“Children are the world’s most valuable resource,” John F. Kennedy proclaimed, “and its best hope for the future.”
Page H2From§Eachthe noon edition — 6 September 2026
Administration promises children new educational opportunities, having already cut 2.5 million from health coverage
As it ran on the front
The new school year arrived this week with the usual props: backpacks, first-day photos, and a fresh law promising families "new solutions" and "educational opportunity." The Washington Examiner counts the ritual in dollars — American families are projected to spend more than $43 billion getting their kids ready for class, an investment made on the strength of that optimism.
The optimism is dated September 6. The numbers describing the same school year are dated five days earlier. On September 1, Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families published data showing nearly 2.5 million children in the United States lost Medicaid or CHIP coverage during this administration's second term. Five states saw children's enrollment in those programs fall by ten percent or more. Indiana's drop passed twenty-three percent. Colorado and Hawaii were the only states that didn't see a decline.…
…(cont) So the law promising opportunity this year sits on top of a coverage chart that is also this year. A child can walk into homeroom holding part of that $43 billion in a new backpack and still be one of the 2.5 million children whose insurance stopped working sometime in the last twenty months. Both facts are dated 2026. The Hill ran its own headline the same week, calling it a war on children and noting the administration was winning — not campaign language, just the same enrollment count sitting under a different flag.
The money is not gone, though. On September 2, the president's super PAC debuted its first ad for the 2026 midterms — a $1 million national buy, narrated by the president himself and a UFC executive, about the president. That ad ran the same week Georgetown published its enrollment numbers. One of those items came with a marketing budget. The other came with a spreadsheet.
This is what "new solutions" costs when you follow the money down: a backpack bought with a family's share of $43 billion, a health-insurance drop of 2.5 million children, and a $1 million ad about the man presiding over both numbers. The opportunity and the coverage loss share an administration, a fiscal year, and a school calendar. They do not share a press release, an author, or an audience. Two stories about the same September, written for two different readers — one of them gets a photo op, the other gets a letter from the state saying the coverage lapsed.
“You don't lose 2.5 million kids off Medicaid by accident, and you don't spend a million bucks on a Trump ad by accident either — that's two checks written by the same hand in the same month. Georgetown counted it: five states with double-digit drops, Indiana over twenty-three percent, and not one of those families got a press release. They'll hand you a backpack and call it opportunity while the insurance card in that backpack stops working.”
“Look, the new law is about choice — options, opportunity, parents deciding what's best for their kid's education. The Medicaid numbers are a totally separate program, different agency, different budget, nothing to do with — wait, did I just say those were unrelated? That's not what I meant. Two different school years, two different stories, forget I connected them.”
The receipts
The start of a new school year brings a familiar ritual: Backpacks are packed, first-day photos are snapped, and families send children to school with optimism about the year ahead. That optimism is backed by a significant investment. This year, American families are expected to spend more than $43 billion preparing for school — a […]
· Nearly 2.5 Million Children Have Lost Medicaid and CHIP—So Far—During Trump’s Second Term from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Trump-aligned group releases first midterm ads — and they’re all about him from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· Trump is winning his war for oil while the whole world roots against him from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.