Sens. Marshall and Moran, you have the power to stop Medicaid cuts | Opinion
As the brother of a man with profound autism, my advocacy didn’t begin in a policy office — it began at home. Steve, my brother, was born in Kansas City before federal laws guaranteed education for all children. Rejected by Kansas City and Shawnee Mission public schools, he was marginalized from the start. Like so many families, we were left to navigate a world that too often looked the other way.
That personal experience led me to become a teacher, a member of the Kansas House of Representatives and later, a federal disability official in both the Clinton and Obama administrations. Today, I serve as senior policy adviser to the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals. And still, decades later, I’m fighting the same fight — this time against a catastrophic assault on Medicaid.
President Donald Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are pushing to slash $880 billion from the part of the budget that funds Medicaid. Let me be clear: This is not belt-tightening. This is a wrecking ball aimed directly at the system of care that keeps people with disabilities, seniors, and low-income Americans alive and connected to their communities.
Medicaid is not a luxury. It’s a lifeline.
In Kansas and Missouri, Medicaid supports hundreds of thousands of people — from individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to nursing home residents, to children and pregnant women. It pays for the direct support professionals who help people eat, bathe, work and live with dignity. My organization represents the people who work directly to help those with intellectual disabilities live in their own homes. Without this workforce and Medicaid, the disability system will collapse.
This is not an exaggeration. Providers will shut down. Wait lists will grow longer — or become permanent. Families already under stress will be forced into crisis. People who have spent years building lives in their communities could be forced back into institutions or abandoned entirely.
And the direct support professional workforce — already in short supply — will be devastated. Jobs lost. Lives upended.
The Republican senators from Kansas and Missouri — Roger Marshall, Jerry Moran, Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt — now face a choice.
Sen. Schmitt, whose son lives with significant disabilities, understands the strain families face. But will he — and the others — have the courage and backbone to say: No to Elon Musk. No to Trump. No to RFK Jr.
Sen. Moran and I served together in the Kansas Legislature. I remember him as thoughtful. I hope he can summon that same resolve now. Sen. Hawley has recently expressed concern about cuts to Medicaid in Missouri — especially since voters there have enshrined it in the state’s constitution. That’s commendable. But concern must become action.
And Sen. Marshall? Silence on these drastic cuts, in this moment, is complicity.
This is not the time for party-line votes or political calculation. This is the time to stand up and lead — for families, for workers, for the values we claim to represent.
This is the line in the sand.
I’ve spent my life in this fight — not just professionally, but personally. Because I’m not just a former official or adviser. I’m Steve’s brother.
Senators: You have the power to stop this. You can protect Medicaid. You can stand with the people of Missouri and Kansas — not against them.
History will remember what you did in this moment. Choose courage.