ļ»æEpisode 37 A Conversation about Harris/Walz Rural Commitments
Michelle Rathman: Hello, one and all, and welcome to the Rural Impact. I'm Michelle Rathman, and you are listening to the podcast that works hard to connect the dots between policy and rural everything. Okay, so today we are bringing you a very special Rural Impact Extra episode, and it is actually related to our whole series called Courageous Conversations About the 2024 Election.
Now in this series, you recall that we kick it off with a really fascinating conversation with Heidi Heitkamp Former Senator from North Dakota, Founder of One Country Project, and of course, the Host of the great podcast, The Hot Dish with her brother, Joel. And we also heard from Isaac Wright of the Rural Voter Institute, as well as Carrie Cochran-McClain from the National Rural Health Association.
And of course, we discussed all the pressing policy matters related to rural hospital closures, OB deserts, reimbursements for clinics, providers, staffing issues, and so forth. And then last week, we were joined by the ever-wise Dee Davis. And like only Dee can do, we discussed capital D, Democracy. Now, if you have not listened to these episodes, this is my open invitation to you to download and listen.
But first I am very eager to have my next guest join us. And that is Breyanta, Bre, she likes to be called, Booker-Maxwell and growing up in rural South Carolina, Bre learned from her mother the importance of voting in elections to create change. And that's so true in the community. And this followed Bre all the way to her recent appointment to serve in the Biden-Harris Administration as an advanced coordinator with the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and now rural coalitions director with the Democratic National Committee. Bre, welcome. It is. Wonderful to have you here with us for so many reasons.
Bryanta Booker-Maxwell: Listen, I'm happy to be here. Anytime I can talk about rural, rural America, rural communities, rural politics, I am very happy to do it.
Michelle Rathman: Well, we're glad they're here because, you know, we know that there's a lot of interest in rural voters. I wouldn't say they're altruistic, but there's a lot of interest in rural voters. We like to pigeonhole rural voters, and we've been working hard on this series that we're in to make sure that we don't do that.
But I also believe that there is a lack of understanding, a lesser known about all the policy and the investments that that spur for rural in the past nearly four years. And I know this, the time that we're recording this, even lesser known and more speculation perhaps about what a Harris-Walz Administration intends for rural. So let's start off, Bre, by talking about two biggies, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.
What has been the impact on rural?
Bryanta Booker-Maxwell: So again, Michelle, thank you for having me. So, let's, let's, let's dive right into it. So, the amazing thing about the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, is that those are two amazing investments that the Biden-Harris Administration has created that has made a huge impact into rural America.
And it has made a huge impact into such things such as clean water, you know, clean air, making sure that old pipes that people have, have been able to be fixed, our roads and our bridges. You know, some of those things are things that have been ignored and pretty much cast aside within rural America. So those are some of the things that those two acts have been able to help with and to take care of.
And also, at the tune of three hundred and fifty billion dollars, that amount of money has been able to be invested into some of our territory. Some of our tribes into three thousand of our counties within the US, into thirty thousand towns, that money is going to make sure that some of our areas have the grants and the local governments have the grants that they need.
To make sure that these funds, the funding is going to take care of some of these rural areas. So those are just, you know, some of the things that the Biden-Harris administration has been able to do. And these are some of the things that Harris-Walz Administration will continue to build upon.
Michelle Rathman: Yeah, because I think you and I were talking earlier, it can't just be, you know, one investment and then it's fixed. I mean, in a perfect, in our perfect, in my mind anyway, we dissolve the issues. But policy really and the investments that are born from those, from those policies are what even gives us the ability to keep trying and keep going at it.
Bre, let's shift to healthcare because, you know, we, we hear so much about, you know, those in quote kitchen table issues. And I like to expand the conversation beyond just kind of that low hanging fruit, like the cost of eggs and milk, which has really nothing to do with general elections, but health care does. We have a serious and expanding rural hospital closing crisis in this country.
This is why I keep talking about it. How will the Harris-Walz Administration address the root causes of this issue? And that includes the disappearance of obstetric services, which is, has really reached an alarming level. And I know at the DNC recently that was a big focus as well.
Bryanta Booker-Maxwell: So, discussing health care is very near and dear to me. You know, as we've discussed, I grew up in rural America. I grew up with my mom having breast cancer and my dad succumbing to his sickle cell crisis. So, I have seen firsthand what not having access to healthcare has been able to do to not only my family, but to other families.
And one thing about Trump, his Administration also Project 2025 is, it's going to continue to demand to our hospitals and our rural areas, because these rural hospitals will not be able to afford to be able to remain where they are. And then on top of the rural hospitals closing under the Trump Administration, we also have to think about how these rural hospitals have closed under Republican governors.
You know, growing up in South Carolina, we've had so many hospitals closed. And then the key to making sure that healthcare is accessible for everyone and affordable is Medicaid expansion. And that is something that the Trump Administration did not focus on. And this will be something that Project 2025 will make sure doesn't happen.
So, we have to make sure that Medicaid expansion is happening in our state, so make sure that people can afford healthcare, people have access to healthcare, and people have access to proper healthcare. Now, that's the key. We can make sure that people have access to healthcare, but we also need to make sure they have access to proper healthcare, and that's important.
And then back to OBGYN services. Birthing people are having issues in rural areas to get to OBGYNs because in some instances you have to drive 30 to 40 minutes. Who wants to drive 30 to 40 minutes to a doctor and to see a OBGYN at that, you know? So, we have to make sure that if once Medicaid is expanded in our rural areas, that people do not have to drive so far to receive the medical treatment that they need.
And this is something that the Biden-Harris Administration has focused on, and this will be something that the Harris-Walz Administration will continue to build upon. And another thing, it's obvious that the Harris-Walz Administration will focus on reproductive issues. It's because, look, the Vice President is currently on tour right now on a reproductive tour.
So, these are some things that are showing you that she's going to make it a focus. Roe v. Wade. She's going to make sure that that we bring that back and make sure that it is a focus and it is a center point. Because women have, we have our own, you know, birthing people have their own health care needs and accessibilities that we need to make sure are being focused on.
Michelle Rathman: You know, Bre you bring up an interesting point, because later on I want to I do want to talk to you about Project 2025 and, you know, I've read it, and I am stunned by the notion that we would rename the Department of Health and Human Services. And basically, you know, gut you know, none of us can sit here and say that there's not a lot that we could do better.
There's a lot that needs to be fixed. This is something that's, you know, been going on, we know policy over policy over policy for many, many years, but the end of the day, gutting that agency and what that would mean for rural, I shudder to think the lack of resources that would, the resources that would cease to exist pouring into rural health.
Bryanta Booker-Maxwell: Yeah, because the answer is not always going to be just keep building urgent care centers. Urgent care centers are great, but we, we need doctors, we need specialized doctors, and we need hospitals in these rural areas. Maybe have a, you know, an urgent care center every now and then, but we need specialized doctors.
We need pediatricians, OBGYNs, we, you know, we need the whole gamut. And this is why it's important to make sure that we have Medicaid expansion. And this is important. This is also why it's important that we have a Harris-Walz Administration who will build upon this. Absolutely.
Michelle Rathman: Yeah, and on top of that, I just want to mention that because of the Biden-Harris Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services invested over 28 million dollars in awards across 25 states to create new rural residency programs and train more physicians in rural. And that's just scratching the surface. I'm sure.
So, let's hop over to another subject that I know is important to you. And that is America's rural schools. I mean, one of the things I, I reached out to my vast network of rural folks. I said, what should I ask? And one question was, how about asking if there could be just a special subset of the Administration that just as the Office of Rural and, you know, hand-in-hand with rural health care is rural education.
And we need our young, we need our, our rural families to have schools that are teaching their children up to the level that they need to, to be competitive, to join the workforce, to be prepared, to have an enriched experience.
Defunding rural schools is a significant issue that's been gaining attention for good reason. And with Governor Walz joining the ticket, what are the plans to protect rural schools from voucher programs? I think Missouri is a good example of where in Oklahoma is another example. And of course we must be talking about feeding our children and the plans to expand programs to school based in summer nutrition programs where prior Administrations there were gaps to say the least.
Bryanta Booker-Maxwell: So, the amazing thing about having Walz on the ticket is that this is a more so a situation of displaying leadership and putting your money where your mouth is because Walz is a former educator and coach. And right now we do have an education crisis in this country and what better way to help fix education is to have someone who is involved with education who has been involved with education.
So, he knows the issues that are plaguing our rural schools and our, and our public schools. And one thing that Walz was able to do when he was in Minnesota is to make sure that he fought against the privatization of public schools. And this is something that he will carry on into the Harris-Walz Administration, because we also know with Project 2025, they're trying to dismantle public schools, stop funding of public schools, as well as get rid of the Department of Education.
So, it's important. that we have an Administration that is tackling the issues and making sure that the doors of rural schools are staying open. The doors of rural public schools are staying open and that they have the funding that they need. We need to make sure that we have certified teachers for these schools, making sure that the students have the test scores to be able to compete in, you know, in this country.
So, I think one of the problems is that the funding is leaving some of our rural public schools. And we have these Republican governors who are all for it. You know, for example, in South Carolina, we have a State Superintendent who she, that's one of the things she campaigned on is making sure that money is being taken away from our public schools to go to our private schools.
And in what world does that make any sense? Not a, not a world that I live in and not a world that you live in either. So, we have to make sure that the money and the funding for public schools, and most importantly, our rural schools, stay there. And this is something that the Harris-Walz Administration will build upon.
Michelle Rathman: Hmm. Yeah, Bre, you talk to anyone in that rural space and those larger programs are not serving rural students by any stretch of the imagination. And listen, if you're a listener out there and you can show me, otherwise, I welcome you to reach out to me and show me some examples. All right. Now let's hop over to something else.
And this is a biggie because the Farm Bill. I don't know. I often see it kind of as a poker chip, you know, for negotiating and so forth. But as we know, it is the massive omnibus that underpins the U. S. food system built to unite policies backed by GOP leaning rural farm counties. We say often that if, you know, you're a member of the House, typically, there's no one rural, but if you've got a senator, they have rural communities in their sights.
So, with other priorities of democratic leaning urban population centers, such as the issues around food and nutritious nutrition programs, like SNAP, for example. So the agriculture section of Project 2025, authored by someone named Daren Bakst of the Competitive Enterprise Institute divorces these two completely. And with that calls for significant cuts and dramatic policy changes in contrast to that, what does the Harris-Walz plan for USDA and the programs that it anchors? What does that mean? What's the contrast?
Bryanta Booker-Maxwell: So let's talk about SNAP. So one of the amazing things that the Biden-Harris Administration has been able to do is to make sure that 40 million people have access to SNAP benefits. This is something that's unheard of. This has been the largest investment into SNAP and no other Administration has done this.
Now other Administrations probably have invested into SNAP but not at the tune of making sure that 40 million people have this. And you know what this means? This means that children are not going to bed hungry. This means families are able to make sure that they can eat proper nutritious meals opposed to just eating unhealthy processed foods.
So what the Biden-Harris Administration have been able to do is make sure that we are focusing on a gamut of our citizens to make sure that they have access to food. Proper nutritious food, make sure that people have food on the table because it makes no sense to live in a country that we call the free world and people don't have proper access to food.
So this is one thing that the Biden-Harris Administration is making sure that they're tackling, making sure that we are, we have invested 583 million into meat and processing industries, meat and processing processes to make sure that people have access to, you know, clean meat. It makes no sense that people don't have access to clean meat because that was one thing the Trump Administration tried to tackle.
Hence, look at what's going on with Boar's Head. When they toured the factory, they saw rat droppings and things of that nature that are, that are now affecting people across the country. So now people don't even want to get Boar's Head meat because of some issues that the Trump Administration deregulated with some of our, you know, our meat factories.
And just making sure that they're, the Biden-Harris Administration also invested over 200 million into the food supply chain to make sure that we have opportunities for small business and entrepreneurs.
So, these are just a few things that they are working on. And then also with minority farmers. They recently just invested over 2 billion dollars into minority farmers to make sure that they have the things that they need to make sure that their farms are top notch and on par.
They've invested 3.1 billion into distressed farmers. So, the Biden Harris Administration is making sure that farmers have the access that they need, the capital that they need to make sure that our food supply chain continues to grow, continues to build, and we're able to eat clean and nutritious foods.
But while Project 2025 will not build upon that, while they are just basically trying to put money into the pockets of, you know, corporate interests and not into the hands of the people.
Michelle Rathman: Yes, corporate farming. I mean these are such big we say on this podcast these are not light subjects, and hopefully there's some enlightenment there And I think the last question I want to ask you and there's so many others I have in my head.
But this one I think is important, you know, we hear so often you know about the undecided or about someone who says well, I don't really know her policies and I think maybe you could help us out by just expanding a little bit about how do folks out there who, who make an informed decision. That's all my biggest ask of anybody is to make an informed decision, not what you see on a social media, you know clickbait, or some news agency, I use the term loosely, you know with an agenda of their own.
How do folks get to understand Vice President Harris and Tim Walz, their rural policies? What would you say are the top three things would be the most important for our listeners to understand about, about their feelings about making sure that rural isn't just kind of squeezed into the bigger urban picture, but really a carve out a subset of, you know, 62 million plus people who really need to hear that, that they're understood and that there's an interest in listening to their concerns?
Bryanta Booker-Maxwell: So, let's focus on health care, housing, and lower grocery costs. Right now, the cost of groceries. The cost of food is decimating some families. And some families can barely afford nutritious meals. That is one thing they need to look at because she has policies. She has created some policies to make sure that we're not spending all of our pocketbook money at the grocery store and make sure that you're not having to pick and choose between the items that you want to buy at the grocery store.
So, pay attention to those policies as they roll out, because we all know that the cost of milk, the cost of eggs, the cost of bread is astronomically high for some people for some families right now.
So a lot
Michelle Rathman: Rural in particular, like if you're living out in a rural remote.
Bryanta Booker-Maxwell: areas. Yeah. Rural remote, you may not have the access to the, to the, you know, top notch grocery stores.
So, pay attention to the fact that she's rolling out policies to lower these costs. Let's talk about healthcare. Let's talk about drug costs. We know that insulin is now capped at $35. That's a big help to families. I know that I come from, my grandmother she suffered from diabetes. And just to know that if she was able to have that $35 insulin cost, she may still be here today.
So just think about how that will help some families. And just the proper access to healthcare. Let's, let's, when we talk about Medicaid expansion, let's focus on that. A lot of our rural, like I said, a lot of our rural areas don't have proper or accessible or affordable access to healthcare. And right now, she is rolling out policies, the Harris-Walz Administration or campaign are rolling out policies to make sure that people have accessibility to healthcare.
The key thing is making sure that people have accessibility to healthcare. Because that can help you live longer and you can be healthy for your families. And then housing costs. We know that the, the cost of some people's mortgages and the cost of some people's rent is just astronomically too high. And people are being priced out. And another thing that they are working on is a 40 billion dollar innovation fund to make sure that three million homes are able to be built across the country. And I say this as a former Head HUD staffer because I have been in in some of these meetings where?
Some of the developers was talking about how you know, you know, the cost is just too high and this, and they have to price homes at this amount so that, you know, they can get these houses built. And we also know that during the Trump Administration, the cost of lumber went up, and so we also know that if we have Project 2025, that there will not be affordable housing.
So, we'll have people continue to be priced out. So, think about your pocketbook issues. What would you like to see? You want to be able to. You want to be able to have some ribs on a Saturday evening with your family. You want to be able to have a fish fry on a Friday night with your family. You want to be able to go to the doctor and get some medicine for no less than $20 to make sure that you can get rid of the flu if you have it.
You want to be able to live in a nice, comfortable, safe neighborhood. And these are all the things that the Biden-Harris Administration has worked on. And these are all the things that the Harris-Walz Administration will continue to build upon. So think about, think about, do you want those things to be alleviated out of your life?
But do you want those things to be able to build and grow and you have accessibility to it? And so, this is why you need to invest in a Harris-Walz Administration. Not a Trump in a Project 2025 because that's just going to make life not only harder for you, but for your families and then if you are running a small business, it's going to make life harder for, for your staff if you have staffers. So, these are just some things to think about.
Michelle Rathman: Well, we do say all the roads to quality of life are indeed paved by a policy, and these are just scratching the surface of the issues that we need to be thinking about. Bre, we're going to be listening. We're going to be following rural news, the impact of policy. Please send it our way because we, we think it's important again with just the, where we're recording this in early September. We're, we're really just on the eve of what I am saying is going to be the biggest election of my lifetime, and I'm getting up there.
Bryanta Booker-Maxwell: Yes
Michelle Rathman: I'm getting to my, my sixth decade, to be honest with you.
Bryanta Booker-Maxwell: Well, you don't look a day over 30.
Michelle Rathman: Oh, well, thank you. Thank you. Okay, Bre, I mean, come back anytime.
And before we sign off, first couple of reminders, number one, check your voter registration. I say it often and there's a good reason why. So, check your voter registration.
If you haven't done that yet, make sure that you do. And I also want to remind you that we sure do appreciate it when you follow us on social and subscribe. Rate our podcast, comment, it sure helps others find us and get interested in the topics we're talking about. And of course it does help to support our work.
And as always, when I say until we're together again, take good care of yourself and each other because you could do that best of all. We'll see you the next time on a new episode of The Rural Impact.
