Dear editor,

Our Congressman, Darin LaHood, of the 16th congressional district, recently sent out a news letter where the “Big Beautiful Bill” was described as the “most pro family piece of legislation in history.” And he was glad to support it.

How does a bill that cuts SNAP benefits become pro family? Struggling families need help. Cutting SNAP benefits is going to hurt families.

How is cutting Medicaid going to benefit families? Again, families that are struggling need Medicaid to keep their families healthy. Without Medicaid payments, some smaller, rural hospitals may find it difficult to provide medical services to all the people in their area. Those payments are important, because hospitals will not turn away poor people. Without reimbursement, how will those hospitals survive?

And since he is boasting about protecting families, How does having armed, masked men rounding up citizens and taking them into custody without warrants, often without cause, and without due process, help families? In fact it hurts families as news stories frequently tell of husbands or wives taken away, leaving their families without both parents, or grandparents. This is not helping families.

And exactly how does targeting Haitian immigrants for removal and returning them to Haiti benefit families? Haiti is in chaos, killings and rapes occur daily, yet our government is sending people back. Women and children. People who came here to escape the violence.

This “Big Beautiful Bill” does not benefit us.

It benefits the billionaires and multimillionaires.

Those who supported it should be ashamed.

And those who remain silent when men and women are rounded up based on skin color are not representing the values and morals of the United States of America.

-Terry Dickow, Rochelle