August 14, 2025 10:33 AM UTC

Jeff Hurd Keeps Pretending He Didn't Kill Rural Hospitals

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• by: Colorado Pols

Freshman Rep. Jeff “Bread Sandwich” Hurd (R-Grand Junction) is desperate to convince constituents, journalists — and perhaps, himself — that his two votes in favor of President Trump’s “big beautiful bullshit budget bill” won’t end up destroying rural hospitals in the third congressional district.

As Marianne Goodland of the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman reports from a recent public appearance by all eight members of Colorado’s congressional delegation:

Hurd disagreed with the assertion that rural hospitals will close because of the OBBA, and said anyone can satisfy the requirements for Medicaid by volunteering or going to work., requirements that he said don’t go into effect until April 2027.

“There’s time for us to get it right,” he said, such as through a temporary extension.

Oy.

During the debate and subsequent votes over the budget bill, Hurd made a fool of himself by signing his name on not one, but two different letters declaring that he absolutely could not vote in favor of a bill that made significant cuts to Medicaid — which is used by more than a quarter of his constituents and will almost certainly lead to the closure of rural hospitals throughout CO-03. Inexplicably, Hurd proceeded to vote ‘YES’ — twice — on legislation that made significant cuts to Medicaid and imperiled rural hospitals.

All of this came despite Hurd’s 2024 campaign pledge to expand health care access for rural Coloradans.

Rural hospitals in Colorado and throughout the country were clear before the final budget vote in early July that massive cuts to Medicaid would make it difficult for them to keep their lights on when the cuts go into effect in 2027. Hurd has tried to argue that this would not be the case, and now he’s saying that “there is still time” for Congress to do…something that will prevent hundreds of thousands of rural Coloradans from being hours away from critical medical help. Even if Congress or President Trump somehow agreed to approve a “temporary extension” to Medicaid cuts, it would only delay the inevitable death of rural hospitals. Such an extension is probably a pipe dream anyway; you can ask Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski how those “promises” she got from Trump turned out.

The hard truth is this: There WAS time for Hurd to get it right. He had two opportunities to vote ‘NO’ on the budget bill, but he didn’t have the courage to buck Republican leadership.

The fact that Hurd keeps trying so hard to shine this particular turd just reinforces the fact that he knew damn well that he was doing the wrong thing when he supported the budget bill. But he did it anyway, and there aren’t enough letters he can sign or protests he can lodge that will change this simple truth and alleviate his own guilt.

Jeff Hurd had two chances to do the right thing. He didn’t, and nothing else he says now makes any difference at all.