While we watched Bush, the House cut Medicaid...

[Junkdrawer]

WASHINGTON - The House narrowly passed a $2.6 trillion budget Thursday evening that would cut back the Medicaid health care program for the poor for the first time since 1997 in a step toward trimming federal deficits.

The 214-211 vote approved a blueprint that instructs lawmakers to freeze or cut spending in many domestic programs outside defense and homeland security and restrain farm, student loan, pension and some other government programs that grow automatically from year to year.

The Senate simultaneously debated the measure and moved toward a vote Thursday night.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said it's time to look closely at benefit programs that are "popular but rife with waste."

"These entitlement programs deserve reform," he said. "The Medicaid system is antiquated and the quality of care is not being brought to the people that need it."

...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050429/ap_on_go_co/congress_spending

[flamingyouth]

1. If there were any justice, Tom DeLay would need Medicaid.

Speaking of being "rife with waste." :grr:

[K-W]

2. It isnt perfect so destroy it!!!!!!!!!

The conservative credo.

[ananda]

3. Will this..

.. get by the Senate? I hope not.

Sue

[Solly Mack]

4. Congress is rife with waste

can we cut that too?

[Junkdrawer]

5. My disabled brother is in a group home paid by Medicaid...

This is horrible news...

[EVDebs]

This Hobbesian bunch of Social Darwinists need their heads handed to them

The measure of a society is how it treats the weakest among them. This bunch is failing us badly.

I'm posting my tail off on DU and hope you do to. Tell your story; let's hope Dems in powerful positions can hear it too, Junkdrawer.

Democrats United Will Never Be Defeated !

Kick this thread to the 'greatest page' BTW

[Junkdrawer]

11. The weakest, indeed...

Medicaid is a federal/state program that provides health, community-based and institutional long-term services and supports, for children and families, the elderly, and people with disabilities. In 2000, more than 1.75 million Pennsylvania residents received services through Medicaid, including 391,401 people with disabilities

As the national economy has weakened and as Pennsylvania struggles to balance its budget and provide critical and life-saving services for its residents, The Arc of the United States and United Cerebral Palsy—national organizations that provide a voice for persons with mental retardation and cerebral palsy—have compiled information to help the public understand the essential role of Medicaid in providing critical services and supports to Pennsylvanians with mental retardation, cerebral palsy and related disabilities. As the state cuts its budget and prioritizes programs, care must be taken not to hurt our most vulnerable residents by cutting eligibility for Medicaid or eliminating critical Medicaid services.


...



http://www.thearc.org/medicaid/pennsylvania.doc

[leftchick]

40. My fundie/repuke sister has a son with CP

She has been relying on Medicaid for support with him for 16 years. I wonder if she will somehow blame this on Clinton? I feel so bad for my sweet nephew. And your brother as well.

:(

[deadparrot]

6. but THE DEMS STUCK TOGETHER.

We've gotta look for a silver lining, and this is it. It's long past time for soem party unity.

[AuntiBush]

19. What good is it when Repuks have no hearts!?!

They hate us.

I believe firmly now they've hated American's for decades.

[deadparrot]

20. Maybe, but

as far as that goes, we're powerless. Yes, it's totally depressing, but they are the majority. If they vote, they win. Period. We can't help it.

What we can help is our own party unity. If we're going to lose, I'd much rather we present a united front.

[Erika]

7. The UnChristian GOP House cut $ to help the poor.

You know, someone has to pay to keep the wealthy wealthy.

[Junkdrawer]

23. Remember "We will be judged by how we treat the weakest" during Schiavo?

in PA alone, 400,000 people with disabilities depend on Medicaid. My best friend is fighting his ass off with ARC to keep these "weakest" from bearing the brunt of the cuts.

[Webster Green]

8. Notice how they love to use the term: "reform".....

Hoping people will think they are fixing something, when they are actually dismantling it.

[pinto]

16. precisely. "Realizing savings in the budget"...is another scam phrase.

[RBHam]

9. Presto! Change-O! Don't look behind the mirror!

Karl Rove : an evil political version of David Blaine...

[thethinker]

10. Which house Democrats voted for this?

A group of house "democrats" calling themselves new democrats voted for the bankruptcy bill. They voted for it because they really liked the bill.

Does anyone know which representatives voted for this? I am keeping a record of how these people vote.

There are a thousand ways to cut expenses without taking it out of the pockets of the poorest members of society. They vote for something evil like this while giving the rich tax breaks all over the place. If they really wanted to cut expenses and balance a budget they would stop their give aways to the rich!

Something has to give with these so-called "democrats" in the house. I, for one, have had with them. I dislike them as much as I dislike DeLay.

[Erika]

12. We're talking about the GOP House cutting $ to the poor

Not the bankruptcy bill.

[Disturbed]

18. Force the wealthy and the Multi-Corps to pay taxes!!!!

Instead of allowing the Bush Junta to extend the Wealth Care System, Dems should be united in figuring out a way to keep this Criminal Admin. from destroying Amerika.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

13. Delay is a waste....let's get rid of him!

[Goathead]

31. Here is a start

http://www.dropthehammer.org/

[adigal]

14. More ammunition against these selfish

creeps for 2006.

[AuntiBush]

15. I knew it! Take our eyes off the REAL ISSUES

I said it on a previous post moments ago: Chimp rarely speaks, and from the WH at that! It was all 1 BIG put on to keep our attention away from the real bouncing ball!

Liars, Crooks & Thieves! Wake-up, American's! Jeez. What the heck does it take! They're not paying attention?

Can't take much more of this. Too darn sad.

Yeah... when he mentioned those numbers of troops not in Iraqi now, he neglected to say they're probably either deceased or in a hospital somewhere w/lost limbs, etc.

[Treblig]

25. "I knew it! Take our eyes off the REAL ISSUES"

What really galls me is that smirk of his when he says that he knows how we feel about SS since he is a baby-boomer too. It's like he knows what it's like to be one of us; working for a living.
Damm' -- this man just can't see past the end of his own nose.

[Cleita]

17. Bastards! Cheeze, now what will the poor children do?

They are always great at picking on those least able to fight back.

[bvar22]

21. Money for War

Money for War and KILLING..... increased!!!

Money for healing the SICK and POOR..... CUT!!!!

Jesus wept.
How can these greedy hypocrits sit in the front pews and publicly pray aloud to Jesus.


"Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." --- Dwight Eisenhauer

[undergroundpanther]

22. I get medicare

And a 500 buck check to live on.

I bet these rich pigs could not survive how I live.

I wish they would just..kill themselves. Because pigs like them do not deserve to breate the same air as I do.

Cut the rich off of thier money,staus, and deprive them, of healthcare. Kick fucking Zell out of the hospital.See how the piggies cope with what they make other people live through. The pigs never had to suffer or be deprived before. It's 'Bout time they felt it for themselves.

I curse them, for they are inhuman monsters with no sense of how hard reality is because they have been insulated from it..

[Seeker30]

24. Isnt this is what Jesus would do?

[Junkdrawer]

26. .

[Junkdrawer]

27. .

[Junkdrawer]

36. .

[Junkdrawer]

38. One last kick

:kick:

[Vinca]

28. I swear if they got what they really wanted

they'd line all the poor people up at the edge of an open pit and invite their NRA buddies for target practice. These people are disgusting.

[acmejack]

30. and bill us for the ammunition

Couldn't even think of reducing the tax cuts by ten percent and leave Medicare alone. Gotta have priorities...

[Junkdrawer]

29. Ted Kennedy's Statement on the Cuts...

...

MEDICAID Just last month, the Senate made it clear that cuts to the Medicaid program were unacceptable. In a bipartisan vote, we agreed to not make any cuts until a bipartisan commission had time to examine the Medicaid program and recommend possible reforms based on sound policy. And just this week, in an overwhelming bipartisan vote, the House instructed the budget conferees not to cut Medicaid.

Yet the budget we will be voting on shortly not only cuts Medicaid -- despite consensus in both the House and Senate against cuts -- its cuts to the program are deeper than those we voted down in March. The Senate rejected $15 billion in cuts to the Finance Committee last month, yet this budget report that was drafted in the dark of night behind closed doors forces the Finance Committee to cut $10 billion.

And if these cuts were not bad enough, the bipartisan Medicaid commission has turned into a partisan commission that the Administration can stack with members they know will recommend the cuts their predetermined cuts. Instead of a real examination of the Medicaid program so that we can modernize the program with needed reforms, we will have a commission whose agenda will be to recommend cuts.

...

http://kennedy.senate.gov/index_high.html

Here's hoping the Senate stops this madness.

[Junkdrawer]

35. THE SENATE PASSED IT TOO...

The article the original link pointed to was updated...

....

The vote was 214-211 in the House and 52-47 in the Senate.

The budget resolution is nonbinding, but it sets critical guidelines for lawmakers as they make decisions on taxes and specific spending programs for the 2006 fiscal year that begins October 1. Equally important, tax and spending legislation passed under direction from the budget is immune from Senate filibusters.

....

[hollowdweller]

32. This is good. A lot of medicaid recipients I know voted for Bush

In fact, a ton of people I know who get various checks from the gov't, medicaid, medicare, SSI, SSDI voted for Bush. They need to fully experience what they are voting for.

[Bridget Burke]

33. But a lot of them didn't.

Why should they be punished, too?

[wildwww2]

39. Diebold and Sequoia are why they are punished. Bu$h Inc. should be

punished. But since they can steal elections. And keep their fascist congress in place. Along with the smirking chimp. They will always be in power to steal from the poor to give to the rich. It is that simple. But it is certainly not what should happen.
Peace
Wildman
Al Gore is My President

[salin]

34. Wow. So let's let a bunch of children die

because they can't get medical treatment early on for conditions, that if they are not treated can progress into fatal conditions...

That'll show 'em.

*sarcasm*

[wabeewoman]

37. This needs to go out in letters to the editor how

bush talks about 'helping the poor' by cutting their social security at the SAME TIME as the republicans are passing a bill taking medicaid benefits from the poor. Someone should be able to come up with a good sound bite about this.