Murkowski, Sullivan have a responsibility to all Americans, not just those temporarily in Alaska

THE 2025 ALASKA PURCHASE: Millions of Americans would lose health care coverage, the national debt would grow by trillions and billionaires would enjoy big tax cuts, but ignore all of that because Alaska got special treatment.

Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan want us to believe that the state with 0.2 percent of the nation’s population is all that matters.

They want us to forget about their responsibility, and our responsibility, to the entire nation.

“I think it’s safe to say that no state fared better from this bill than our state,” Sullivan boasted to reporters Tuesday.

“While we have worked to improve the present bill for Alaska, it is not good enough for the rest of our nation—and we know it,” Murkowski said.

Murkowski, at least, has been around long enough to remember the political mantra of the late Sen. Ted Stevens, "To hell with the politics. Just do what's right for Alaska."

They will claim that’s what they did this week with the vote to cut Medicaid.

But they are forgetting they have a duty to all Americans, not just to the 740,000 who happen to live in Alaska at the moment, many of whom are here on a temporary basis.

Helping Alaska at the expense of millions who would face the loss of health care is not right for ethical or practical reasons. And it’s not going to be sustainable.

As former Rep. Les Gara put it, Sullivan bragging that Alaska did better than any other state is a claim that will resonate with members of Congress who will be motivated to correct that imbalance.

If the House accepts the Senate bill, the details of the 2025 Alaska Purchase will come back to haunt us.

Murkowski has admitted in her own circuitous manner that the Republicans added changes to help Alaska to purchase her vote.

It is only a political accident of this moment in Trumpism that placed Murkowski in a position where she could get benefits enticing enough to get her to renege on her repeated pledges to not cut Medicaid.

To her repeated complaints about how disappointed she was in the process, how wrong it was to be given something in the middle of the night, how crazy it was to be given a July 4th deadline, and how no one had a chance to study it, she acts as if she had no choice but to do what she did.

She had the choice to kill the bill and force Republicans to start over. That would have been an effective way to make sure Alaska’s interests were represented.

Instead, she made the choice to accept kickbacks for Alaska—provisions that are vulnerable to elimination—and vote for $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts after claiming she opposed Medicaid cuts.

Would Murkowski have faced retribution for killing the bill? Certainly. That thought must have been always on her mind. I don’t know that those of us not in her position can imagine the pressure. I have great sympathy for her in this regard. I think she works as hard as anyone has a right to expect and she has a good character.

She’s not John McCain. That’s not her fault. No Republican in the Senate is McCain’s equal in cutting Trump down to size. Murkowski detests Trump, but she has refused to renounce the Republican club he commands.

Trump and his entire cult would have gone after Murkowski in a vicious and disgusting manner had she killed the bill Tuesday.

Senate Republicans, including Sullivan, would have done nothing to defend her character or stop Trump. Under the grip of Trumpism, the Republican Party has no room for anyone except toadies.

While Sullivan and 48 others, including JD Vance, also provided the decisive vote, it falls on her because it wasn’t known in advance what she would do.

Trump retribution on this would have been a heavy burden for anyone to bear, perhaps an impossible one, far too much for a normal person to withstand. That is one reason why everyone should cut her some slack.

Then again, all United States senators have to remember gangster Hyman Roth’s line from Godfather II, “This is the business we’ve chosen.”

Here is the transcript of Murkowski speaking to reporters Tuesday.

Speaking to the Legislature this year, Murkowski said she opposed cutting Medicaid.

“For as much power as a Senator can have, there are times when I need your help, and the help of all Alaskans.  This is one of them. 

“I also stood here in 2017 and said that as long as this Legislature wants to keep the Medicaid expansion, you should have that option.  

“My commitment remains. I did not support Medicaid cuts then, and I will not support them now. There may be some reasonable reforms we can make, but I’m not on board with anything that hurts our people or puts you in a budget hole,” she said.

In the spring she said she would not support a plan “that would require significant cuts to Medicaid.”

She voted this week to cut Medicaid by $1 trillion. So did Sullivan.

Speaking to the Legislature this year, Sullivan bemoaned the size of the national debt and praised the efforts of Elon Musk and DOGE.

Sullivan was asked by Anchorage Sen. Forrest Dunbar whether he would support cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

“So look I mean the one thing we’re doing to help our country and help our state is this,” said Sullivan, holding up Trump’s executive order to “unleash” Alaska development.

Sullivan went on at length, mentioned he wants to help the “most vulnerable” and concluded by saying that too many people are on Medicaid in Alaska.

“But let me make an important point on this that I don’t think gets talked about nearly enough. Almost one-third of Alaskans, 248,000 Alaskans are on the rolls of Medicaid now. OK? We, I think, accept that. Some see it as a good. I don’t see it as a good, OK? I think our goal should be to increase our private sector economy and increase the opportunities for people to move off Medicaid and get private sector insurance from a stronger private sector economy, which is what this is all about.”

He again held up a copy of Trump’s executive order.

“We don’t talk about that enough,” he said.

He never did say if he would oppose cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

He voted this week to cut Medicaid by $1 trillion and explode the nation’s debt, which would speed the coming crisis of the Social Security system.

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