“And so it begins.” – King Theoden

The assault on life, liberty, and the pursuit of healthiness has begun in earnest. W(easel)’s proposed budget includes at least a $45 billion cut in Medicaid funding. Why should you care? Because the people that are affected are the ones that are the most vulnerable, and the ones that have the most to lose: the poor, the disabled, the elderly. Or does the party of so-called “moral values” really not care about that segment of society that has the least voice and least ability to defend itself? At least the governors are (sort of) standing up to the Great Satan:

Ohio Gov. Bob Taft (R) said governors are united in their opposition to the administration’s cuts and in favor of wanting more flexibility to administer the program. “With respect to the budget itself, we’ve made it clear we oppose that and we’ll see how that issue works out here in the next few weeks,” he said.

Governors objected to the sense that the “budget was driving policy rather than policy driving the budget,” Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) said.

“What they are saying to states is, ‘We’re going to cut you and give you more flexibility,’ and the flexibility is you can cut people off,” Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D) said. “That is not acceptable to me.” Medicaid costs have exploded largely because millions more people have lost private insurance, he said.

Washington Post 3-2-2005 (full article here – free subscription required)

And to take things to an even more ridiculous level, Bush-league is screwing the pooch from both ends: the Medicaid program has a special provision that mandates drug companies to provide it with prescription drugs to at the lowest price offered to any private purchaser. But oversight is lax in this area, and the Medicaid program is getting royally ripped off – by up to 16% in some cases! Okay, so there’s a huge opportunity for savings – let’s take advanatage of it, right? Nope. Not only is Georgie not seeking to enforce this law, he’s actively seeking to repeal it in his FY 2006 budget! So:

1. don’t enforce the existing law that requires Medicaid drugs to be offered at the lowest price, and
2. get rid of the law that mandates this, so that
3. drug companies can fatten their purses further, and
4. chop $45-60 billion off the Medicaid budget to boot

There’s an a-hole that really cares about the people.