While closing the government may seem a national rather than a local issue, to Rogue Valley residents, it is clearly a local issue.  The Republicans, rather than engaging in negotiations with Democrats who are seeking to protect Oregonians from devastating health care consequences,  are undermining Medicaid and Medicare that support rural Oregonians. This includes residents of the Congressional District of Cliff Bentz. Trump and Republicans gleefully shut down our government. This means federal employees are either placed on furlough or required to work without salary.

Trump is even using this ruse as cover to continue destroying critical federal agencies and programs by terminating federal employees at his whim. Southern Oregonians should not be duped by the transparently false claim that Democrats are forcing him to fire federal employees by refusing to endorse his attacks on health care. Trump is just continuing what he has been doing since taking office and now trying to shift the blame for his erratic, illegal, and unconstitutional behavior elsewhere. Besides costing us our Medicaid and Medicare support, this will likely close rural hospitals that rely on Medicaid for their very existence. It will also likely close National Parks and impair important federal actions such as firefighting. And where is Bentz even as Trump declares war on Oregon? Presumably, he’s still hiding somewhere.

Neither Trump nor Bentz campaigned to throw Oregonians off our health care or double our insurance payments, or endorse the much-despised Project 2025. Yet now they would impose it all on us. 

Trisha Vigil, Medford