy” on the healthcare bill is aimed at giving him the flexibility he would need to deny any responsibility for the end result. How else to explain the absence of any concrete healthcare proposals from the White House and his rapidly shifting positions on the House and Senate bills?

If the result is an improvement (which is unlikely in the absence of bipartisanship in Congress), Trump will claim credit. In the event of a disaster, which seems most likely now, he will blame Congress and try to pin it on the Democrats and moderates in his own party.

Is this leadership on the part of the president?

Michael Snare, San Diego

..

To the editor: One has to feel profoundly sorry for all those children in the various red states who, frankly, have been let down by their parents. What these areas around the country demonstrate is the pandemic level of civic and political illiteracy of too many voters.

For those of us who were really paying attention, it was clear that Trump was lying about protecting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. He was the Republican nominee for president, and his party has long wanted to gut or privatize these programs.

Trump is now acting in the “best” traditions of the party that nominated him.

Bob Teigan, Santa Susana, Calif.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook