Over 23,000 Are Floored By This Text About A MAGA Voter Who Supported Cutting Medicaid... Until He Realized His Children Use It
It doesn't take much brain power to understand why that would be a very, very bad thing.
Saul Loeb / Getty Images
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Regardless, some people still struggle with the concept. One such person is the focus of this text exchange that recently went viral on Reddit:
In a retelling of a recent conversation between their brother and themself, this texter wrote, "I mentioned in the family chat that 300,000 kids in Iowa are on Medicaid - they will all lose coverage."
"My brother is like: well it least it's not touching Hawk-i, that's what my kids are on," they continued.
For those outside of Iowa, the state's Medicaid and children's health insurance program is largely known by its nickname: Healthy and Well-Kids in Iowa or... hawk-i. So, upon learning his children's healthcare is in jeopardy, the brother responds with, "What? They better not."
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This is all made worse by the fact that the brother, apparently, has been a big proponent of cutting Medicaid. "Dude has been banging the drum for this stupid spending bill for weeks and didn't even realize he was rooting for his own kids losing their insurance," the texter concludes.
Mining through the nearly 1,500 comments, a common frustration came from those who have seen stories of people voting against their own interests too many times before.
"It's the same thing with people who love the Affordable Care Act, [but] hate 'Obamacare,' and didn't spend the five seconds required to realize that they're the same thing," user Successful_Jelly_213 wrote.
Others questioned the brother's morality and wondered aloud why he was OK with children losing their health insurance (as long as they weren't his kids).
"So just to clarify, he's good with the other 300,000 kids losing their healthcare, just not his own kids," Sharpymarkr posed.
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"He never had a single thought about other people. The whole thing was about himself," Prosthemadera agreed. "Whether someone else's family will suffer, how many people will die, he doesn't give a shit."
"If your first response to cutting healthcare is 'I'm not affected,' then you're just not a good person, and that doesn't change just because you suddenly care to be against it once you find out you are actually affected. You're just being a selfish, self-centered asshole who will vote Republican again next time because this was never about making the world better."
Additionally, "I'm 57 years old, no children, not religious. I have never taken a dime in Medicaid, food stamps, Section 8, or any public programs. I've never even filed for unemployment. But I want my tax dollars to help that guy's kids get healthcare and schooling, and housing. Guess I'm a libtard," weenie2323 said.
Elsewhere in the comments, people shared similar stories of dealing with their own MAGA family members:
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"This is my mom," cheongyanggochu-vibe said. "My disabled brother is on Medicaid, which is supplemented by her state. She thinks that because he gets it from the state, he will be fine (even though the funds are majority federal)."
"When he gets axed, she will blame her Democratic governor and lawmakers because she doesn't realize how profoundly she benefits from being in a blue state she hates the leaders of."
"A colleague of mine lives in Utah, and he meets the threshold for Medicaid; everything is covered. I asked him, 'Say, aren't you worried about this bill working its way through Congress? You could lose your healthcare.' He said, 'What, no, that's for waste fraud and abuse, I'm on the state health care, not Medicaid.'"
"I said, 'Uhh, that IS Medicaid, they just don't call it that because of the political stigma.' Absolute deadpan silence," BeautifulTall7833 said.
Overall, little sympathy was expressed.
"I hope cutting his own child's healthcare was worth it," WeirdProudAndHungry said.
"Medicaid literally saved my life. Fuck these people," MidnightNo1766 added.
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.
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