Readers Write: The Big Beautiful Bill, rural politics

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

The Big Beautiful Belligerent finally browbeat his Big Beautiful Bevy of loyal congressional subjects into rubber stamping his Big Beautiful Bill. While this will likely be a Big Beautiful Bonanza for President Donald Trump’s billionaire friends, it is also likely to lead to the Big Bad Bankruptcy of many rural health providers and the poor folks who will lose their only affordable health coverage. Equally bad, the Big Beautiful Bill’s gutting of climate legislation will likely lead to increasingly Big Bad Boiling oceans that continue to fuel atmospheric catastrophes, further harming those least able to cope with the inevitable destruction.

Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder.

Jeff Dols, Inver Grove Heights

•••

A Washington Post article reprinted in the Star Tribune (“Social Security email raises eyebrows,” July 6) held the Social Security Administration accountable for a less-than-accurate email stating the Big Beautiful Bill eliminated federal income taxes on Social Security benefits.

Worth reporting, but the real offense was buried 11 paragraphs deep. A former SSA official was quoted describing the email as overly political. Indeed! The opening line said, “The Social Security Administration (SSA) is celebrating the passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill.” The email clearly took sides: “[T]his legislation reaffirms President Trump’s promise to protect Social Security.”

Oh, there is one more problem. The email was sent to millions of Americans on July 3, immediately after the bill was passed and before the president signed it.

You might think that the Social Security Administration was a nonpartisan bureau serving Americans. Nope. It is now part of the Deep Trump State.

J Fonkert, Roseville

•••

With the signing of the Big Beautiful Bill, Trump has revealed his “concepts of a plan” for health care. It includes an estimated $1 trillion cut to Medicaid, which will mean an estimated 11.8 million people could lose their health insurance and also result in the closing of many rural hospitals (despite the $50 billion slush fund to soften this blow to hospitals that many analysts say is simply not enough). Other changes include new regulations that would dramatically limit access to Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage and expiring enhanced ACA tax credits. Add to this the significant cuts to SNAP that support 40 million low-income people and will leave them even more food-insecure (a dynamic that has its own negative impact on the health and well-being of families).

It’s not quite the “concepts of a plan” for health care that I had envisioned when he promised, on the campaign trail, that his “concepts” would be even better than what our country already had. But, I guess if you are rich enough to afford your own health care (or get it through your presidential or congressional plan), the thought of the loss of health care by others isn’t really a very big concern.

Jerry Friest, Eagan

•••

Though there’s much to regret about the passage of Trump’s Big Awful Bill (“Minnesotans mixed on Trump’s bill,” July 4) — devastating cuts to SNAP, Medicaid and green-energy incentives, for starters — there was this brighter moment reported in the Minnesota Star Tribune. GOP Rep. Pete Stauber had championed a section of the bill that would have stripped the Superior National Forest of a Biden-era mining moratorium and paved the way for potentially disastrous sulfide mining development, such as a project in Hoyt Lakes by Twin Metals — a subsidiary of Antofagasta, a Chilean mining company frequently investigated for corruption. But DFL Sen. Tina Smith successfully thwarted Stauber’s move to include mining in the budget bill, arguing that the provision was against the Byrd Rule, which says, according to the Star Tribune story, “if a measure’s budgetary impact is not significant, it doesn’t belong in a budget reconciliation bill.”

This is the stuff that Smith is made of. Throughout her tenure in the Senate, even if a bill is moving forward that she’s unhappy with, she will work the edges to weed out whatever deleterious parts she can. Or, she will negotiate to include provisions that will benefit the people of Minnesota. She has lived up to the nickname that Minnesota lawmakers coined for her years ago — the “Velvet Hammer” — by consistently being a strategic negotiator and bold advocate on behalf of our state.

As she has chosen not to run for re-election, one can only hope that we will elect a senator with the same dedication, tenacity, honesty and sincerity.

Lisa Wersal, Vadnais Heights

What is more wonderful on the Fourth of July than a patriotic parade in a small town in rural Minnesota? Having a cabin just south of Moose Lake, we eagerly looked forward to enjoying what this small town offered every year. However, for us, celebrating this year meant marching with Indivisible, a local group that shares our deep concern about the damage done already to our nation by the current administration. We did not know what to expect — this is, after all, basically red greater Minnesota, right?

Not so fast. As we marched through town, following a model of Lady Liberty, handing out small flags to children and holding signs that said “Liberty and justice for ALL” and “This is what democracy looks like!” I expected some pushback. And yes, a few — and truly, only a few — parade-watchers yelled “MAGA, MAGA, MAGA” or chanted our president’s name. Many of the others let us pass with Minnesota Nice-style silence. But I was truly startled to see that on every block — in Moose Lake, Carlton County! — a cluster of people, or even a whole line of folks along the street, loudly clapped, cheered, wished us well or thanked us for standing up for what they also believed. We did not hear such cheering for any of the other groups marching.

Hope — and the belief that we are better than what is happening in our name — is alive and well in greater Minnesota. We were proud to stand up for that belief, and cheered to see how many agreed with us, on this most patriotic of American national holidays.

Jane Dresser, Woodbury

•••

I was having dinner recently with a group of family members, ranging in age from 11 to mid-70s. A gentleman on the older end of the spectrum was expostulating at some length about all of the horrors to be visited upon America and her people, effective yesterday. At some point, I said to him, “There’s an 11-year-old child present. Don’t be saying scary things about the future. The future is what we make it.”

Yeah, right. “What kind of a Pollyanna is this guy?” you’re asking.

Well, as I write this, it’s the Fourth, and our little village is having its annual festivities, replete with a children’s parade, where the kids all decorate their bikes and ride in the street. I’m retired, and walking up to the corner for a cup of coffee is pretty much my social life. There’s always a good crowd there, lots of young families and a few of my fellow retirees. Today was off the charts, though. Thousands of people of all ages, races, genders and orientations (yes, even little villages in America tend to be pretty diverse these days). A few Trump T-shirts, a few Harris-Walz. But mostly just a sea of red, white and blue. And knowing my neighbors as I do, I’m pretty confident that the entire political spectrum was represented.

Where I live, we’re a politically diverse community. Before my wife and I moved here, I looked at presidential voting going back 20 years. It was 50-50. Straight up the middle. I can also tell you that we make that work really well on a day-to-day basis. I count among my close friends progressives, conservatives, Democrats, Republicans and some folks who don’t seem to care too much one way or another. It’s kind of a truism that small-town folks get along with their neighbors because they have to, and there may be something to that. But I’d like to think that anyone can master the art of leaving politics “at the office,” so to speak. Why not give it a try?

Dan Beck, Lake Elmo