posted on March 17, 2005 05:13:40 PM new
Senate Kills All Medicaid Cuts From Budget
Updated 6:30 PM ET March 17, 2005
By ALAN FRAM
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate delivered a slap at President Bush and its own Republican leaders Thursday by voting to erase his plans for cutting Medicaid, community development, schools and other parts of next year's $2.6 trillion budget.
Foreshadowing clashes ahead, the more conservative House approved its own fiscal outline relying on far deeper reductions in Medicaid and other domestic programs. After its 218-214 passage, top House Republicans chided the other chamber for not clamping down more on spending at a time of massive federal deficits.
"I'm not real pleased with what I'm hearing the Senate say" with its votes on spending, said House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa. He said he was looking forward to seeing what the Senate would "limp off the floor with."
In the Senate's watershed 52-48 roll call, a coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans voted to yank all $14 billion in proposed five-year cuts from Medicaid, the federal-state health-care program for the poor and disabled.
That is good news! Many of our patients are on disability and have Medicaid. They were mighty worried for a while. Thanks for posting this. I'm going to print it and hang it at work. This will put some minds at ease. They already have enough to worry about!
Cheryl
Cheryl
"No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power." ~ P.J. O'Rourke
posted on March 18, 2005 11:16:03 AM new
from Times Watch Tracker Date: Fri, Mar 18, 2005, 1:53pm
Subject: More Phantom "Steep Cuts" to Medicaid
TimesWatch Tracker
Documenting and Exposing the Liberal Agenda of the New York Times
TimesWatch Tracker: Our Latest Analysis
Friday, March 18, 2005
Today in TimesWatch:
(Headlines link to online postings with links to cited articles & sources)
More Phantom "Steep Cuts" to Medicaid
Friday's paper leads with the loaded headline, "In Blow To Bush, Senators Reject Cuts To Medicaid," over an article by congressional reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg.
"The House and Senate passed competing versions of a $2.57 trillion budget for 2006 on Thursday night. The two chambers provided tens of billions of dollars to extend President Bush's tax cuts over the next five years, but differed sharply over cuts to Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor….The House budget included steep cuts in Medicaid and other so-called entitlement programs."
But as the Associated Press points out on Friday, those "steep cuts" in Medicaid are actually reductions in planned increases: "The House budget would cull up to $20 billion from planned Medicaid spending over the next five years, a 1% reduction that would more than double what Bush's savings are worth. Overall, it seeks $69 billion in reductions from agriculture, student loans and other benefits, $18 billion more than Bush."
Also notice that, Stolberg's claim notwithstanding, the other "cuts" in the House budget don't involve "entitlement programs" but farm subsidies and student loans -- which only fiscal spendthrifts would consider true entitlements.
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Four More Years....YES!!!
[ edited by Linda_K on Mar 18, 2005 11:22 AM ]
posted on March 18, 2005 12:29:29 PM new
As per usual, linduh can't just be happy that the poor and disabled won't get screwed over, she has to prove some point that really doesn't affect the outcome.
So sorry you always miss the HUMAN element.....hard for you to identify with.
