To the editor:

The “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed in July over the objections of most Democratic legislators, was championed by their Republican colleagues. The bill was careful to include generous tax breaks for huge corporations and the wealthy, while it paid less attention to the consequences of their trillion-dollar cut to Medicaid. It also failed to include an extension of the soon-to-expire tax credits, supporting access to the Affordable Care Act marketplace for health care insurance.

Our government has been shut down since Oct. 1 over these cuts, Democratic senators refusing to sign the continuing resolution unless these cuts are restored.

Our Republican legislators in Kansas have shown impatience, criticizing Democratic senators for not signing a “clean” continuing resolution, keeping the government running while promising to address health care when the government reopens. But there is little trust between parties. Democrats are doubtful.

Republican legislators label the Democrats’ demands as “pandering to their radical left base.” Is widespread health care coverage radical? Is it not radical to rob the poor while enriching the wealthy?

In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, can we not find the resources to provide health care for our citizens? After all, didn’t President Trump just weeks ago find $20 billion to influence the legislative elections in Argentina, bailing out its president whose popularity plummeted, ironically, after his gutting of vital social programs?

Surely with some imagination and a little compassion, solutions can be found that will not leave our poor and disabled in the dust.

Muriel Cohan,

Lawrence