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Misplaced and Uncompassionate Priorities

By Rep. John Conyers, Jr.  Posted by Amanda Lang (about the submitter)       (Page 1 of 2 pages)   No comments
Message Amanda Lang
The proposed budget would cut funding for vital social services such as health care, child care, education, and veterans benefits. Spending for the war in Iraq and tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, however, will remain intact. It would seem that the Majority has a double standard when it comes to spending the American taxpayers' money. Apparently, it is acceptable to drive up the deficit to unprecedented levels with tax cuts for the rich and for an ill advised war; yet, when Americans need help to recover from a natural disaster, budget "offsets" suddenly become necessary. In a cruel irony, the "offsets" are targeted at precisely the programs that Katrina's victims need most.

Cut are proposed in the following programs:

Medicaid

The budget proposal includes cuts to Medicaid of $13.4 billion over five years (when offset by $1.5 billion in new spending, creates a net cut of $11.9 billion, $3.3 million in Michigan alone). This legislation will also impose new premiums and cost sharing for many poor, mostly elderly, Medicaid beneficiaries, making it more expensive to visit a doctor or go to the hospital. For the first time, this bill allows health care providers to refuse care if a Medicaid recipient cannot afford the new co-payment.

Food Stamps

Two new provisions will cut $844 million from the food stamp budget by taking food stamps away from 300,000 Americans and legal immigrants. Additionally, with these new cuts, over 40 states will opt to coordinate their eligibility rules so that families must now meet a separate income test specific to the Food Stamp Program which would cause an additional estimated 225,000 people to lose food stamps.

Child Care

The budget proposal would double the hourly work requirement under TANF for parents of children under six, from 20 to 40 hours a week, but provide only $500 million in additional funding for child care over the next five years. Consequently, 100,000 children presently eligible will not receive child care assistance over the next five years.

In addition, under the increased work requirements, states' costs for child care will increase by an estimated $4.1 billion over the next five years. As a result, 270,000 children of low-wage working parents who are not on welfare will likely lose their child care assistance.

Child Support

The proposed budget cuts 4.9 billion from child support enforcement programs. Reduced enforcement will decrease child support payments by $8 billion over the next five years and $21.3 billion over the next ten years, depriving many children of necessary assistance.

Foster Care

The proposal will cut $600 million in assistance for abused and neglected children who are in foster care, many of them with grandparents and other relatives. Unless states devote new resources to foster care, services will be cut, and caseloads will increase in a system that is already overburdened and under funded.

Education

The new budget will cut $14.3 billion from federal student aid programs through 2010. At a time when federal student aid is not keeping pace with rising college costs, these budget cuts will make a quality college education even more expensive for students and families. Included in these cuts are nearly $8 billion in new charges to students and families that will raise the cost of their college loans. As a result of these cuts, the typical student borrower, already saddled with $17,500 in debt, will be forced to pay an additional $5,800 for his or her college loans.

Veterans Health Care

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Amanda Lang Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

OpedNews volunteer from 2005 to 2013.

Amanda Lang was a wonderful member of the Opednews team, and the first volunteer editor, for a good number of years being a senior editor. She passed away summer 2014.

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