Just this week, I saw a video that captured one of Colorado’s elected US representatives, Republican Rep. Gabe Evans, happily dodging questions about the huge Medicaid cuts he supported with his vote for President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” I found it especially offensive because I’ve always thought of the US House of Representatives and the people elected to serve there as having a constitutional duty to actually represent. Running away from questions about your vote that will injure one-third of the people you are elected to represent is cowardice.

While Gabe Evans described his vote for Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” (and the Medicaid cuts it included) as “cost saving” during another video, the lives in his district damaged by horrific Medicaid cuts have value far beyond the bottom line. They are his constituents, his neighbors, his friends—the disabled, children, seniors, pregnant women, veterans. Evans’ disregard for the suffering caused by his actions—his vote—is cowardly.

Then I started to wonder if Republican US House members from Colorado are trained to dodge questions and avoid accountability. Some will remember a decade ago when Rep. Mike Coffman ducked out of a town meeting at the local library because 150 of his constituents showed up to ask questions about—guess what?—healthcare and losing coverage. Coffman is now the mayor of Aurora, Colorado—the third largest city in Colorado. It seems cowardice runs in his Republican extended family as hurting people in your own community—town, city, county, state, nation—is not in any oath of office he has taken in a long political career.

Wondering what happened to some of our leaders to create this sense of power devoid of compassion toward the most vulnerable people in our communities? I wonder. How does a person divorce themselves from the reality that a vote that cuts healthcare access is barbaric and people will suffer? Maintaining program integrity would surely have included keeping people covered who need the healthcare social safety net the most. When fraud and abuse in the Medicaid program is uncovered, it is almost always for-profit providers at the core of greedy schemes, yet it is the Medicaid-covered individuals whose integrity is sullied, not........

© Common Dreams