The push to rip the safety net
Marian Wright Edelman, NNPA Columnist
Issue date: 10/27/05 Section: POLITICS
All of this is why Senators Grassley and Baucus introduced such a crucial emergency bill (S.1716) and tried at least twice to move it quickly with unanimous consent through the Senate. It would get help to people. The governors support Grassley-Baucus. The hospitals and medical associations support it, African American and faith leaders support it, child and family advocates support it, but the president, Senator Frist and House Republican leaders are blocking it.
A handful of Senators, House members and the Bush administration who are opposing the $8.9 billion emergency Medicaid bill for Katrina victims call it a budget buster and deficit increaser while supporting massive tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires that cost over 8 times more! And some leaders are still trying to impose deep cuts in safety net programs like Medicaid and Section 8 housing - programs desperately needed by Katrina and others who are our most vulnerable citizens. What hypocrites!
Who's left suffering while the president and Congress play political budget politics? People like the elderly heart patients who are no longer able to be served at a charity hospital that has closed; the single adults who aren't eligible for Medicaid; and the countless people suffering from post traumatic stress disorders.
I hope we will not tolerate this callous disregard by our president, Senate and House leaders a day longer. I hope you will call Senator Frist and Speaker Hastert toll free at 888-CDF-1221 and tell them to stop blocking help for Katrina victims and call President Bush and tell him the same at 888-737-9612. Tell them to enact the Grassley-Baucus Emergency Health Care Relief Act of 2005 (S.1716) this week and not to bog it down, water it down, or delay it many more weeks as part of a partisan, complicated budget process.
Children are suffering today. Their country ought to respond.
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Marian Wright Edelman is CEO and founder of the Children's Defense Fund and its Action Council whose mission is to Leave No Child Behind and to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.
A handful of Senators, House members and the Bush administration who are opposing the $8.9 billion emergency Medicaid bill for Katrina victims call it a budget buster and deficit increaser while supporting massive tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires that cost over 8 times more! And some leaders are still trying to impose deep cuts in safety net programs like Medicaid and Section 8 housing - programs desperately needed by Katrina and others who are our most vulnerable citizens. What hypocrites!
Who's left suffering while the president and Congress play political budget politics? People like the elderly heart patients who are no longer able to be served at a charity hospital that has closed; the single adults who aren't eligible for Medicaid; and the countless people suffering from post traumatic stress disorders.
I hope we will not tolerate this callous disregard by our president, Senate and House leaders a day longer. I hope you will call Senator Frist and Speaker Hastert toll free at 888-CDF-1221 and tell them to stop blocking help for Katrina victims and call President Bush and tell him the same at 888-737-9612. Tell them to enact the Grassley-Baucus Emergency Health Care Relief Act of 2005 (S.1716) this week and not to bog it down, water it down, or delay it many more weeks as part of a partisan, complicated budget process.
Children are suffering today. Their country ought to respond.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marian Wright Edelman is CEO and founder of the Children's Defense Fund and its Action Council whose mission is to Leave No Child Behind and to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.