What’s Really Behind Trump’s DOGE Crusade?

Back in 2015 my wife and I were driving up through West Virginia on I-79 when we needed to stop for pee and some gas, so we got off the highway and pulled into the town of Gassaway, which is about halfway between Charleston and Morgantown; in other words, in the middle of nowhere, okay?

Gassaway is a town of about 800 residents, all of them white. The only jobs in Gassaway are the three or four crummy, little stores on the main street (pictured above) which do a little business on the day every two weeks when the county hospital in the next town issues paychecks, a few of which go to Gassaway residents who work there making the beds and emptying the bed pans.

It’s not like any of the doctors who work in that hospital live in Gassaway.

There is a small pharmacy in Gassaway, but when I walked into the store I noticed that most of the display shelves held liquor and cigarettes, not any products having to do with health.

According to the Census, the per capita income in Gassaway is $15,965; the per capita income for the entire country is $37,683.

In other words, as I walked around Gassaway I knew I was in the middle of what can only be described as a community comprised of poor, white trash. And it occurred to me during my brief visit to the town, that without federal…