Proposed Budget Cuts To Medicaid Could Kill Jobs And Short-Change Seniors

WASHINGTON -- While the debate over entitlements is focusing on cuts to Social Security and Medicare, Senate Democrats worry that the closed-door debt-ceiling talks could instead lead to major cuts to Medicaid at a time when the joint federal-state program is under assault from cash-strapped states hoping to close budget gaps.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) has organized more than 40 Democrats into a bloc committed to opposing cuts to Medicaid. "I can see just a feast of people who have no idea what Medicaid does and who don't care, because Medicaid people don't vote, they don't give money, they don't have lobbyists," he told HuffPost. "But it serves 68 million Americans, including all of the disabled, certain women and children, and all kinds of other things, and obviously the poor. But there's a lot of people around here who don't have any interest in the poor." Rockefeller lobbied the White House on Wednesday not to cut Medicaid.

House Republicans are pushing for dramatic cuts. The House Republican budget proposal, sponsored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), calls for a 5 percent cut in federal funding to state Medicaid programs in 2013, 15 percent in 2014, and 35 percent by 2021. The cuts would add up to about $750 billion over ten years, 64 percent of which would go to senior nursing home residents who depend on Medicaid to pay for their housing and assistance. Another 22 percent of the Medicaid budget is allocated to 34 million very poor children.

“Now I ask you, how could you possibly cut 35 percent of that budget and not hurt hundreds of thousands, if not millions of families who are dealing with a parent or a grandparent in a nursing home, or a child with serious disabilities?” Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council, recently told the Peterson Institute fiscal summit. “How is the math possible? If you tried to protect mathematically, you would have to eliminate coverage for all 34 million children.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/28/proposed-budget-cuts-to-m_n_885983.html

Another blow from federal funding will have a 'multiplier' effect at the local level.

And that's just a fiscal take - the core issue of a safety net remains the key ingredient, imo.

Thanks for the post.

:hi:

And we'll be left with what?