🌊 In Appalachia, Concerns about the Big Beautiful Bill

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By Max Frost

Born and bred in the mountains of Appalachian Kentucky – with a “Trump Round 2” cap on his head and a snake-killing knife on his hip – Dellie is no liberal. In fact, like 80% of the voters in his rural Kentucky county, he voted for Trump. 

Yet now, he has reservations. 

“He’s cut these people down,” he said. “They ain’t got enough money to live.”

Nor does Dellie: Homeless after a “rough couple years,” he says he’s “lucky to eat sometimes.” He does have health insurance, though, courtesy of the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare. Once the Big Beautiful Bill takes effect, though, he may lose it. 

Eastern Kentucky and Appalachia more broadly have a complicated relationship with welfare: On the one hand, it’s deeply socially conservative with a cultural skepticism of the government and outsiders generally; on the other, it’s one of America’s poorest regions and disproportionately reliant on government help. In the town nearest to Dellie, Beattysville, the median adult income is $12,341.

Central to most Appalachian Kentucky towns we visited was a Social Security office, and one person after another told us how government aid – whether food stamps, Medicaid, disability, or development projects – supported them, their communities, or people they know. 

This situation is divisive: When asking Appalachian people why their area had remained so poor, more than a few blamed welfare. Some voiced the longstanding conservative criticism that welfare has helped sustain a “culture of poverty,” by enabling people to live lifestyles that keep them poor. Like Native Americans told us in the Navajo Nation or black people in the inner city, they said people had become dependent on the government and forgotten how to prosper.  

But to many others, welfare is the only way to survive in rural communities that are up to an hour’s drive from stable employment or where the only available jobs pay the minimum wage, $7.25 an hour.

In one holler – a dead-end valley deep in the mountains – a multi-generational family lived scattered between trailers and a couple of small homes. One resident told us that “everyone is on meth”; another said he relies on disability after giving up trying to find work. 

A third man – evidently the most educated and well-traveled of the holler – told us that he was “whooping and cheering” during Trump’s first weeks in office, as the president signed one executive order after another dismantling liberal policies. Now, though, he was worried. 

“They’re talking about making it where young’ns can’t get food stamps anymore unless they’re working 20 hours a week,” he said. “Where are they going to work?” 

He waited for my reply. 

Editor’s Note

Thanks for reading. What are your thoughts: Will raising the eligibility requirements for food stamps and Medicaid help or hurt Americans? Will it cost Trump support with poorer voters? Let us know by replying to this email. We’ll be back soon with a deep-dive into the Big Beautiful Bill and its many components. Until then, enjoy your Sundays. 

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Reader replies

Tons of emails in response to yesterday’s article about the NYT. Sharing a handful below. Keep the replies coming!

Lena wrote:

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That’s all for today. Enjoy your Sundays, and we’ll be back with a breakdown of the Big Beautiful Bill tomorrow.

—Max and Max