Murkowski, Sullivan, Begich voted to cut $1 trillion from Medicaid. They refuse to be interviewed
Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich the Third backed the Republican plan to cut Medicaid by $1 trillion, a decision that will lead to the loss of health care for millions of Americans.
They don’t want to talk about it.
When Anchorage Daily News reporter Iris Samuels, the best political reporter in Alaska, attempted to interview Murkowski, Sullivan and Begich in August, the three of them refused on multiple occasions.
“Sullivan declined multiple interview requests from the Daily News during the August recess. Sullivan’s office backed out of plans for the senator to discuss the One Big Beautiful Bill Act with Daily News staff this month,” Samuels wrote in a story that deserves close attention.
“U.S. Rep. Nick Begich also declined multiple interview requests from the Daily News. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski did not grant an interview to the Daily News, but answered questions from Alaska reporters in her Anchorage office shortly after the August recess began,” Samuels wrote.
After Murkowski voted to approve the Republican plan, she said, “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.”
She was correct about the bill and knows it.
But Murkowski, Sullivan and Begich have chosen to stick to safe spaces where no one asks difficult questions.
They don’t have a ready answer to defend the $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts or the giant tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
They want to change the subject to talk only about Alaska.
They can do that when they control the discussion and the setting, which means avoiding audiences where critics can attend and only granting interviews to Alaska reporters who act like stenographers and don’t have a clue.
Our Congressional delegation wants Alaskans to believe the national impact of the new law is irrelevant because there are special provisions to help Alaska.
“Sullivan’s spokesperson Amanda Coyne said in a statement that ‘far-left-wing affiliated Democrat groups have been trying to scare Alaskans by spreading blatant falsehoods about the OBBB,’” the Daily News said.
The senators’ offices never respond to questions from me, but I suggest that readers ask Sullivan’s office to provide a clear list of the “blatant falsehoods.”
Sullivan’s office inflicted this bloated 25-page term paper on Alaskans to try to justify his support for the legislation. The goal is to bludgeon the recipient with thousands of words until the reader is forced to surrender.
The most important thing about Sullivan’s tome is what it omits—nothing of substance about the deficit, no honest discussion about how many Americans will lose health care coverage, nothing about how the richest people in America are the biggest beneficiaries and nothing about the long-term impact on the nation.
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