“Plenty of poor people”

The News-Gazette (Champaign-Urbana, IL) is hardly known for progressive politics. But here’s Tom Kacich, a News-Gazette editor and columnist, writing about the harm Mary Miller’s vote in favor of the House Republican budget resolution will do to her district:

The resolution, she noted, will include “$4.5 trillion in tax cuts and $2 trillion in spending cuts.”

All those cuts would hurt the poor and mostly benefit the wealthy, contend Democrats and economists. And there are plenty of poor people in Miller’s sprawling 15th Congressional District in central Illinois. But Miller, a Trump acolyte, is all-in on this 2025 version of trickle-down economics....

Budget analysts say the spending cuts — which have not been detailed — will have to include lacerating the Medicaid program that provides health care for lower-income Americans. In Illinois, that’s 3.6 million people, or about a quarter of the state’s population. In Miller’s district, it’s about 180,000 people, or about 24 percent of the population. Even in the Douglas County village where Miller lives, about 14 percent of the 708 residents are on Medicaid.

Nearly a quarter of the population. I thought it was nearly a fifth. No one corrected me when I called the local office and cited that figure.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)