Sarah Cope doesn't see her mother "as a parasite," but that's what she heard MAGA billionaire Elon Musk call her. On 12 Feb, Musk reposted on social media a meme of a smiling woman with the caption: "Watching Trump slash federal programs knowing it doesn't affect you because you're not a member of the Parasite Class." Cope's mother, Linda Davis, spent most of her life working in a factory to take care of her three children and her ailing husband, who died when Cope, their youngest, was 15. When Davis was 90 and had experienced ten years with dementia, her children determined that she needed a skilled nursing facility to care for her. Medicare wouldn't cover the costs. Davis only receives $150 from a pension, and her Social Security check is nowhere near the $12,000-a-month cost to move into her nursing home in Harnett County, where she lived most of her life. That's why the Davis siblings turned to Medicaid.
More than 260,000 people in North Carolina are at risk of losing their Medicaid coverage due to a provision in the House Republicans' 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act.' The Department of Education is beginning to collect on delinquent student loans, and SNAP benefits and funding for homeless shelters are being cut. More people will be working two jobs to make ends meet and will be forced to caretake for their elderly parents that need 24/7 supervision like Linda Davis. The GOP and the Trumpf junta is quickly establishing a cruel, draconian, caste system of the superrich ruling over the superpoor while they insouciantly enrich themselves with crypto-currency schemes, insider trading, and no-bid contracts for their network of oligarchs.