This is an adapted excerpt from the Sept. 22 episode of “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
If you live in Virginia, here’s a headline you may have seen recently from the Richmond Times-Dispatch: “Three Va. health clinics close as Trump tax law squeezes system.”
Residents of Virginia’s rural Shenandoah Valley region are about to lose not one, not two, but three of their local health care centers. All three of those centers are run by a hospital organization called Augusta Health.
In a statement announcing these closures, the group said that the decision was “part of Augusta Health’s ongoing response to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the resulting realities for healthcare delivery.”
In other words, if you live in rural Virginia and are wondering why you no longer have access to a local health care facility, you can thank President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress for gutting health care funding in their one and only piece of major legislation.
The executive director of Virginia’s Republican Party was asked about those cuts by CNN. He told them the closure of those three rural health care centers is “a win for rural communities,” because now residents will be able to get “better, more consistent” service elsewhere — meaning, not where they live.
Sure, why not? Nothing says “winning” like losing access to the only clinic for miles around in your rural community.
That kind of absolutely tone-deaf, callous response from Virginia Republicans would be strange in normal times. But it is an especially strange thing to hear from them at this important moment.
On Friday, early voting officially began in Virginia’s high-stakes race for governor. Right now, Republicans in Virginia control the governor’s mansion, but recent polls show Democratic candidate former Rep. Abigail Spanberger leading her opponent, Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, by as much as 12 points.
Republicans are swimming upstream in this election, voting is already underway — and now the Virginia Republican Party is telling rural voters who just lost access to health care, “Yeah, we did that, and you should be grateful.”
Election Day is six weeks from Tuesday in Virginia. Watch this space.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
