Good news: John McGuire cares about people losing their benefits
Sometimes he even does something about it! But mostly not.
Yesterday, John McGuire sent out a newsletter expressing concern about how the government shutdown is hurting the most vulnerable members of VA-05:
This week, I met with leaders from local food banks and rural hospitals to discuss how the shutdown is affecting the most vulnerable members of our communities.
There’s no question that the shutdown is causing a lot of hardship, and it’s going to get worse. Personally, I’m torn about whether and how long Democrats should keep it going. And our local food pantries and rural hospitals need all the support they can get, whether there’s a shutdown or not.
But it’s richer than cheesecake for McGuire to fret about vulnerable constituents while opposing tax credits that help them buy health insurance. As I wrote earlier this week, if those tax credits expire, monthly premiums will double or even triple for 37,000 of our neighbors.
And that’s not the only one of his policies that harms vulnerable people. Since taking office, McGuire has been in favor of:
leaving 160,000 of his constituents on Medicaid with worse health insurance or none at all
cutting SNAP for 27,000 veterans in Virginia
eliminating Head Start for 1,200 kids in VA-05
cutting free or subsidized school meals for 50,000 students in our district
putting 10,000 constituents’ jobs on the chopping block because they work for the federal government
allowing 1.6 million children in poor countries to die in the next five years because the administration doesn’t want to pay for vaccines and bed nets anymore
burning 500 tons of food aid overseas because the administration was too incompetent to distribute it
weakening our ability to predict deadly storms
The thing is, I have no trouble believing that McGuire genuinely cares about vulnerable families. As someone who spent time in the foster system as a kid, he surely knows what it feels like to be at fate’s mercy. But I can’t square that with the impact of the positions he’s taking. Is it possible to be that ignorant of the harm he’s doing to his constituents?
You can email McGuire or call his DC office at (202) 225-4711.
Help me connect with the folks running in VA-05 next year
I’m interested in doing Q&As with anyone who’ll be running in the congressional primary next year. That includes the Democrats who’ve signed up as well as any Republicans who get into the race, including McGuire himself.
But no one’s heard of me and they’re not likely to jump at the chance to answer an email that comes in over the transom from a guy whose hobby involves sitting in his basement banging out Substacks. So if you’ve got a connection to any of the campaigns, email me at boot@watchmanva5.com.
-Boot