By April Ryan
“Put a face on the deadliness of this big, bad, deadly, ugly bill.” That is what Reverend William Barber says as he conducts Moral Mondays in 11 Southern states today. He is laser-focused on 11 local U.S. Senate offices in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, and Tennessee. In these states, Barbers says 1.5 million people are expected to lose their healthcare due to federal funding cuts to Medicaid. Barber lamented that only one U.S. Senator, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, voted against the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” On July 1st, Tillis broke ranks with most Senate Republicans on the healthcare cuts. Tillis understands that federal cuts to Medicaid funding would hurt his constituents. Three days later, on July 4th, President Donald Trump signed the bill into law, which cuts $17 million from Medicaid in this country.
Barber, leading the protest in Memphis, Tennessee, says, “The highest number of people who will lose Medicaid are in the south.” He emphasizes these massive cuts to Medicaid do not discriminate; however, “the highest percentage of Black people being kicked off of Medicaid is in the south.” Barber, who is also looking at the economics of these cuts, says, “40% of the South are poor now and low wage,” and that will further exacerbate the poverty numbers in this nation. These 11 marches will consist of a contingent of clergy and impacted people expected to march with caskets housing the number of people in that particular state who were negatively affected by the newly passed “One Big Beautiful” law.
The list of Medicaid losses according to Rev. Barber
Texas 300,000
Louisiana 291,000
Alabama 42,000
Arkansas 123,000
North Carolina 307,000
Moral Mondays will resume in the nation’s capital in August, according to Reverend Barber, who also says there will be a continued focus on these healthcare cuts and cuts to SNAP in the South.
