Obama and Biden blew $88 billion. Trump is actually delivering for rural America

Think back to the last guy in the Oval Office. Joe Biden vowed to connect rural Americans to broadband internet — the gateway to so much employment, education, and healthcare in the 21st century. But after spending more than $40 billion, not a single person was connected to high-speed internet. Promise broken.Before that, Barack Obama pledged to create huge numbers of “shovel-ready jobs” rebuilding American infrastructure, including in rural areas. But all he did was throw $48 billion down the drain. Less than two years later, Obama had to admit “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects.” Promise broken. But then there’s Donald Trump. He may very well be the first president of the 21st century who actually keeps his promise to rural America.Last year, in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Trump and Republicans in Congress created the “Rural Health Transformation Program.” Armed with $50 billion, the fund was designed to modernize and strengthen healthcare access and delivery in overlooked and undervalued communities. This was the largest federal investment in rural healthcare in history.Had Biden or Obama created this program, it would have been a boondoggle from Day 1. But the Trump administration, under the direction of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, Dr. Mehmet Oz, has been preparing to spend this money both quickly and well. Some of the first announcements came out from just CMS, and it’s clear that it will make a major and measurable impact in rural communities.Consider the money that Pennsylvania and South Dakota began to receive on Aug. 19. In the Keystone State, taxpayers are investing in advanced screening technology and more operating rooms in rural hospitals. In the Mount Rushmore State, $90 million is going to modernize rural healthcare, with new digital tools and cybersecurity upgrades.A day later, the Trump administration announced new funding for North Dakota to “coordinate statewide care and ensure seamless access for patients.” Since then, both West Virginia and Alabama have been awarded millions of dollars to help patients travel to medical providers and enhance the care for mental health and maternal health, among other much-needed improvements.More announcements are sure to come, and while the details will differ, they will all prove the same point. The Trump administration is serious about supporting and strengthening rural America — not with empty promises, but with immediate action.For the record, Trump’s rural health program also demonstrates the success of another signature Trump initiative: state restrictions on junk-food purchases using food stamps. States get more money from the healthcare fund if they adopt commonsense policies to improve health outcomes, such as working with the Agriculture Department to stop food stamp dollars from being used for soda and candy. To date, 23 states have received approvals for these waivers, and 10 implemented food-stamp restrictions this year. (A court ruling blocked some of the approvals.)This policy works. New research shows that the average household receiving food stamps spent 13% less money on soda in states with junk food bans. Unhealthy foods, including sugary beverages, lead to a slew of health problems — and also raise taxpayer spending on programs such as Medicaid. By financially incentivizing states to remove junk food from food stamps, the Trump administration is improving public health in rural areas and protecting taxpayers nationwide.Trump and Kennedy have promised to “make America healthy again,” including rural America. Normally, voters would be wise to ignore such rhetoric, because it’s just that — rhetoric. But Trump meant what he said, and he’s already making good on his pledge.WE GAVE EVERYTHING TO FIGHT TERRORISTS — BIDEN ARMED THEM. WHERE’S THE APOLOGY FOR KABUL?The contrast with Biden, Obama, and other presidents couldn’t be more stark. They made pie-in-the-sky predictions, only to have reality come crashing down. They wasted huge sums of taxpayer money and left rural America worse than they found it.Thank goodness that in Trump, we finally have a president who keeps his word and gets results — especially for the rural Americans who need help now.Hayden Dublois is data and analytics director at the Foundation for Government Accountability.