Senators represent individual states. But their power affects all Americans. Senator Lisa Murkowski scored a sweet deal for Alaska but dealt a heavy blow to average Americans by voting yes on Trump’s megabill. Her decision — and her explanation for that decision — reveals a profoundly misguided philosophy of governance that prioritizes perks for home-state constituents over the well-being of the nation’s most vulnerable.
Over the weekend, Republican leadership in the Senate rushed to pass Trump’s sweeping domestic bill, hoping to meet the president’s arbitrary deadline of July 4. To do so, Republicans could only afford to lose three votes within their own party.
Senator Rand Paul, a longtime deficit hawk, opposed the bill on the grounds that it would add to the national debt. Senator Thom Tillis blasted the bill’s cuts to Medicaid, vowing to vote no. A handful of other Republican senators posed brief opposition, including Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, who also criticized Medicaid cuts.
But Hawley, notorious for briefly feigning a spine before eventually getting in line with Trump and the party, stayed true to that pattern. In the end, hope rested in the hands of two familiar Republican holdouts: Susan Collins of Maine and Murkowski.
Collins voted no. Murkowski caved.
The Alaska senator was at the center of weekend negotiations as Republicans underwent the tedious process of carefully sidestepping a potential filibuster while adding provisions to the bill that benefit Alaskans. The provisions included carve-outs for Alaska in Medicaid and SNAP funding cuts, a measure aimed at helping Alaskan whaling captains, and a new tax exemption to fishers from villages in western Alaska.
These maneuvers worked. Murkowski ultimately backed the bill on Tuesday, saying, “I had to look on balance, because the people in my state are the ones that I put first. We do not have a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination. My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.”
Running home to Alaska with a handful of provisional scraps after relinquishing further negotiating power to a chamber full of Trump’s dutiful disciples is a far cry from responsible leadership. Murkowski said she “struggled mightily” with the decision, calling the process “agonizing.” If the bill passes the House, the outcome will surely be more agonizing for low-income families who will struggle mightily after losing access to healthcare and needed child food credits.
It is incumbent upon Murkowski to explain what aspect of the bill was so beautiful in her eyes that it justified potentially stripping millions of healthcare and food assistance — a fact she never disputed but simply chose to overlook.
“Do I like this bill? No,” Murkowski told NBC News after voting for it. “I tried to take care of Alaska’s interests, but I know that in many parts of the country there are Americans that are not going to be advantaged by this bill.”
To hide behind the excuse that a representative’s primary duty is to advance the financial interests of their own constituents is beneath the office of a U.S. senator. Federal delegates often seek funding and carve-outs that benefit their home states, usually attaching such benefits to larger legislation. These efforts, though overly common, are not inherently wrong. But the well-being of Americans across the country should never be traded for a collection of statewide savings or profits.
Murkowski made the right choice in 2017 when she joined Susan Collins and John McCain to successfully blockade their Republican colleagues from repealing the Affordable Care Act, a move that would have left millions without insurance. The defiant trio took heat, especially McCain. Murkowski later said, “That was a tough vote. But I will tell you it was comforting to have some solidarity with a friend, John McCain.”
In a statement after McCain’s death, Murkowski wrote, “John McCain embraced what it was to serve not only his country, but all those in America.” Murkowski would do well to remember that she has been vested with the same charge: to serve all Americans, with or without her friend — the gentleman from Arizona — to do it with her.
Trump’s big, beautiful bill gives tax breaks to America’s wealthiest individuals while blocking access to healthcare and food for America’s most vulnerable citizens. Most recent census data shows that America’s child poverty rate is rising to nearly 14%. This bill does not help American kids in need. It only hurts them. This is true even in wealthy states like Utah, where 17.8% of kids (over 200,000 overall) receive healthcare through Medicaid.
In voting yes, Murkowski delivered a dessert bar to America’s billionaire class just to take home some tootsie rolls to Alaska. If the House — to which Murkowski prematurely handed the baton — fails to strike or significantly overhaul the bill, America’s expanding class of impoverished children will suffer. That’s a high price for some Alaska-friendly tax credits.
Murkowski made her choice in the name of a good-old-fashioned representative government, forgetting her duty to serve all Americans.