SUMMARY: On January 29, 2025, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known vaccine skeptic, announced that healthy children and pregnant people no longer need the COVID-19 vaccine, removing it from the CDC’s recommended immunization schedule. He offered no new evidence to justify the change. NIH Director Bhattacharya and FDA Commissioner Makary supported it without citing data. Public health experts, including obstetricians and pediatrics leaders, strongly opposed the decision, warning it ignores science and could jeopardize vulnerable groups. Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams and the American Public Health Association criticized the policy for restricting access and risking public health, stressing vaccines remain vital for protection.
www.thecentersquare.com – By David Beasley | The Center Square contributor – (The Center Square – ) 2025-07-21 09:11:00
North Carolina is among three states—along with Pennsylvania and Oregon—facing delays in passing a state budget for the new fiscal year starting July 1. While North Carolina law prevents a government shutdown by continuing previous spending levels, disagreements remain over employee raises and income tax cuts. The legislature’s proposed budget is $65.9 billion, while Gov. Josh Stein suggested $67.9 billion. The state’s budget was also delayed by 84 days two years ago. Unlike North Carolina, Oregon’s budget impasse has led to 483 layoffs in its transportation department, prompting Gov. Tina Kotek to declare it an emergency affecting essential services.
(The Center Square) – North Carolina is one of three states late on an enacted budget for July 1.
Lawmakers in Pennsylvania and Oregon are also late, according to research by The Center for Square and the National Association of State Budget Officers. Michigan’s fiscal year begins Oct. 1 and is the other state without a spending plan in place for the coming year.
The North Carolina fiscal year runs July 1-June 30, and two-year budgets are required by law in the odd-numbered years. These are also known as the long sessions of the two-year legislative calendar.
“As states enter fiscal 2026, they are contending with a combination of increasing spending demands, slowing revenue growth, and federal fiscal uncertainty,” the national organization said. “They are facing budget pressures in a number of areas such as Medicaid, employee health care, education, housing affordability, and disaster preparation and response.”
The Legislature adjourned in late June without having passed a budget bill.
However, under legislation passed in 2016, there will be no state government shutdown, with spending remaining the same as it was under the previous budget.
The North Carolina House and Senate disagree on raises for state employees and the size of income tax cuts.
The legislative budgets total $65.9 billion while Gov. Josh Stein proposed $67.9 billion in spending.
Two years ago, the North Carolina budget was 84 days late before it was signed into law.
Although the lack of a budget has not affected government services in North Carolina, it has in Oregon, where the impasse prompted the state’s department of transportation to announce 483 layoffs.
“Consequences to essential transportation services are imminent across the state,” Gov. Tina Kotek said in a July 7 statement. “This is not business as usual. These layoffs constitute an emergency in Oregon’s transportation system that will hurt every part of Oregon.”
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The article presents a factual overview of budget delays in several states, including North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Michigan. It reports on the positions and disagreements of legislators, such as conflicts over employee raises and tax cuts, and includes statements from government officials without endorsing any particular side. The tone remains neutral, focusing on facts and consequences rather than advocating for a specific ideological stance or policy approach. Therefore, it maintains a centrist position by simply informing readers of current budgetary issues without expressing bias.
Jackson County, North Carolina, voted to leave the Fontana Regional Library system, citing controversy over LGBTQ+ content in children’s books. The decision, supported by four of five commissioners, followed months of public debate. Critics warn the departure will raise operational costs and reduce services. Several municipalities, including Sylva and Webster, have expressed support for staying in the system. The county has until July 2026 to reverse its decision. Only one book was challenged in five years. Library officials and local leaders hope to negotiate a compromise to avoid increased taxpayer burdens and diminished educational and cultural resources.
by Lucas Thomae, Carolina Public Press July 21, 2025
Last month, Jackson became the second county in Western North Carolina to vote to exit its library system following local controversy over books with LGBTQ+ content. The move is the latest example of public libraries in the region being turned into political battlegrounds over such issues.
On June 24, the Jackson County Board of Commissioners voted to exit the Fontana Regional Library it shares with Macon and Swain counties. Four members of the five-person commission voted in favor of the exit. The lone “no” vote was Board Chairman Mark Letson, who cited increased financial burden on the county as the reason for his opposition.
Months of impassioned public comments at meetings of the county commissioners and public library board preceded the deciding vote. As in Yancey County, which on July 1 officially exited its former library system, a group of conservative residents ignited the movement to leave the system with complaints over materials in the library that they deemed inappropriate for children.
Yancey locals who supported remaining in the library system spent months trying to convince county commissioners to reverse course through protest and threat of legal action, but their efforts fell short.
Now, a strikingly similar situation is playing out in Jackson, and supporters of the library system there are aiming for a different outcome. They are joined by the several municipalities within Jackson County who have signaled that they also want Jackson to remain a part of Fontana Regional.
Jackson County has until July 2026 to reverse its decision. At that time, the control of two system libraries within Jackson County — one in the community of Cashiers and the other in the county seat of Sylva — will be turned over to the county commissioners.
Lead-up to the Jackson County vote
Although rumors of a potential exit from Fontana Regional have circulated ever since Yancey County’s consequential vote to leave its library system, Jackson County commissioners began serious talks earlier this year.
County Manager Kevin King told commissioners in previous public meetings that the transition would require hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional county spending to maintain the same level of services offered by the regional system.
All the while, a contingent of conservative commissioners sympathetic to the idea of leaving the system accused the libraries of espousing liberal ideologies and questioned whether safety measures at the library branch in Sylva were up to par.
Commissioners called upon Tracy Fitzmaurice, who serves both as the librarian of the Sylva branch and the director of Fontana Regional, to respond to their concerns at several public meetings.
On June 19, the Jackson commissioners conducted a joint meeting with the Fontana Regional board of trustees during which they peppered library officials with questions about library administration, funding, safety measures and the book challenging process.
Despite claims of inappropriate materials in the children’s section of the library, only one book has been challenged in the last five years in Jackson County, and none have been removed from the collection. One book over that span, a sex education graphic novel, was reclassified from the youth to the young adult section.
Library officials hoped that the joint meeting would allow Fontana Regional and Jackson County to come to an understanding and avoid the county’s exit. But five days later, commissioners voted to break away from the system.
Fitzmaurice told CPP in an email that she was “saddened and disappointed” by the vote.
“I thought that the joint meeting between the (Fontana Regional) Board of Trustees and the Jackson County Commissioners on June 19th would have cleared up some of the legal aspects of how the libraries in Jackson County are managed,” she said.
“I also hoped the commissioners would give the (Fontana Regional) Board members time to review the commissioners’ concerns. Everyone is aware that by leaving (Fontana Regional) the Jackson County libraries will cost more to operate and the taxpayers will carry this cost.”
Neither King nor Letson responded to a request for an interview prior to the publication of this article.
Municipal governments push back
Several weeks before the commissioners’ decision, the Village of Forest Hills and Town of Webster passed resolutions in support of Jackson County remaining in the regional library.
“Withdrawal from the Fontana Regional Library System would result in increased operational costs for a standalone system, diminished resources, reduced programming, and potentially limit the scope and quality of library resources available to Jackson County residents, thereby negatively impacting the educational opportunities and quality of life for its citizens,” the Town of Webster’s resolution read.
That resolution and a similar one passed by the Forest Hills council were sent to Jackson County officials.
Webster and Forest Hills, each of which comprise fewer than 400 residents, are only tiny enclaves in the 44,000-person county. Much of Jackson’s population lives in unincorporated areas, giving county officials an outsized amount of governing power.
The largest community, Cullowhee, is the site of Western Carolina University, which boasts 11,000 students. It is located just south of Sylva and, being a large public university, is home to a sizable LGBTQ+ population.
However, there exists no municipal government in Cullowhee that could weigh in on the Jackson County library situation.
The one municipal government that could wield significant influence is Sylva, the county seat and largest incorporated community with more than 2,000 residents.
Town commissioners were set to vote on a similar resolution in support of Fontana Regional during their regular meeting on June 12, but it was scratched from the agenda following a motion from commissioner Jon Brown.
Brown told CPP that although he supported Jackson remaining in the regional library, he didn’t think it was appropriate for Sylva to pass a resolution on a divisive issue that the town ultimately didn’t have control over.
“It’s been a real hot topic in our community,” Brown said.
“There’s been a lot of conversation. A lot of folks feel passionately about the library. We have one of the best libraries I’ve ever seen — it’s a real treasure for Jackson County and Sylva, and I hope that we can keep the doors open, keep the funding it needs and keep all the great services.”
Brown said commissioners will likely vote this week on a revised resolution in support of a compromise between Fontana Regional and Jackson County.
Sylva Commissioner Brad Waldrop, who also supports Jackson remaining with Fontana Regional, confirmed in an email that town commissioners are working on a new resolution.
“I am still in favor of a resolution from the Town of Sylva in support of remaining in the FRL and am working to make that happen,” Waldrop said.
“Although Jackson County commissioners already voted to leave the FRL, that doesn’t actually occur until July 2026 so there’s still time to reverse course from this bad decision that looks certain to significantly increase costs, decrease library services, or both.”
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Left
The article from Carolina Public Press presents a largely factual account of Jackson County’s decision to exit the Fontana Regional Library system, but its framing subtly favors those opposing the exit. Language choices such as describing residents supporting LGBTQ+ content as seeking “compromise” and opponents as part of a “conservative movement” suggest a slight ideological slant. Emphasis on cost increases, community opposition, and emotional reactions from library officials also leans toward supporting the library system’s continuation. However, the piece includes multiple perspectives and quotes from both sides, maintaining a mostly balanced tone with a modest left-leaning tilt.
Tropical Storm Helene caused massive devastation in western North Carolina, with over 100 deaths and $59.6 billion in damages. However, new government policies, particularly the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” risk creating a man-made disaster with long-term harmful effects, including cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and healthcare funding. These cuts threaten thousands of lives, increase hospital closures, worsen food insecurity, and strain recovery efforts. The legislation is unpopular and projected to cost the state billions, possibly causing 42,500 preventable deaths annually nationwide. Local services, schools, and rural hospitals are at risk, while political debates obscure these urgent facts. Public media’s value in crisis coverage was recently affirmed.
[Editor’s note: John Boyle has the day off.]
We can all agree that Tropical Storm (née Hurricane) Helene was the worst natural disaster to hit our region in recent memory, taking more than 100 lives and leaving behind an estimated $59.6 billion in damage statewide.
Yet in terms of financial costs and lives potentially lost and disrupted, an equal or more devastating blow to Asheville and western North Carolina could be coming — this time, a man-made disaster, the result of legislation, executive orders, and decisions made by politicians after Helene.
The first line in the About Us section of our website says: “Asheville Watchdog is a free, local, not-for-profit, nonpartisan news organization.” I’d add “fact-based.”
Some readers legitimately question whether we live up to the “nonpartisan” description. But facts are black and white, not red or blue. And the facts — compiled and reported by nonpartisan experts — are that newly enacted government policies including the widely unpopularOne Big Beautiful Bill will have costly and deadly consequences for all of us, Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike.
The parallels in the costs and effects of the two disasters — one natural and fast-moving, the other one unnatural and deliberately designed to unfold over a decade — are deeply unsettling.
Our congressman, Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards, focuses instead on the positive benefits President Trump is delivering to western North Carolina since he took office six months ago today. These include, Edwards said, “common-sense reforms,” the elimination of fraud and waste, the economic stimulus of lower income taxes, increased safety because of deportations of criminal immigrants, and eradication of “woke” ideologies in businesses, schools, and government.
But the projected numbers are worthy of consideration regardless of your political leanings, and so far, none of the politicians responsible for implementing these policies has stepped up to refute the facts or the ominous projections made by nonpartisan economists, physicians, and government agencies.
Helene left behind tens of billions of dollars in damage in our region.
North Carolina will be hit with “tens of billions of dollars in lost funding” because of the legislation, Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican, said. But that’s just the start. In addition, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) gutted federal programs that provided millions of dollars in local support. Congress voted last week to rescind billions of dollars it had already approved and promised to the states, including millions that our local government and nonprofit agencies were counting on as our community recovers from Helene.
Helene was deadly.
Cutting hundreds of billions in healthcare funding will be lethal too, medical experts say.
An analysis from the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University projected that the legislation’s changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act will result in at least 42,500 preventable deaths nationwide each year. Their analysis includes 11,300 deaths resulting from people losing Medicaid or Affordable Care Act insurance, 18,200 deaths from low-income Medicare patients losing prescription drug benefits, and 13,000 deaths from rescinding a Biden-era rule that required a higher minimum staffing level in nursing homes.
Another study, from researchers at the medical schools at the University of North Carolina and the University of California San Francisco, projected the One Big Beautiful Bill signed into law on July 4 will result in 94,802 preventable hospitalizations, 1.6 million people delaying care due to cost, and 1.9 million cases of patients failing to take medications as prescribed by their healthcare providers.
“The Democrats have come up with a false narrative. … It’s death, death, everyone’s going to die,” Trump said in a cabinet meeting July 8. As he had before, Trump said that the bill was “just the opposite. Everyone’s going to live.”
Not so, said Rachel Werner, a physician and co-author of the Penn-Yale analysis. In an interview with the multimedia healthcare site Tradeoffs, she said, “Getting someone insurance allows them to get screened for diseases like cancer. It’s a major source of providing people with treatment for the opioid epidemic. It allows people to get medications to manage their chronic conditions. And so if you suddenly pull back all those resources that have been allowing people to get the care they need, the evidence is very clear now that we will lose lives.”
A White House spokesman, asked by FactCheck.org to comment on the numbers, dismissed them as “pointless fact checks that rely on mindless hairsplitting.”
In December 2023 North Carolina’s General Assembly expanded Medicaid — the joint federal and state program that helps cover medical costs for some people with limited income and resources, including eligible low-income adults, children, pregnant women, elderly adults and people with disabilities — to include more needy families.
But state lawmakers also included a “trigger” clause that discontinues Medicaid expansion if the state is forced to pay a higher share of the costs. Unless the General Assembly rescinds the trigger, as many as 670,000 people statewide are at risk of losing Medicaid Expansion coverage in coming years if North Carolina doesn’t somehow make up for the federal cuts.
Of those, an estimated 45,000 to 50,000 live in Rep. Edwards’s NC-11 district.
In Buncombe County, 16,161 adults are enrolled in Medicaid expansion — 9.8 percent of the adult population age 19-64, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
“It’s estimated that for every 1,000 people on Medicaid annually, something between 1 and 4 lives a year are saved,” the Penn-Yale researchers wrote.
Do the math, and compare it to Helene’s death toll.
Helene overwhelmed hospitals and healthcare providers in our region, where residents are older, poorer, and sicker than in many other parts of America.
People without health insurance often skip seeing a doctor for preventative services and use hospital emergency rooms for their primary healthcare. Our hospitals in western North Carolina are already struggling with staffing and low government reimbursement rates.
The left-leaning Center for American Progress projects that the Medicaid cuts, along with the House refusing to extend the enhanced premium tax credits of the Affordable Care Act, could drive up uncompensated care costs in North Carolina by $1.48 billion by 2034, threatening the financial viability of the state’s rural hospitals, 12 percent of which are already at immediate risk of closure.
Angel Medical Center in Franklin and Blue Ridge Regional Hospital in Spruce Pine are heavily dependent on Medicaid reimbursements and will be at risk for closing altogether as a result of the new budget bill, according to an analysis by the Cecil G. Sheps Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The closure of North Carolina’s rural hospitals would make it harder for all North Carolinians to access care regardless of their health coverage.
Losing significant federal Medicaid funds could also force the state to reduce or eliminate optional Medicaid benefits for people with disabilities, including home- and community-based care that enables them to live independently.
According to recent data from North Carolina’s Medicaid program and reporting from NC Health News and WRAL, over 60 percent of nursing home stays in the state are paid for by Medicaid.
Meanwhile, health insurers are proposing double-digit price hikes for plans sold through Affordable Care Act marketplaces, as extra federal subsidies for premiums expireat the end of the year and as Trump’s tariffs threaten higher pharmaceutical prices. Trump is threatening to impose tariffs of up to 200 percent on imported pharmaceuticals, The Hillreported July 8.
The nonpartisan health policy organization KFF analyzed insurer filings and projects that the average person buying a marketplace plan would pay 75 percent more for their monthly premium if Congress doesn’t extend the subsidies. KFF reported that the median monthly premium increase would be 15 percent.
Helene sharply increased demands for government and nonprofit services.
Hundreds of millions in lost federal funding will shift an almost insurmountable financial burden onto county and city governments already wondering how they’ll pay off millions in storm-related costs.
The choices are stark: cut services, or raise property taxes, or both.
Cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as Food Stamps) total approximately $186 billion to $230 billion nationwide over the next decade.
As The Watchdog reported earlier, federal changes will force our state to pay an extra $420 million to fund the full benefits of SNAP or end the program. More than 1.4 million North Carolinians, including 600,000 children, rely on SNAP for basic food and nutrition.
Note: Per the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the values for average annual income after transfers and taxes (in 2025 dollars) over 2026-2034 by decile are: $39,464, $62,920, $76,475, $89,615, $105,066, $121,456, $143,117, $171,054, $217,451, and $517,103. Deciles are calculated with respect to equivalized household income.
Earlier today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a distributionalanalysis of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) as passed by the House of Representatives. The report analyzes how the OBBBA, which includes cuts to both taxes and to spending, would affect households across the income distribution. CBO finds that middle- and higher-income households (those in the top seven deciles) would see an increase in after-tax-and-transfer incomes if the bill were enacted, but lower-income households would see a net reduction in their resources.
The cuts also involve stricter work requirements for “able-bodied adults without dependents,” while shifting the cost for reporting/accountability measures — not just SNAP, but Medicaid as well — to the state.
Nearly 30,000 Buncombe County residentswere enrolled in SNAP as of April 2025. In western North Carolina, an estimated 15 percent of households participate in the SNAP program, well above the national average of 12 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. Children and seniors are particularly vulnerable to the SNAP cuts.
Cutbacks in federal food assistance, along with rocketing grocery store prices, will increase the demand at nonprofits like Asheville-based MANNA Food Bank, which already distributes free food to about 150,000 needy people in western North Carolina every month.
Also, grocery stores face losing millions in revenue from SNAP shoppers. Some small, rural stores that depend on SNAP will be at risk of closing, adding to food insecurity in surrounding areas.
Helene caused job losses
The Asheville metropolitan area lost 8,200 jobs between September and October, about 4 percent of all regional jobs, according to the North Carolina Department of Commerce. Buncombe County’s unemployment rate soared to 10.4 percent in October, from 2.5 percent before the storm.
By May 2025, the most recent tally available, the unemployment rate in Buncombe was 4.5 percent. Because the employment recovery from Helene is still ongoing, it’s difficult to definitively attribute recent job losses solely to the Department of Government Efficiency or cancellation of federal grant programs.
However, nationally, more than 290,000 layoffs in the first four months of 2025 were attributed directly or indirectly to DOGE efforts to slash government funding and reduce the size of the federal workforce, according to a new report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas.
Adding to the uncertainty, courts have ordered the government to rehire many of the workers fired by DOGE, or as a result of already-appropriated federal funds being rescinded.
Many local companies say their business decisions are complicated because of uncertainty over Trump’s tariff threats and retreats. The Federal Reserve Bank in Richmond, whose region includes North Carolina, reported that 72 percent of regional firms have modified operations, including pricing, hiring plans, capital expenditures, and sourcing because of tariff costs and uncertainty.
Ripple effects of the tariff policies have already impacted local businesses, including breweries, farms, restaurants, tourism, and local service providers. Prices are rising across sectors, including lumber, chemicals, machinery, auto parts, foodstuffs, and beer cans.
As Asheville and western North Carolina recover from Helene, jobs in hospitality, restaurant, healthcare, and other service occupations; construction and maintenance occupations; and transportation, and material moving occupations are all important. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, most of those jobs in 2024 were held by workers who were not born in the United States — including undocumented immigrants.
Census data show that more than 50,000 people who identify as Hispanic or Latino live in Buncombe, Henderson, Haywood, Transylvania, and five other westernmost counties in North Carolina, and as many as half are undocumented (“illegals,” in MAGA parlance), according to a study from the Charlotte-based Camino Research Institute.
The Trump administration has set internal targets of deporting 1 million immigrants per year. If successful, a significant percent of the local workforce could be lost.
Helene caused havoc for local schools.
Although on Friday it released $1.4 billion in already authorized funding for after-school programs, the federal government is still withholding nearly $6 billion in education funding. This includes some $2 million in paused funding for Buncombe County schools. Affected programs include teacher professional development, before-school initiatives, academic enrichment, English language learner support, and migrant education.
Unless replaced by local funding, those services will be lost. (North Carolina is among 23 states suing the Department of Education, the Office of Management and Budget, and President Trump to release the funds.)
In response to revenue loss resulting from Helene, Buncombe County in January slashed $4.7 million from the budget for Asheville City Schools and Buncombe County Schools.
Asheville schools already have one of the largest achievement gaps in the nation between white and minority students. Following the double whammy of the COVID-19 pandemic and Helene, the cutbacks in federal aid for public schools could worsen an already struggling system and harm our kids.
Helene highlighted the need for better climate and weather data, and effective, long-term solutions for increasingly volatile weather conditions.
As part of a purge of federal workers, nearly 20 employees at the Asheville-based National Centers for Environmental Information resigned or were laid off. The Asheville center manages one of the world’s largest archives of climate data collected by scientists and researchers, and its work is crucial for accurate weather forecasting, natural disaster preparation, and emergency response.
As a result of cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service, and plans to gut the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, western North Carolina — and the rest of the nation — is more vulnerable and less prepared for future weather calamities like Helene.
There are plenty of other issues arising from the past six months as Donald Trump tries to reshape America on the eve of its 250th anniversary. Science. Religion. Human rights and dignity. Diversity and inclusion. Constitutional rights and the law. Democracy. The list goes on. All can (and will) be viewed through a partisan lens.
But when we see facts and data and other warning signs of an impending financial and healthcare disaster, let’s put partisanship aside.
Recognizing the unpopularity of the legislation, Republicans delayed implementing the Medicaid budget cuts until after the midterm elections in 2026. Cynical? Obviously.
But there are 470 days until the midterms. That gives us time to demand that anyone wishing to represent us in the General Assembly or Congress should be as determined to protect us from disastrous legislative harm as from natural disasters.
One final call-out:
The value of public media was affirmed when thousands of people in western North Carolina, cut off from newspapers, television, the internet, and other sources of reliable information, turned to Blue Ridge Public Radio.
The Watchdog’s friends at BPR won national and state journalism awards for their Helene coverage. We applaud them. Their coverage was a lifeline in the days and weeks following the storm, especially for listeners in rural areas.
For our local station, BPR, that means aloss of $330,000 annually.
The cuts aren’t about saving taxpayer money. They’re about stifling criticism and silencing responsible journalism that holds power to account.
[Watchdog summer intern Linus Schafer Goulthorpe contributed research for this column.]
Asheville Watchdog welcomes thoughtful reader comments on this story, which has been republished on our Facebook page. Please submit your comments there.
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Peter H. Lewis is executive editor and a former New York Times senior writer, editor and columnist. Email plewis@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s local reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Left-Leaning
This article demonstrates a Left-Leaning bias through its critical framing of Republican-led legislation, especially the “One Big Beautiful Bill” and its associated impacts. While it cites a range of sources, including academic studies and government data, the narrative tone emphasizes worst-case outcomes and frequently casts GOP figures and Trump administration policies in a negative light. Though facts are presented and often backed by reputable institutions, the consistent highlighting of harm, the moral urgency, and dismissive framing of Republican perspectives indicate a slant. The outlet identifies as nonpartisan, but the editorial tone reflects progressive concerns, particularly regarding healthcare, social safety nets, and public broadcasting.
