A recent ad from President Donald Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., debunks multiple flawed media narratives. First, many commentators led us to believe that Trump wouldn’t spend significantly in key races. Then, when the president’s political organizations began to announce major buys, they said the ads would be only focused on himself.
Meanwhile, Trump’s political entities have begun to pour critically needed resources into campaigns, while setting a model for effective campaigning. In Texas, MAGA Inc. just showed Republicans how to go on offense on healthcare. Hopefully they are paying attention.
The ad makes the point that Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico‘s plan for socialist healthcare — expanding government healthcare to everyone — would inevitably close rural healthcare and limit access for communities. Then the ad makes the connection that politicians too often neglect: taxes — especially property taxes — are closely linked to healthcare. Talarico’s radical healthcare agenda will raise taxes on Texans.
The ad is on target because Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican Senate nominee, as well as Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), have been especially effective at protecting rural healthcare and keeping property taxes low. Under the Biden administration, federal bureaucrats targeted the Texas Medicaid program through politicized audits, putting at risk tens of billions of critical funding. Losing this revenue would have caused property taxes to skyrocket. Fortunately, Paxton and Abbott fought back and won — twice.
This comes as Abbott worked with the Trump administration to secure $12 billion of critical funding for Texas hospitals. Republicans rarely talk about their healthcare wins, but they should. Texas’s successful model is worth championing. The Lone Star State saved the federal government hundreds of billions of dollars by rejecting Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. Its Medicaid program has been a model of transparency and fiscal responsibility while caring for the truly needy.
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Compare that to blue states like California that talk a big game but have bungled their healthcare systems. In May, Defend Forgotten America published a report tracking how California’s children lost access to pediatric hospital care even as Medi-Cal spending swelled toward $200 billion a year under Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA). Coverage on paper kept growing but the beds kept closing. Sacramento expanded Medi-Cal enrollment for years without fixing what it pays hospitals to treat those children. While raking in over an eye-popping $100 billion annually from the federal government, California failed those same populations and created its own crisis through state mismanagement.
The contrast ad between blue-state and red-state healthcare writes itself. Trump has shown how to go on offense on this issue. Republicans must take notes and start listening.
Jenn Pellegrino is president of Defend Forgotten America and a former spokeswoman for America First Policy Institute.