Utah’s U.S. senators frequently invoke Mormon values — compassion, moral accountability, love and care for the vulnerable — as guiding principles of their public service. Yet their recent vote to block the extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies exposes a stark contradiction between rhetoric and action.
These subsidies are lifelines. Ending them will raise health-care costs for millions of Americans, including Utah families, seniors, people with disabilities, and those living paycheck to paycheck. Choosing to make health care less affordable is not an act of compassion. It is a conscious decision to harm the very people their faith teaches them to protect.
That hypocrisy deepens when paired with their continued obedience to party leadership — even when it means supporting and empowering a man credibly accused and legally adjudicated of sexual abuse. Mormon teachings emphasize accountability, repentance, and truth. Shielding power instead of confronting wrongdoing is not moral leadership; it is moral failure.
Beyond faith, Utah’s senators have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and to serve the people — not a political party, not a personality, and not personal ambition. When they subordinate public welfare and ethical responsibility to partisan loyalty, they abandon that oath.
Love, as taught in their faith, is not passive or selective. Love does not excuse abuse. Love does not make health care unaffordable. Love requires courage — especially when it demands breaking ranks.
Utahns deserve leaders whose actions match the values they claim to hold and the oath they swore to honor. Anything less is a betrayal of trust.
Meaghan Mcculley, Sandy
Donate to the newsroom now. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax deductible