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TO THE EDITOR:
This letter is a partial response to Rep. Michelle Fischbach’s letter on July 16 as published by the Pipestone County Star. In that letter Rep. Fischbach touted the benefits of extending the tax cut passed in the first Trump administration. First, you are not getting additional tax cuts, with a few exceptions, as this was an extension of the tax code that was in place. The question is, will you benefit from this extension? In the interest of full disclosure, yes, I will, however as Dennis Fazio expressed in a recent Minnesota Star and Tribune article, “How do we invest federal funds and marshal available resources to benefit the most people and create the best society that everyone can thrive in?”
If you look at the long-term effects of this tax policy plus the long-term effects buried in this Big Beautiful Bill, you will soon realize that the top one percent of earners will benefit the most at the expense of the bottom fifty percent. To put this statement into context, most everyone living in Pipestone County is in the bottom fifty percent of income earners. How will this bill affect you?
One item buried in this bill is the reduction to the federal monies offsetting the cost of the Affordable Health Care Act. If you are self-employed or have insurance through this act, your premiums will increase. Estimates are from fifteen percent or more to as high as seventy-five percent.
Another political double speak is the “Rural Transformation Program.” Congress has cut one trillion dollars from Medicaid and this program allocates fifty billion dollars to offset the losses rural health care facilities are expected to lose because of the cuts. The math of this program does not add up. One trillion is one thousand billion so this leaves nine hundred fifty-billion-dollar short fall. This program is not a bail out of rural health care but a band aid on a major wound.
I could continue with many more examples of how this bill is not in the best interests of most people and is a poor example of not using federal resources to benefit most people. In fact, it is a great example of Michelle Fischbach being a reverse Robin Hood, taking from the poor and giving to the rich. We all want the same things, safety, security, love and happiness, however some of us just want it for other people too.
Myron Koets
DFL Chair Senate District 21
Pipestone