West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito frequently holds an end-of-the-week teleconference with state reporters. Here are three questions that I would like answered.
On Trump’s cuts at the National Institute of Health
”Over the years, as both a representative and senator, you have encouraged and supported funding for Alzheimer's research. In the last few days, however, the Trump administration fired many of the top Alzheimer researchers at the National Institute of Health. Do you support these cuts?”
Background:
Scoop --> Trump-Musk cuts just resulted in the firing of numerous top researchers at NIH's center for combating Alzheimer's, sources tell me. They predict big setbacks to fighting dementias.
— Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) February 19, 2025
This cause was once championed by *Republicans.*
Details here:https://t.co/2dJkBUN6Cs
From that article:
But one downsizing just started attracting notice among insiders at the National Institutes of Health, because it seems particularly inexplicable: According to people familiar with the situation, approximately one-tenth of the workers have now been let go at the NIH’s Center for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias, or CARD, including its incoming director, a highly regarded scientist credited with important innovations in the field.
What makes this particularly jarring is that it could set back efforts to treat and develop cures for these awful afflictions, as these insiders and other experts fear. But it’s also that the potential for this center to do good—and the importance of the broader cause of battling Alzheimer’s—have both been championed by Republicans. Indeed, CARD’s full name—the Roy Blunt Center for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias—honors former Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, an influential Republican who spoke glowingly about its potential to advance human progress when its opening was announced in 2022.
On the price of eggs and inflation
“For the last four years, you routinely criticized the Biden administration for rising food prices and one of Donald Trump’s major campaign promises was that he would lower food prices beginning on Day 1. What has the Trump administration done to lower food prices and why do prices continue to rise?”
Background:
For the last two years, Senator Capito has made the cost of living (specifically food costs) a recurring topic in her news conferences and on her social media platforms. In 2023, for example, the senator blamed the Biden administration for the price of eggs:
Eggs are a staple item in almost every home. When prices for everyday items like eggs soar, Americans’ ability to get by is threatened. https://t.co/OcShKbkAAm
— Shelley Moore Capito (@SenCapito) January 13, 2023
I have a hunch that Capito’s response would be to point to the current outbreak of the “bird flu” as a primary cause. Capito wouldn't be wrong. However, she was not willing to give the Biden administration any such leeway in her attacks. As the AP reported at the time:
As demand for eggs has risen, production in the U.S. has slumped because of the ongoing bird, or "avian," flu epidemic. Nearly 58 million birds have been infected with avian flu as of January 6, the USDA said, making it the deadliest outbreak in U.S. history. Infected birds must be slaughtered, causing egg supplies to fall and prices to surge.
On Trump’s proposed Medicaid cuts
“On the campaign trail last year, President Trump promised to not cut Medicaid. However, earlier today, he appeared to support cuts to the program. Will you support cuts to Medicaid programs?”
Background from earlier today:
BREAKING: Trump just endorsed House Republicans’ plan to gut Medicaid, the program he said he would “love and cherish.”
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) February 19, 2025
Medicaid provides health coverage to 72 million Americans. Trump is trying to rip that away. Democrats are fighting to stop him.
Here are more specifics from the Associated Press:
Republicans are weighing billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, threatening health care coverage for some of the 80 million U.S. adults and children enrolled in the safety net program.
Millions more Americans signed up for taxpayer-funded health care coverage like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace during the Biden administration, a shift lauded by Democrats as a success.
But Republicans, who are looking to slash federal spending and offer lucrative tax cuts to corporations and wealthier Americans, now see a big target ripe for trimming. The $880 billion Medicaid program is financed mostly by federal taxpayers, who pick up as much as 80% of the tab in some states. And states, too, have said they’re having trouble financing years of growth and sicker patients who enrolled in Medicaid.
Here are the state's Medicaid statistics from the Kaiser Family Foundation:
Will any reporter ask Capito about any of these issues? If so, it would be a first. I've been blogging since Shelley was first elected to the Senate in 2014 and unlike other prominent West Virginia politicians who face the WV press, I cannot remember any tough questions by West Virginia journalists directed to Capito. Senator Shelley always gets a pass.
