Ryan wants to cut helpful programs
Every family has ups and downs. The baby gets sick, parents divorce, a family member dies, a job is lost. We all know what it is like to go through a rough patch. Sometimes those rough patches are easily overcome. Other times it seems as if nothing is ever going to go right. It is in those times that we turn to neighbors, friends and family for support. But sometimes that support is not enough to cover the bills, pay the mortgage or put food on the table. Sometimes, families need a little extra help. Families like mine, who worked hard, but fell on tough times.
When I was 13, my dad suffered a severe stroke that left him disabled to this day. My dad was a salesman for an industrial pipe-and-valve distributor and he was also the primary breadwinner in my family. His stroke left my family in financial hardship. My mom, a homemaker, enrolled us on Wisconsin’s expanded Medicaid program, BadgerCare, and signed up me and my younger sister and brother for reduced-price lunches at school. Our neighbors left casseroles on our doorstep when they heard my dad could not work anymore. When the casseroles ran out and the fridge slowly emptied, those school lunches and our BadgerCare coverage provided wiggle room so that my parents could buy groceries and still pay the mortgage.
I have since left home, but my parents and sister still live in my childhood home, located squarely in House Speaker Paul Ryan’s congressional district. It is ironic given how Ryan is one of the chief architects of gutting Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. He is leading the charge to pull out the rug from thousands of Wisconsinites and millions of Americans when they need help the most.
These past two weeks, Congress has been in recess and constituents across the country have called on their representatives to protect the resources that help them when they need it most. Ryan spent his recess fund-raising and avoiding town halls. As speaker of the House, Ryan has the power to stand up for families when times get tough. But if his words are any indicator, he won’t do it. He cares more about padding the pockets of the uber wealthy and pandering to CEOs and corporations.
On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump promised to stick up for families like mine. Instead, Trump aligned himself to Ryan’s platform that rigs the rules against working families, guts the safety net and leaves us to deal with the heaping mess they create. Trump promised us he’d drain the swamp, but instead he decided to drain our health care and suck money out of safety net programs.
Thankfully, my family does not need BadgerCare or food assistance anymore. My mom eventually found a job that offered health insurance and my dad’s application for Social Security disability was finally approved. But I remember how those government resources helped my family. I want that same security for other families when they need it.
Maybe they went through a rough patch like mine, maybe they were born into a family that always struggles to make ends meet, maybe the factory where they worked closed down. The reason does not matter. They are everyday families who need help to get by and, like my neighbors who left casseroles on our doorstep after my dad’s stroke, I want to help my neighbors. My neighbors in California, Alabama, Florida, Wisconsin, New York, down the street from my parents, across the hall from my apartment, in red states, in blue states, in rural towns and big urban cities, we are all neighbors and I know we all do better when we all do better.
I am tired of GOP plans that claim to have a better way. We already know the way. We have safety net programs that work. They worked for my family and they work for countless others. Now is the time to bolster the safety net, not cut it. Now is the time to stand up for millions of Americans who need our help. Now is the time to tell Ryan and Trump to make a choice: Either stand up for families or get out of the way.
Tarah Walsh is a campaign project manager for the Center for Community Change, a national social justice organization. She was born and raised in Muskego and currently lives in Washington, D.C.