Senate Republicans agree on health cuts (for the old and poor), aide says

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-10-20T164309Z_01_WAT004247_RTRIDST_0_CONGRESS-HEALTH-URGENT.XML

WASHINGTON, Oct 20 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Finance Republicans, aiming to find $10 billion in savings, have reached a deal on health care budget cuts and will release details on Thursday afternoon, an aide to committee chairman Sen. Charles Grassley said.

Senate conservatives had hoped to trim Medicaid, the joint federal-state health program for the poor, by about $10 billion over five years but moderates on the panel pushed for some of the savings to come from Medicare, the federal health program for the elderly. The House is divided over its budget plans, with conservatives pushing for deeper spending cuts.

...short blurb...

anything else is just abominably irresponsible.

Why don't they for once say they'd like to line all the poor and elderly alongside a pit, take them out and bulldoze them over? That's what it amounts to.

How much would we save then, I wonder? We should e-mail all of them and ask these questions.

Short of actually overturning Roe v Wade, this is about as dumb as it gets.

There is the sandwich generation who are barely making it supporting their children with deep concerns about their parents. This is particularly if their parents need long term care for things like alzheimers. Medicaid plays a big role in long term care. There's the upcoming winter heating crisis which will force people, particularly those on fixed incomes, to turn to food stamps to survive. This particular mean spirited Republican majority, once again proves ineptitude in governing our nation on issues that matter, but short sidedness.

and many disabled persons are not OLD!

:grr:

:kick:

Once you get past Social Security, the defense budget, and interest on the national debt, what's left to cut? Most of the other federal programs don't add up to jack shit compared to the defecit created by tax cuts. There's only one place you can make any significant budget headway, and that's health programs for the elderly and disabled.

I wonder how this will go over with the American electorate...

With republicans in charge, it was just a matter of time before this happened.

Apparently, we trust the very people who promise every two years to utterly destroy our government to preserve it. What a maroon!

I mean...just....wow.... :wow:

Looking at them now with all their scandals and bad policies, I'd say they were shooting themselves in the foot, but they keep aiming the gun higher. This is nothing short of political suicide. (As Lisa Simpson said, "I warned you guys that Senior Citizens always vote in record numbers.")

Do they really think that any senior citizens (and the disabled, as CountAllVotes pointed out) that voted republican before are going to have their benefits slashed while Bush's tax cuts get made permanent and just say, "oh, no big deal"? Or that the AARP isn't going to go feather-pluckin' INSANE over this? Or that people won't remember that, RIGHT after a time when the plight of the poor was ignored in New Orleans, that it was the republicans who put the additional screws to them?

They're not even trying to keep up the illusion that they make tough spending cuts because they're fiscally conservative...they're just wantonly cutting every social support system they can while they still have a shred of power in Washington.

The end cometh nigh....

Medicaid pays my paycheck


CB

:(

old people voted.

They might pass it, but i am quite sure many will pay with their jobs. I am on disability, and i hope they do it. The outrage will be overwhelming. So yeah go ahead and shoot yourself in the foot.

I got a very good 10+ billion cut. Discontinue the war on drugs, the war in Iraq, and save hundereds of billions. But we can't do that, gotta kill brown folks and keep the prison full as they are American institutions.

Last I checked, our enemies hid in caves ....

It doesn't matter how many 150M, 1,2B contracts have been awarded
in homeland security alone that have produced NOTHING and I mean
NOTHING useful...
or the obvious raping of the US taxpayer with a war that costs
8B a day!

It's just outright theft what is going on.

Of course they would never cut their healthcare 100% for life plan or
their pensions now would they?

No problem doing it to the middle class and the poor though?

Can't even contemplate stopping the no bid contracts to their friends
either, or their pork invested bills they have passed.

Today the house was really busy protecting corporations from
being sued by those nasty consumers over their guns and their concentrated fat and sugar laden food.

It's so brazen I cannot believe the entire nation isn't in revolt.

Their immoral and irresponsible budget will not make my God happy and it infuriates me.

No. The are all Silverspoon Sociopaths as is the POS Prez.

alright.

with themselves?I watch and listen to them as their true priorities become more and more obvious and can't understand how they stay credible even to their so called"base".
Republicans blew the deficit levels sky high for this very purpose,to cut out any semblance of a safety net for everybody but their own wealthy corporate friends.Anything set aside to help normal people live comfortable lives is "commie nanny statism".We live in a world turned upside down.Truly.