GOP lawmakers' secret medical absences on taxpayer dime evade scrutiny

The pattern is stark but its roots are structural. When senior lawmakers vanish from Senate votes or House floor sessions for months—their offices pleading 'medical privacy' while taxpayer-funded salaries and staff continue—the public is left with no mechanism to demand accountability. Project 2025's blueprint to defund CPB, PBS, and NPR would eliminate the very journalists capable of pressing such questions: Who is missing votes? Why? And why is the public paying for secrecy?

Without a robust public-service press, there is no institution to ask the hard questions about lawmakers who vote against paid sick leave for ordinary workers while taking unlimited, undisclosed medical leave themselves. The erosion of public media isn't just about fewer documentaries; it's about removing the camera from the corridors of power when those in power refuse to answer. The alternative is not silence—it's a publicly financed journalism system, like Illinois's tax credit model or a small fee on Big Tech, that ensures transparency is a public good, not a donor luxury.