EDITORIAL: U.S. reps should heed voters’ interests

April 16–It's not so much to ask.

Michigan's members of the U.S. Congress should consider what's best for the folks who elected them — that's the raison d'etre of representative government.

But that's not how Republican members of Michigan's congressional delegation responded, not when it came to President Donald Trump's effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. If Congress had successfully torpedoed Obamacare, consequences back home would've been disastrous — 1 million Michiganders who gained insurance coverage through the health care exchanges created by the ACA, or through the expansion of the federal Medicaid program, here called Healthy Michigan, would have ultimately lost coverage.

That's 10% of the state's total population cut off from preventative or even life-saving care.

Michigan's Republican Gov. Rick Snyder sent a letter pleading for members of the delegation to reconsider, showing how many residents of the members' own districts would be affected. Around the country, dozens of moderate Republicans opposed the bill.

But eight out of nine members of the state's Republican delegation were ready to jump in with both feet. U.S. Reps. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet; Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland; John Moolenaar, R-Midland; Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph; Tim Walberg, R-Tipton; Mike Bishop, R-Rochester; Paul Mitchell, R- Thomas Twp., and David Trott, R-Birmingham, all indicated support of varying degrees for the American Health Care Act. The opposition of the ninth, the libertarian-leaning U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, R-Cascade Twp., shouldn't offer ordinary Michiganders much hope.

This, friends, does not bode well.

Trump's first budget proposal would make draconian cuts across U.S. government, to programs that serve Americans from all walks of life.

With significant majorities in the Senate and the House, and a Republican president in the White House, Trump's budget stands likely to pass. It's likely the cruelest cuts won't be quite as bad as Trump's design — and likely that even the slightest mitigation will be hailed as victory, particularly by those members of Congress who support Trump's budget.

Trump and Washington's Republican policy elite are angling to remake American domestic policy. Whatever the cost to Americans — and Michiganders.

That's why we're asking Michigan Republicans to stand firm. To put Michiganders over ideology. To put Michiganders over party.

What matters to voters

Since 2008, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has financed 180 Michigan clean water and wastewater projects, working in 25% of the state's counties. In the last year, the department invested $36.5 million in 64 rural Michigan business projects and made or guaranteed loans worth $673 million to help rural Michiganders buy, build or repair homes. Another $80.9 million in loans or grants went to support rural police and fire stations, schools, hospitals, clinics, museums or child care centers. All told, the agriculture department spent $952 million in rural Michigan during the 2016 fiscal year, and that's not including food assistance dollars rural Michiganders received through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also a part of the USDA.

Through its rural housing, business development and utility support, the USDA helps to fund a variety of rural projects — like supporting a regional hospital in St. Ignace or helping to finance the purchase of a “snowbulance” that can reach areas not accessible by roadway in the Upper Peninsula. Business grants, a department spokesman said, aim to keep value generated by agriculture in rural communities — for example, a loan or grant might finance a facility that enables a Michigan community to process the local fruit harvest, instead of shipping the product elsewhere.

Trump's first budget would pare $4.7 billion from the U.S. Department of Agriculture — that's 21% of the agency's total budget. The water programs, the administration says, are redundant. And while some of those programs listed above aren't directly targeted for cuts, any budget decrease means adjustments.

Rural Michiganders — those most likely to be represented by Republicans in Congress — rely on these programs. Michigan Republicans in Washington can't let them down.

What matters to communities

A community center in Monroe, emergency home repairs in Presque Isle County, business microloans in Roseville, a street repair program in St. Clair Shores, community redevelopment in Detroit — community development block grants pay for work across the state that keeps homes and neighborhoods intact, removes blight, offers small-business funding and strengthens communities.

Detroit is an obvious beneficiary of the federal government's community development block grants — the federal funding accounts for about $33 million in Detroit each year — but communities across the state receive CDBG dollars. In fact, a set percentage of CDBG dollars must be spent in rural areas. Last year, the federal government sent about $60 million to Michigan; the program's total budget is about $3 billion.

Trump's budget proposal would eliminate the program entirely, and Michigan communities would suffer.

Think about the impact

Michigan lawmakers of both parties have pledged to stand behind the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative that Trump has proposed cutting by 97%. Since 2010, the initiative has brought more than $2.2 billion in federal dollars to important Great Lakes projects, like controlling algal bloom in Lake Erie, wetland restoration or ongoing efforts to fight the invasive Asian carp.

So it's good that Michigan's Republican congressmen see the virtue in preserving those funds.

But it's also incredibly important to protect the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency itself.

?Related:Great Lakes funding cuts are absurd, irresponsible, lawmakers say

?Related:Trump plan slashes funding for Detroit, Great Lakes and much more

One hundred million dollars to replace lead service lines in Flint? That's the EPA. Testing homes in Lansing for dangerous chemical vapor? That's the EPA. Ensuring that sewage stays out of the Detroit River? Also the EPA.

Trump's budget would cut the EPA — an agency whose existence seems, for many Republicans, to be the very soul of legislative overreach — by 24%, specifically targeting programs that keep contaminants, like lead, out of water and air.

?Related:Henderson: Trump to Great Lakes: Drop dead

The administration has said the functions the EPA performs should return to the states. But any cost savings generated by EPA cuts don't wind up in states' hands, rather, they're shifted to other parts of the federal government.

Michigan's GOP congressmen need to take a hard look at what the EPA actually does — and how it impacts their constituents — before signing off on Trump's cuts.

Republicans districts benefit

The National Institutes of Health made more than $212 million in direct grant awards to Michigan institutions and businesses last year — and $28 million of those direct awards went to entities in GOP-represented congressional districts.

Some $20 million was awarded to Michigan State University, located in Michigan's 8th District; $8 million went to smaller institutions or Michigan businesses located in Republican home turf. Grant recipients also receive indirect funding that may cover physical costs not directly related to research.

?Related:Trump wants to cut grant that saved Farmington Hills woman's life

?Related:Global health leadership role at risk in Trump budget: Column

Trump's first budget would cut $5.8 billion from the NIH's budget, about 20% of the agency's $30-billion annual budget.

Researchers who've relied on NIH funding say the institute funds vital research — work that private investors won't fund, in part because there's not an immediate path to profit. But almost every significant modern medical advance can be traced back to NIH support.

This funding saves lives. That's without question. But NIH funding also supports Michigan institutions and businesses, and the Republican congressmen who represent the districts that benefit from those dollars should take note.

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