'Attack on rural America': Kentucky governor hits Medicaid cuts in Trump's megabill

'Attack on rural America': Kentucky governor hits Medicaid cuts in Trump's megabill

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshearargued the Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump's sweeping tax policy bill will have a "devastating" impact on rural communities. "It's the single worst piece of legislation I've seen in my lifetime, and it is a congressional Republican and presidential attack on rural America," the Democrat told CNN's Dana Bash in a July 6 interview on "State of the Union." He said around 200,000 people in Kentucky arecould lose their healthcareunder the bill, which implements new work requirements for Medicaid and a raft of other restrictions that healthcare experts argue willtrigger hospital closuresin rural areas. Lawmakers included a $50 billion fund in the legislation to prop up these hospitals, but experts say itwon't be enoughto make up for the $155 billion expected decline in federal Medicaid spending in rural areas. Beshear, who is considered a potential presidential candidate for the party in 2028, said up to 35 rural hospitals in Kentucky could be at risk of closing as a result of the bill. "What that means is our economy takes a huge hit," he said. "You lose 200 jobs from doctors and nurses and orderlies and all of a sudden the coffee shop does worse, the bank doesn't have as many folks coming in. This is going to hit rural America right in the face." Still, Republicans have argued that the biggest expected cut to Medicaid – the implementation of work requirements for able-bodied adults – is popular among voters, and other changes such as more frequent eligibility checks are common sense options. Democrats "unfortunately seem to think that poor people are stupid. I don't think poor people are stupid. I think they have agency, and I think to have them register twice a year for these benefits is not a burden," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said on CNN on July 6. "People who want to infantilize the poor and people who need these Medicaid benefits are alarmist." Republicans in Congress passed themassive tax-cut and spending packageon July 3. Trumpsigned it into lawon July 4. It was thekey goalfor Trump and Republican leadership in Congress, whichcaptured a trifecta during the 2024 electionsand has used that political muscle to force what they've dubbed their"One Big, Beautiful Bill"through both chambers at a rapid-fire pace. The passage came despite deep reservations within their own party and unanimous opposition from Democrats who see it as a ticket towinning back congressional majoritiesin 2026. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Beshear calls Trump's Medicaid cuts an 'attack on rural America'

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July 07, 2025

'Attack on rural America': Kentucky governor hits Medicaid cuts in Trump's megabill

'Attack on rural America': Kentucky governor hits Medicaid cuts in Trump's megabill Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshearargued the Medicai...

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Scott on accusations that Trump is ‘too easy’ on Putin: ‘Hogwash’

Scott on accusations that Trump is 'too easy' on Putin: 'Hogwash'

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) rejected concerns that President Trump is going "too easy" on Russian President Vladimir Putin, as the White House works to broker a ceasefire between the Kremlin and Ukraine. In an interview on "Fox News Sunday," anchor Shannon Bream asked the senator, who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, about criticism from a French news outlet over the Pentagon'spause on some deliveriesof air defense missiles and munitions to Ukraine. Bream quoted the outlet, which reported, "The White House not only halted a planned shipment of arms to Kyiv, it deliberately bypassed existing sanctions to offer economic relief to Russia's nuclear giant Rosatom." Bream added: "What do you make of this accusation that President Trump has made things too easy on President Putin? Can he, should he, make things tougher?" "Well, Shannon, the only word I can think of is hogwash," Scott replied, noting that Trump's predecessors — former Presidents Obama and Biden — took actions that "set President Trump up in a poor posture." "President Trump has done what he has always done, which is to focus on solutions and looking for ways to end the conflict," Scott continued. "We just heard him say Putin is killing thousands of people unnecessary." "That's why he's been in constant communication, trying to de-escalate the situation. And at the same time, having Secretary Hegseth focus on our responsibility of keeping Americans safe here at home and abroad," he added. Asked whether this is the best time to be withholding weapons deliveries to Ukraine —noting it appears Putin has taken the pause as an opportunity to scale up attacks on Ukraine — Scott said he has complete confidence in Trump's ability to navigate the situation. "There's no doubt that President Trump can be trusted on solving some of the major conflicts around the world," Scott said, pointing to progress in Gaza peace talks and his strikes on Iran. Scott also said he expects weapons shipments to resume following the Pentagon's review. "I trust President Trump to get the job done. That means that we start here at home. The level of escalation around the world requires Secretary Hegseth to take a look at our weaponry and make sure we're prepared for defense," he said. "I believe that after that time has elapsed, that we go back to providing the resources necessary," Scott added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

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July 07, 2025

Scott on accusations that Trump is ‘too easy’ on Putin: ‘Hogwash’

Scott on accusations that Trump is 'too easy' on Putin: 'Hogwash' Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) rejected concerns that President T...

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Trump says Musk is ‘off the rails’ and calls his new political party ‘ridiculous’

Trump says Musk is 'off the rails' and calls his new political party 'ridiculous'

Donald TrumpcalledElon Musk's decision to start and bankroll a new US political party "ridiculous" on Sunday. "Third parties have never worked, so he can have fun with it but I think it's ridiculous," the president told reporters traveling with him back to the White House from his New Jersey golf club. He then elaborated, at great length, ina poston his social media platform, Truth Social. "I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely 'off the rails,' essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks," the president wrote. "He even wants to start a Third Political Party, despite the fact that they have never succeeded in the United States". "The one thing Third Parties are good for is the creation of Complete and Total DISRUPTION & CHAOS," Trump added. He then went on to claim that Musk was motivated by discontent over his plan to end subsidies to promote the purchase of electric vehicles. Trump also accused Musk of seeking improper influence by asking the president to nominate his friend, Jared Isaacman, to be Nasa administrator. After Musk left his role as a special government employee in the Trump administration, Isaacman's nomination was withdrawn. "I also thought it inappropriate that a very close friend of Elon, who was in the Space Business, run NASA, when NASA is such a big part of Elon's corporate life," Trump wrote. Related:Elon Musk's 'America' party could focus on a few pivotal congressional seats Earlier on Sunday, Trump's treasury secretary saidMuskshould focus on running his companies and keep himself out of politics, a day after the world's richest person – and a former White House adviser – announced theformation of a new political party. "The principles of Doge were very popular – I think if you looked at the polling Elon was not," Scott Bessent said on CNN's State of the Union, referring to the so-called "department of government efficiency" that Musktemporarily headedafter Trump's second presidency began in January. Opinion polls found Doge and Musk's work implementing brutal spending and job cuts within the federal government to bedeeply unpopular. And Bessent alluded to how investors in Musk's companies – including the electrical vehicle maker Tesla, whosesaleshave sufferedduring Doge's existence – publicly pleaded for his time with the Trump administration to be short-lived. "So I believe that the boards of directors at his various companies wanted him to come back and run those companies," Bessent remarked. "I imagine that those boards of directors did not like this announcement yesterday, and will be encouraging him to focus on his business activities, not his political activities." Bessent's reaction came after Musk delivered on his promise to form a new party, and accused his one-time ally Trump of "bankrupting" the country by signing his massive tax and spending bill into law. The tech billionaireannouncedthe creation of the America party in a series of posts late on Saturday and early Sunday to X, the social media platform he owns. "When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,"he wrote. "Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom." Musk, who was appointed to slash federal spending through the unofficial Doge from January through May, has been avocalcriticof Trump's "big, beautiful bill" that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said wouldincrease the national deficitby $3.3tn (£2.85tn) through 2034. It provides substantial tax cuts for the super wealthy whileslashing federal safety net welfareprograms, with up to 10.6 million people losing healthcare insurance. The pair have feuded over its cost and impacts since Muskleft the governmentin May, and on Friday, when Trumpsignedthe bill into law in a Fourth of July picnic at the White House, the Tesla and SpaceX chief opened apoll on X: "the perfect time to ask if you want independence from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system". Respondents voted two to one in the affirmative, Musk announced late on Saturday. He gave few details about the structure of his new venture or a timeline for its creation. But his earlier posts suggested it would focus on two or three Senate seats, and eight to 10 House districts. Both chambers of Congress are narrowly controlled by Republicans. "Given the razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people," Musksaid. Bessent was one Trump ally to quickly take a swipe at Musk's move. Musk's series of posts to X, which continued into the early hours of Sunday, also appeared to indicate that his on-again, off-again relationship with Trump was firmly back in negative territory. When the pair fell out earlier in the summer, Musk lashed out during anastonishing social media duelin which he stated Trump's name was in the files relating to associates of the late pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Musk later deleted the post andapologized to the presidentas they embarked on an uneasy truce. On Sunday, however, Musk returned to the subject, reposting a photo of the jailed Epstein facilitator Ghislaine Maxwell that questioned why she was the only person in prison while men who engaged in sex with underage girls – a crime colloquially known in the US as statutory rape – were not. In other posts he said it would be "not hard" to break the two-party stranglehold in US politics enjoyed by Democrats and Republicans. And he questioned "when & where should we hold the inaugural American Party congress? This will be super fun!" Related:If the US president threatens to take away freedoms, are we no longer free? Trump has made clear his feelings about his former friend in recent days after criticism of the bill. In response to Musk's posts calling the bill "insane", Trump said he might"look into" deportingthe South African-born, naturalized US citizen billionaire. The president also mused about slashing subsidies to his companies, especially SpaceX, which holds billions of dollars ingovernment contracts. "Doge is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn't that be terrible?" Trump asked reporters on Tuesday. There is no requirement for new political parties in the US to register with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) initially, butreporting regulations kick inonce spending surpasses what the FEC calls "certain thresholds". Musk is estimated to have spent more than $275m of his personal fortune helping to get Trump elected to a second term in the White House in last November's presidential election.

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July 07, 2025

Trump says Musk is ‘off the rails’ and calls his new political party ‘ridiculous’

Trump says Musk is 'off the rails' and calls his new political party 'ridiculous' Donald TrumpcalledElon Musk's decision...

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Rare trial to begin in challenge to Trump-backed deportations of pro-Palestinian campus activists

Rare trial to begin in challenge to Trump-backed deportations of pro-Palestinian campus activists

By Nate Raymond BOSTON (Reuters) -Groups representing U.S. university professors seeking to protect international students and faculty who engage in pro-Palestinian advocacy from being deported are set to do what no other litigants challenging the Trump administration's hardline immigration agenda have done so far: Take it to trial. A two-week non-jury trial in the professors' case scheduled to kick off on Monday in Boston marks a rarity in the hundreds of lawsuits that have been filed nationally challenging Republican President Donald Trump's efforts to carry out mass deportations, slash spending and reshape the federal government. In many of those cases, judges have issued quick rulings early on in the proceedings without any witnesses being called to testify. But U.S. District Judge William Young in keeping with his long-standing practice instead ordered a trial in the professors' case, saying it was the "best way to get at truth." The lawsuit was filed in March after immigration authorities arrested recent Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, the first target of Trump's effort to deport non-citizen students with pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel views. Since then, the administration has canceled the visas of hundreds of other students and scholars and ordered the arrest of some, including Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student who was taken into custody by masked and plainclothes agents after co-writing an opinion piece criticizing her school's response to Israel's war in Gaza. In their cases and others, judges have ordered the release of students detained by immigration authorities after they argued the administration retaliated against them for their pro-Palestinian advocacy in violation of the free speech guarantees of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. Their arrests form the basis of the case before Young, which was filed by the American Association of University Professors and its chapters at Harvard, Rutgers and New York University, and the Middle East Studies Association. They allege the State Department and Department of Homeland Security adopted a policy of revoking visas for non-citizen students and faculty who engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy and arresting, detaining and deporting them as well. That policy, they say, was adopted after Trump signed executive orders in January directing the agencies to protect Americans from non-citizens who "espouse hateful ideology" and to "vigorously" combat anti-Semitism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in late March said he had revoked more than 300 visas and warned that the Trump administration was looking every day for "these lunatics." The goal, the plaintiffs say, has been to suppress the types of protests that have roiled college campuses after Israel launched its war in Gaza following the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023. Trump administration officials have frequently spoken about the efforts to target student protesters for visa revocations. Yet in court, the administration has defended itself by arguing the plaintiffs are challenging a deportation policy that does not exist and cannot point to any statute, rule, regulation or directive codifying it. "We don't deport people based on ideology," Homeland Security Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem "has made it clear that anyone who thinks they can come to America and hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for anti-American and anti-Semitic violence and terrorism - think again. You are not welcome here," McLaughlin said. The trial will determine whether the administration has violated the plaintiffs' First Amendment free speech rights. If Young concludes it has, he will determine a remedy in a second phase of the case. Young has described the lawsuit as "an important free speech case" and said that as alleged in the plaintiffs' complaint, "it is hard to imagine a policy more focused on intimidating its targets from practicing protected political speech." The case is the second Trump-era legal challenge so far that has gone to trial before Young, an 84-year-old appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan. While other Trump-era cases have been resolved through motions and arguments in court, the veteran jurist has long espoused the value of trials and in a recent order lamented the "virtual abandonment by the federal judiciary of any sense that its fact-finding processes are exceptional. Young last month after another non-jury trial delivered civil rights advocates and Democratic-led states a win by ordering the reinstatement of hundreds of National Institutes of Health research grants that were unlawfully terminated because of their perceived promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Marguerita Choy)

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July 07, 2025

Rare trial to begin in challenge to Trump-backed deportations of pro-Palestinian campus activists

Rare trial to begin in challenge to Trump-backed deportations of pro-Palestinian campus activists By Nate Raymond BOSTON (Reuters) -Groups r...

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Daily Briefing: Devastation at Camp Mystic

Daily Briefing: Devastation at Camp Mystic

Good morning!🙋🏼‍♀️ I'mNicole Fallert. I just wanna to be heldlike this golden retriever. Search and rescue effortspress onward in central Texasfollowing a deadly flash flood. Will tariff deals with foreign trade partnersactually happen? About 39 million Americansdon't use AC. Authorities continue a desperate search to find missing people after historic flash floods swept across central Texas — including 10 children from Camp Mystic, an all-girls camp. The death toll rises as forecasters warn of more rain:State and local authorities said at least 81 people have died in flooding triggered by unrelenting rain Thursday night into Friday. What happened at Camp Mystic?Anguished parentsawait updates on the children still missingfrom a 99-year-old nondenominational Christian summer camp caught in the deluge. Warnings for the flooding came with little time to act.The hilly terrain and the trickiness of predicting flash floods made forecasting – and alerting communities along the Guadalupe River in real time –particularly challenging. How bad was the flooding and is the weather expected to get worse?The gauge on the Guadalupe River near Kerrville surged from less than two feet to more than 34 feet in just over an hour on July 4. On Sunday, forecasters expected several more inches of rain andwarned of additional floodingand a worsening of conditions on the ground. 🤝Here's how to helpin the aftermath of the Texas flooding. ~ Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear argued in a Sunday interview the Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump's sweeping tax policy billwill have a "devastating" impact on rural communities. Will Trump's billcome back to haunt Republicans? Here aresome of the most impactful partsof the bill for your finances and daily life. States that spend on border securityjust got a$10 billion payday. Many Americans assume Medicare will cover their long term care.That might not be true. Thousands of Haitian immigrants living in Ohioon Temporary Protected Status aremaking plans to leavethe country. New aerial photosof the "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration detention centershow detainees in Miami. Trump slammed Muskafter the billionaire announceda new political party. Measles caseshit a significant benchmark. Whendo 2025 AP scorescome out? What's the weather today?Check your local forecast here. The United States is close to clinching several trade deals ahead of a July 9 deadline when higher tariffs were due to kick in, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, predicting several big announcements in coming days. Bessent told CNN's "State of the Union" that President Donald Trump would also send out letters to 100 smaller countries with whom the U.S. doesn't have much trade, notifying them that they would face higher tariff rates first set on April 2 and then suspended until July 9 by the start of next month.See wheretrade agreements stand now. Roughly 12% of Americans don't use AC, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. While many can't afford it or don't need it because they live in cooler climates, others choose to forgo air conditioning to lower their carbon footprint. Residential energy use, which includes cooling, heating and powering homes, accounts for roughly 20% of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., experts say, and many Americans are switching their AC "off" to do better for the planet.Here's howgiving up AC could break the "vicious cycle" of climate change. Charlize Theroncan't waitto turn 50. Maybe don't trya coffee enema. We're reachingfor acomfort read. Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abramsare having a"hard launch summer." Here's whyyou shouldeat more cantaloupethis summer. The 2025 Prime Day sale officially begins on Tuesday, July 8, but the early deals are already alive and well. If you're eager to get a head start on summer savings, you don't have to wait. Seriously, you can find our favorite mini chainsaw for less than $40, get an incredibly popular Dell laptop for 73% off and even save a few bucks on a funky sun hat with built-in fans.From smart home gadgets and kitchen appliances to travel gear and tech upgrades,these early dealsare packed with value. The United States entered Wimbledon 2025 with its largest combined contingent of singles players since 1999. There are four Americans remaining in the Wimbledon draw, and none of them have won a major.Emma Navarro and Ben Sheltonare each set to playMonday. Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY,sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Texas flood, Camp Mystic, Trump bill, tariff, heat, weather, Prime Day, Wimbledon: Daily Briefing

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July 07, 2025

Daily Briefing: Devastation at Camp Mystic

Daily Briefing: Devastation at Camp Mystic Good morning!🙋🏼‍♀️ I'mNicole Fallert. I just wanna to be heldlike this golden retriever. Se...

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