Republican members of Congress reach to shake hands with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., center bottom, after Johnson signed President Donald Trump's signature bill of tax breaks and spending cuts, Thursday, July 3, 2025, at the Capitol in Washington.
Republican members of Congress reach to shake hands with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., center bottom, after Johnson signed President Donald Trump's signature bill of tax breaks and spending cuts, Thursday, July 3, 2025, at the Capitol in Washington.
All four of West Virginia's members of Congress voted for President Donald Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill," which he signed into law July 4. To fund tax cuts for the rich and a growing police state, the bill cuts programs for poor people already living in subsistence or worse conditions. But the bill will hurt us all, just some people sooner than others.
Trump's bill is probably the most consequential piece of legislation since President Franklin Roosevelt's 1930s New Deal. Trump's bill reverses the New Deal. It aims to dismantle the national "administrative state" by eliminating programs, dumping some onto individual states, privatizing others and installing a strongman chief executive, Trump.
The bill passed in the Senate 51-50, only after Vice President JD Vance cast the deciding vote. Either one of our West Virginia senators could have defeated it. But even in the House, where the bill passed 218-214, our tiny delegation of two members had power to tie the vote or, with one or more other representatives, also defeat the bill.
West Virginia's members of Congress made a colossal mistake. With a population less than the Orlando metropolitan area, West Virginia has power in the U.S. Senate rivaling that of Florida, Texas, New York or California. Every West Virginia senator from Robert Byrd to Joe Manchin has known that--and has used their knowledge to benefit West Virginians.
The Big, Beautiful Bill brings only minuscule benefits to West Virginia but makes big cuts to vital programs many West Virginians depend on, like SNAP and Medicaid. The cuts come with added red tape, a confusing work requirement, and an ICE-type bureaucracy (check out how it already works, or doesn't, in Georgia and Arkansas).
But these cuts only scratch the surface. Approved with very few changes, the Big, Beautiful Bill now allows Trump's whole agenda to go forward intact, unchecked and with massive funding. The biggest chunks will go to billionaires, ICE operations and the military, with defunding hits on targets like education, medical research, public media, senior programs and environmental protections.
Our congressional members are trying to cover up what they did by launching a propaganda blitz that resembles a second coming of the opioid marketing campaign, this time in the form of toxic word salads. The Tuesday, July 8 edition of the Gazette-Mail contained a convenient illustration in an op-ed written by Rep. Riley Moore: "Big Beautiful Bill delivers for West Virginia."
If you missed Moore's magnum opus, you can still read the websites of Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Jim Justice about all the "wins for West Virginia" in the Big Bill. Here's one example: "Sustains safety net programs like Medicaid and SNAP over the long-term." Instead of promoting good job programs, they seem willing to perpetuate a hungry, unhealthy welfare class (once called "the working class") if it delivers votes to them.
It's shameful how West Virginians keep electing politicians that shaft us. Too many seem to have gotten used to it. But it's taking a terrible toll on our children who, if they can manage to grow up, are taking country roads and interstates out of here as fast as possible.
I also grew up in troubled times, but we had leaders like Roosevelt who brought us out of the Great Depression and through World War II. The United Mine Workers of America made sure my dad had a fair living wage, my mom could be a full-time homemaker and they could raise four sons who all contributed to American society, including the one who died in the Navy.
Harold Branam is an old West Virginia guy living along country roads. He is a retired professor and chairman of English and now writes and gardens.
