Andy Beshear, Kentucky governor: Trump’s bill will ‘hit rural America right in the face’

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said President Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress are waging war on rural America.

Mr. Beshear, a Democrat who is thought to be eyeing a presidential bid in 2028, said the “big beautiful bill” that Mr. Trump signed into law on Friday will result in 200,000 people in his state without health care, 20,000 health care workers losing their jobs, and could force the rural hospital to close.

“This law is devastating,” Mr. Beshear said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It’s the single worst piece of legislation I have seen in my lifetime, and it is a congressional Republican and presidential attack on rural America.”

“This is going to hit rural America right in the face,” he said.

Mr. Beshear stated that rural hospitals are heavily reliant on Medicaid funding.

Mr. Beshear stated that the new law will harm local economies, leave seniors and children without food assistance, and, in areas where hospitals close, require people to travel for hours to see a doctor, including pregnant women.

“I cannot believe that Congress was willing to pass this,” he said. “It is awful.”

Mr. Trump signed the bill into law Saturday after House Speaker Michael Johnson cobbled together the votes needed to pass the bill through the lower chamber.

The measure extended the 2017 Trump tax cuts and increased spending on border security and the military.

Every Democrat opposed the bill, citing cuts to Medicaid and food assistance, as well as tax breaks for the wealthy.

Rep. Tom Massie of Kentucky was one of two Republicans who opposed the bill. Mr. Massie said the bill was a “debt bomb ticking.”