Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 20 October 2005 — Page 3

The Muncie Times • October 20. 2005 • Page 3

President Bush and Congressional Allies propose big tax changes, oppose emergency relief for Katrina victims

By Marian Wright Edelman Astonishingly, President Bush, Senator Frist and House Republicans are pressing ahead with proposals to cut between $35 and $50 billion from crucial safety net programs including Medicaid, Section 8 housing, and Food Stamps while proposing huge tax cuts of about $70 billion for the rich. They are opposing a bipartisan $8.9 billion Disaster Relief Medicaid bill that would provide 100% federal funding for emergency health and mental health care for Katrina victims wherever they are. The Grassley-Baucus bill

would also cut through the 50 states’ red tape with varying eligibility requirements and just help suffering people now. On September 24, 2001, thirteen days after our September 11th national disaster, emergency Medicaid assistance was up and running in New York. Katrina victims deserve no less. Yet over seven weeks after Katrina destroyed the homes, schools, child care centers, jobs, medical records, and charity hospitals relied on by millions of people living in three of the poorest states in America - Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama - President Bush, Senator Frist and other

Republicans in Congress are blocking the bipartisan effort to get urgently needed health, mental health and other emergency supports to Katrina victims. Why after the colossal bungling, preventable loss of life and preventable suffering resulting from incompetent FEMA evacuation and relief efforts, which still persist, and why after the President’s correct and compassionate words about the need to address poverty at the prayer service for Katrina victims at Washington National Cathedral, is he continuing to leave poor children, families, seniors, and single people who desperately need health care behind? His Administration and congressional allies claim they are taking care of the health and mental health needs of Katrina victims by giving some individual states Medicaid waivers. But this is a farce. They’ve given Medicaid waivers without a new dime to help fiscally strapped states meet the new demands of hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the storm. Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation, is turning down many people who apply because they don’t fit current Medicaid eligibility requirements or are not responding promptly to people who do. Louisiana, the second poorest state in the nation, did not even bother to apply for a waiver because they don’t have any

money to meet the match and, like all the other states with Katrina evacuees, don’t want to accept thousands of new Medicaid applications for which they will be left holding the financial bag without 100% federal funding assistance. That’s 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 just 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 dollar 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 patient no longer able to be served at a charity hospital that has closed; the family with 2 children - one 9 years old with a serious neurological development delay that makes him function like a 2-year-old and a 7-year-old with asthma unable to get medications; all the diabetics and people with hypertension and arthritis with no medical cards or money for prescriptions; the single adults who aren’t eligible for Medicaid; and the countless people suffering from post traumatic stress disorders including children acting out in school who need mental health assistance now! 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 Hasten 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!

COMMUNITY CENTER

The Buley Center is working in collaboration with Ball State University to put together a video. If you have any information, experiences, or stories concerning the Buley Center, please let us know. You may be asked to be on camera to tell your story. E- mail Ian at [email protected]