The sound of Congressman Mike Bost’s voice from a smartphone raised into the air was mixed with the sound of the chants of protestors and of passing cars.
The sun was setting, and warm light spilled over the Murphysboro skyline on the evening of March 11. But the protestors stood on the street by the Jackson County Courthouse, later marching back to Congressman Mike Bost’s office just before dusk.
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The protest was organized during the congressman’s telephone town hall meeting by the Carbondale Positive Action Committee, CPAC, who said that they felt their voices were not being heard by their representative in Congress. This protest was one of two protests in Jackson County that the committee organized within a week.
“There are so many people who are distressed by what’s happening in the government that we realize we need to speak up otherwise… democracy is being destroyed and oligarchy is taken over,” Judy Ashby, a member of CPAC said.
Several of the protesters told the Daily Egyptian that they were concerned with national issues and said their voices were not being heard by Bost, as residents of the 12th District. So, they took to the streets of Murphysboro to make their voices heard.
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“Normally he doesn’t show up in person. He just talks on the phone, and the calls are monitored,” Ashby said about Bost. “He doesn’t just listen to everybody, and so he doesn’t show up. So we said, ‘Okay, we’ll come to his office here in Murphysboro and let them know what the rest of the world thinks.’”
Ashby said that she felt like Bost does not respond to his entire constituency and questioned what he does in office.
But not just people from Jackson County showed up. Abby Butler also attended the protest. She said that she arrived a little late because she drove an hour and a half from Massac County to attend.
“I feel like Mike Bost has not been representing the people that are his constituents – the people that elected him.” Butler said.
She said that she thinks the way Bost voted in favor of a budget resolution planning to cut back on Medicaid doesn’t reflect what the people that voted for him want. “That’s our grandmothers. That’s us. And that is going to make it really really hard for the people that are already living paycheck to paycheck in order to get by,” Butler said.
Because of the recent changes from departments like DOGE, many people in southern Illinois and abroad are concerned that the proposed budget cuts will lead to decreased benefits in entitlement programs like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.
Bost voted “Yea” for the recently passed House budget bill which clerk.house.gov says will establish “the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2025” and set forth “the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2026 through 2034.”
According to the Washington Post, the bill requires $880 billion in cuts, an expectation that experts say the GOP cannot meet without changing benefits to entitlement programs like Medicaid and Medicare.
Sabrina Hardenbergh also expressed concern about Medicaid and Medicare, because she said that she has worked in health care in some of southern Illinois’ medically underserved areas. “If Bost’s wanting to cut Medicaid along with other GOP people, that denies service to low income people, to disabled people and to all our rural clinics in the medically underserved areas that wouldn’t be there to serve us,” she said.
Hardenbergh also said she was concerned about this bill because she is someone who could be directly affected. “I’m retired,” she said. “So they better not mess with Social Security and Medicaid or Medicare.”
Butler also expressed concerns about other policy issues such as immigration policies, misinformation in the media and tax cuts to the rich.
Hardnebergh said that she was concerned about the public school system and education in southern Illinois.
Photo Editor Enan Chediak can be reached at [email protected]. To stay up to date on all your southern Illinois news, be sure to follow The Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Instagram @dailyegyptian.
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