When the Powerful Finally Tell the Truth

Lawrence Summers is not known for moral outrage. He has spent decades at the center of American economic policy—Treasury Secretary under President Clinton, advisor to President Obama, president of Harvard. His language has always been the careful, calibrated voice of markets and macroeconomics.

But today, in The New York Times, Summers did something unusual. He wrote plainly. He wrote with conviction. And he wrote about people, not just numbers.

Summers warned that the domestic policy bill signed by President Trump on July 4, 2025 is not just bad economics. It is catastrophic for human life.

• The law cuts Medicaid by approximately one trillion dollars over ten years.

• It will strip coverage from more than 11 million Americans.

• It could cause over 100,000 unnecessary deaths over the next decade.

• It will push rural hospitals into closure and leave families without care for the sick, elderly, and disabled.

Summers moved beyond statistics. He described how his own daughters—one a doctor, one a social worker in rural New Hampshire—are already grappling with impossible questions:

What do you tell a disabled patient who will lose transportation to medical care?

What happens when his home health care disappears and family members are forced to quit their jobs?

How do hospitals discharge patients who have nowhere safe to go?

Summers also pointed out that the law’s cruelty is matched by its stupidity. Costs will shift to hospitals and paying patients. Care delayed will become care denied. Entire communities will suffer as the system collapses under the weight of greed.

This is not a partisan issue. Summers has supported work requirements for welfare in the past. He is no radical. But he called this law what it is: unjustifiable and dangerous.

I will add only this. If you want to take a small, concrete step to help the people this law will hurt, consider donating to Disability Rights Wisconsin, an organization fighting every day for the dignity and rights of people with disabilities:

https://www.disabilityrightswi.org/donate/