Saturday, January 29, 2011
So what is a Governor supposed to do?
The economy has gone "Deep South" in your state and your predecessors spent years fiddly-fucking with the books to make them look good and all the problems land on your desk. Facing a public trained over the last 30+ years to bark and foam like mad dogs if you suggest a tax increase and unable to carry a deficit like the feds, what choice do you have? Why you screw the sick, the poor and the old because they don't contribute to your campaign kitty.
Hamstrung by federal prohibitions against lowering Medicaid eligibility, governors from both parties are exercising their remaining options in proposing bone-deep cuts to the program during the fourth consecutive year of brutal economic conditions.With the Congressional Republican/Teabaggers salivating at the thought of denying any funding to the states, kicking the helpless may become a national pastime.
Because states confront budget gaps estimated at $125 billion, few essential services — schools, roads, parks — are likely to escape the ax. But the election of tough-minded governors, the evaporation of federal aid, the relentless growth of Medicaid rolls and the exhaustion of alternatives have made the program, which primarily covers low-income children and disabled adults, an outsize target.
In Arizona, which last year ended Medicaid payments for some organ transplants, Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, is asking the Obama administration to waive a provision of the new health care law so that the state can remove 280,000 adults from the program’s rolls. In California, the newly elected governor, Jerry Brown, a Democrat, proposes cutting Medicaid by $1.7 billion, in part by limiting the beneficiaries to 10 doctor visits a year and six prescriptions a month.
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