Sen. Susan Collins called the government shutdown “entirely unnecessary.” I agree. If Republicans hadn’t cut Americans’ health insurance subsidies and safety nets, Democrats wouldn’t have to keep rejecting the stopgap funding bill. 

Even Sen. Collins voted against the so-called “big, beautiful bill” due, as she said, to “the harmful impact it will have on Medicaid, affecting low-income families and rural health care providers like our hospitals and nursing homes.” With her party unwilling to negotiate, how else could Democrats protect constituents from sickness and disease?

Health, as we know, is inseparable from food and housing. One of my children, a government employee now working without pay, is more concerned about lower-level colleagues who struggle to get by even with a paycheck. A hire at the agency revealed that he’d once spent nights sleeping on a beach because he couldn’t afford an apartment; he hid his homelessness, as do many of the working poor, because the stigma of poverty is harsh. It could get people fired.

That the current administration considers health care, SNAP benefits and affordable housing federal-budget luxuries — while a grand ballroom, marble bathroom and “triumphal arch” are must-haves — underscores how far we’ve strayed from our vaunted civic ideals.  How about making the next jailed crypto-billionaire build 10,000 units of affordable housing in exchange for his pardon?

Gaye Brown
Portland