Democrats Do What Trump Hasn’t And Put $45 Billion Toward Fighting The Opioid Epidemic

Donald Trump has talked a good game about fighting the opioid epidemic in the United States, but Democrats are actually putting funding toward the effort.

In a new proposal, according to The Hill, Democrats in the House of Representatives want to dedicate $45 billion over the next decade to take on what has become a major public health crisis.

As The Hill report noted, “President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a national public health emergency” last month, but it amounted to nothing more than rhetoric and “didn’t free up millions of dollars to fight the increasing rate of opioid overdose deaths.”

More from the same report about the proposal:

To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.

The bill is a companion to one nearly 20 Senate Democrats have signed onto in the upper chamber. The move was a nod to the amount of funding Republicans included in failed legislation to repeal and replace ObamaCare in part to offset the legislation’s changes to Medicaid.

 

Democratic Reps. Dave Loebsack (Iowa), Ann McLane Kuster (N.H.), Carol Shea-Porter (N.H.) and Grace Napolitano (Calif.) introduced the measure in the House.

At the end of the day, it’s easy to declare something a public health emergency – but it’s meaningless if you don’t also allocate funds to put weight behind such a declaration.

Once again, Trump has talked a good game on an issue but has failed to take any meaningful action to back up his words. Instead, his pledge to take on this dire health crisis will fall into the same dustbin that most of his other promises have.

The president has repeatedly criticized others for being “all talk, no action,” but perhaps he should look in the mirror – and examine the first 10 months of his presidency, during which he has failed to achieve anything substantive to help average Americans.

Luckily, on this issue, Democrats have stepped up to the plate and are trying to put billions of dollars toward a public health crisis that deserves more than just the usual Trump lip service.

Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.