Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Values.

From around the news:

County leaders balk at Pataki's Medicaid reforms

"Gov. George E. Pataki is pushing a plan to limit the runaway growth of Medicaid spending for local governments. But a number of county leaders across the state have balked because the plan would not take effect unless the Legislature agrees to deep cuts in health care programs."

Nevada faces growing Medicaid costs for elderly, disabled
"Care for the aged and disabled populations is pushing program costs higher, said Charles Duarte, administrator of the Division of Health Care Financing and Policy, which oversees the Medicaid program."

Legislators face quagmire over Medicaid

"U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate has given the Legislature until Jan. 31 to act on the removal of at least 50,000 elderly and disabled from the state Medicaid rolls.

Taxes, service cuts eyed to heal Medicaid
"Saving Medicaid, which serves one of every four state residents, will require both tax and fee increases, lawmakers say. And they warn they may have to cut other state services, a move that potentially could affect almost all Mississippians."

Medicaid, education top issues in Albany

Health care and public education, already the costliest elements of the state's budget, will dominate the debate in 2005 at the Capitol as the Legislature begins its session this week.

Medicaid reimbursement rates take center stage again

Since Medicaid accounts for nearly 40 percent of state spending, the program for Ohio's poor and disabled will be at the center of debates in early 2005 on how to eliminate a projected shortfall of between $4 billion and $5 billion from the state's biennial budget plan for fiscal 2006 and 2007.

Governors to pitch Medicaid reform

The National Governors Association will pitch a Medicaid reform plan to Congress in the coming year, Gov. Mike Rounds said Thursday. He compared Medicaid's soaring costs to South Dakota's state employee health insurance plan which will hold costs even from this fiscal year to next thanks to aggressive health care management.

"Medicaid is now the second-largest expenditure in state budgets. This increased Medicaid spending makes it difficult, if not impossible, to increase funding for other priorities, such as education, law enforcement, transportation, and other social services."


The reason for the escalating crisis in Medicaid is that George W. Bush has severely cut back on Federal Aid to the States, and the skyrocketing deficits he has created with his tax cuts.

You know, we keep hearing about "values." How important it is to have "values." And who has the best "values." There hasn't been much discussion about what our values actually ARE.

Well, what they ARE is expressed and shown in concrete terms. This is a capitalist country, and dollars and cents express what our values ARE. Not what we wish they were. Not what they would be in a more perfect world. Not what we would like them to be, but what they actually ARE. They AREN'T expressed by what we say; they are expressed by what do.

And the sad fact is that George W. Bush would rather poor, sick, old people be unable to get medicine than tax rich people at reasonable levels.

Those ARE his values.



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