Rep. Edwards talks the party line
To the Editor:
Recently three Haywood County citizens long involved in issues of public concern met with Congressman Chuck Edwards at his office in Hendersonville. Issues focused on were SNAP, medical insurance, research cuts and the federal match for Medicaid payments to hospitals and nursing homes.
We were not surprised that the congressman repeated talking points heard from President Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson: they were holding back SNAP funds — food for 45 million people (7,000-plus in Haywood County) because Democrats wouldn’t return to their seats in Congress, refusing to ignore the needs of the American people by accepting Trump’s Big Bad Bill.
The price Republicans demand is cancellation of the Affordable Care Act tax credits that make health care affordable for millions, including 5,500 in Haywood County, and the acceptance of up to $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid.
There is a $5 billion fund set aside for SNAP emergencies. So far Edwards and the rest of the Republicans have refused to tap into it even though all SNAP funding may stopped Nov. 1. How cruel! Thank you, Gov. Josh Stein and Attorney General Jeff Jackson, for joining 25 other states suing the U.S. government and demanding funds be released so families can eat!
[Editor’s note: the USDA was ordered to exhaust its $5 billion contingency fund to provide 50% benefits to all SNAP users for November.]
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Haywood Christian Ministry delivered over one million pounds of food last year. Blake Hart, executive director, estimated that as SNAP funding is choked off, the demand for food from agencies like his will skyrocket. In his experienced judgment, there is no way churches and other charities can handle this. Even though there may be no food stamps, Nov. 1, all Edwards offered was to blame the Democrats. The threat of withholding food from families in need to force Democrat members of Congress to cancel health care for many of the same families can only be described as extortion.
Edwards also disregards the warning of the Congressional Budget Office — which he himself uses as an authority — that the Big Beautiful Bill will increase the U.S. deficit by several billion dollars. Enormous tax breaks for millionaires, oil companies and other corporate powers have been extended, while the much smaller tax credits needed for ACA premiums are to be eliminated, and emergency funds for food were being held for ransom.
As for hospitals and nursing homes, following the blueprint in Project 2025 — which Donald Trump falsely says he never heard of, yet he puts its author Russell Vought in charge of the economy — the federal share of hospital and nursing home costs through Medicaid will be whittled down every year as part of the trillion dollar beheading of Medicaid.
Lisa Leatherwood ran the largest nursing home in Haywood County for many years. She fears that even sooner than the 10-year administration goal, many hospitals and nursing homes will close, leaving millions of seniors and sick people out in the cold.
Edwards was angry and insisted that Trump and the BBB did not cut childhood brain cancer research. Dr. Stephen Wall worked in the Children’s Cancer Division of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, on the research team that helped cure childhood leukemia. He reported that by order of Trump and the 2025 Project, almost half of all funding of the National Institute of Health and the National Cancer Institute will be terminated. Four billion dollars that fund critical cancer research projects — including childhood brain cancers — will be crippled. Dr. Wall offered to send the details to Edwards, who did not seem interested.
An interesting and troubling visit.
Lisa Leatherwood
Blake Hart
Stephen Wall
Haywood County residents
