Donald Trump made a whole slew of campaign promises that he had no intention of keeping. Of course, this is completely obvious—kind of like saying water is wet. But for some of his voters, this is actually news. For many of the rural families hit hard by drug addiction, they saw hope in Trump. And when you are desperate and grieving, you want to believe anything. Unfortunately, the hope that they wanted will never come. After the Trump administration released its budget this week, they realize that all of his campaign promises to do something “bigly” about opioid addiction will never be realized.
Trump’s budget proposal, released this week, would reduce funding for addiction treatment, research and prevention. The most damaging proposed cut, critics say, is the president’s 10-year plan to shrink spending for Medicaid, which provides coverage to an estimated three in 10 adults with opioid addiction. [...]
A Congressional Budget Office report on Wednesday said a patient’s cost of substance abuse services could increase by thousands of dollars a year in states that chose to weaken coverage requirements.
Some see the moves as a painful betrayal of Americans whose families have been devastated by addiction and trusted the president’s repeated pledges to make them a priority once in office. Trump’s budget priorities focus on tax cuts, military spending and border security with massive cuts to programs for the poor and disabled.
It is really super tempting to play the blame game here. But one thing that is hard to deny is that emotions are incredibly powerful. Trump was masterful at manipulating the emotions of people who already felt hopeless and backed into a corner. The very people most desperate for help will now get screwed because they got conned by the snake oil salesman. True, they screwed the rest of us in the process. And that feels unforgivable. But there is a strange mix of anger, sadness and pity when you realize that they are genuinely shocked and let down that he has no intention of doing what he said he was going to do.
“I didn’t see this coming,” said Paul Kusiak, of Beverly, Massachusetts, who shared with Trump the story of his two sons’ successful battle with opioid addiction during a New Hampshire roundtable discussion eight days before the election. “I’m trying desperately to have hope and take the president at his word.” [...]
“Inside I’m screaming,” said Sandra Chavez of Sacramento, California, who lost her 24-year-old son, Jeffrey, to a blood infection related to his injection drug use. “We’re going backward with Donald Trump’s plan.” [...]
36-year-old Justin Butler worries he’ll be back on the streets using and selling heroin if Medicaid no longer paid for his treatment. Butler began his recovery in July after being revived from an overdose in a restaurant parking lot. Trump, he said, is “turning his back on people. He’s a liar.”
Oh well. At least some of them have finally joined reality now. Although, the key word there is “some.” We know that this won’t stop many of them from continuing to proclaim Trump’s greatness—even as he continues to commit crimes, defund everything, implode the government, rack up scandal after scandal, collude with Russia and send the country over a cliff. Sad!