It’s Time for Leaders to Lead

At a time when the news cycle is measured less in hours and more in rotations per minute, it’s easy to forget what happened months or even weeks ago, even though Congress passed one of the most consequential bills of this century on July 4.

I am referring, of course, to the so-called Big, Beautiful Bill, which seems to be fading from public consciousness. Here are a few of the most impactful ramifications of it:

1. It reduces federal Medicaid spending by $1 trillion over 10 years and will increase the number of uninsured people by an estimated 17 million, including 750,000 Georgians.
2. It strips rural and urban hospitals of $540 million in critical funding over the next 10 years, according to the American Hospital Association.
3. It makes historic cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which will cause 22.3 million families to lose some or all their SNAP benefits, including 1.4 million Georgians.

The debilitating cuts to Medicaid and SNAP are being made under the guise of “getting able-bodied Americans back to work,” which has always been conservatives’ cover for gutting safety nets. Let’s get the obvious out of the way here – if someone is physically and mentally capable of working (or going to school or training), then we should support them doing so, which Democrats and Republicans agree on. Where we differ, however, is on how to make that happen.

Some Republicans think that onerous paperwork, which inflates the size of the administrative state at the cost of millions of dollars, is the best route. They believe that there are countless people in this country who are lazy, sitting on their couch and living a life of luxury on Medicaid and SNAP, and the only way to incentivize working is to threaten access to basic nutrition and medical care. Democrats, meanwhile, assume the radical position that finding a good job or getting a good education is a little easier with food in your stomach and when you’re not bankrupt from a primary care visit.

This myth of the “welfare queen” is about to cause unprecedented damage to the people of Georgia. Our state is expected to lose a huge chunk in Medicaid funding every year, which will hit rural residents hardest of all. Similarly, Georgia could be on the hook for $480 million every year to pay for SNAP benefits.

While it’s clear that Republicans on Capitol Hill, including our own representatives, are unconcerned with millions of people in our state losing access to critical programs that keep them alive, our leaders here have the opportunity to do something different. They are well aware of the strain our state is about to face, with Gov. Brian Kemp ordering state agencies to freeze spending at current levels and House Speaker Jon Burns telling Channel 2’s Richard Elliot that “there will be challenges here, there’s no doubt about it.”

While the most draconian cuts to Medicaid and SNAP are still a year or two away, Georgia has already been impacted by indiscriminate cuts to our university system, research institutions, nonprofit organizations and the federal workforce.

In other words, we are already feeling some pain but the worst of it is yet to come, absent action. Georgia is sitting on over $15 billion in reserve funds, which could easily offset some, if not all, of the cuts that are coming without jeopardizing the state’s financial stability. We could also decrease or eliminate the threatened federal cuts to SNAP by investing in staffing and modernizing the Georgia Department of Human Services, which would pay dividends in countless other ways as well.

Now would also be a good time for state legislators to revisit the ongoing cuts to the Georgia income tax rate, which so far have almost exclusively benefitted the wealthiest Georgians while yanking hundreds of millions of dollars from state revenue every year. Even increasing the rate by 0.2% would be nearly enough to offset Medicaid cuts and keep rural hospitals open all by itself. For a family making $100,000, which would put you in the top 40% of all Georgia households, such an increase would cost about $17 more per month.

We have a simple choice in front of us – do we allow millions of Georgians, including hundreds of thousands of children, to go sick and hungry, or are we better than that? Congress is shoving a poison pill down our throats, but we have an antidote.

We just have to take it. 

Tharon Johnson can be seen Sunday mornings on The Georgia Gang on Fox 5 Atlanta. He received a Green Eyeshade award for journalism in 2023.