When Steve Meredith tells you to “take a deep breath,” he’s hoping you’ll forget to ask who lit the fire in the first place. The state senator from Leitchfield recently posted a long-winded defense of the legislature’s Medicaid budget cuts, painting himself as the sober-minded voice of reason in a storm of “fearmongering.” But if you know Steve Meredith’s past; not just his politics, but his career,  then you know exactly why his reassurances ring hollow. Because long before he was calling Medicaid unsustainable, he was profiting from it. From Hospital Exec to Political Opportunist. Before his election to the Kentucky Senate in 2016, Meredith ran a rural hospital system. Instead of being remembered as a bold reformer, he left a legacy of overworked nurses, underpaid staff, and a toxic culture that prioritized the bottom line over patient care. “Cutting the fat” in his world meant laying off frontline workers and slashing benefits while preserving bloated executive perks. And ...