House GOP Is Ready To Take Healthcare From The Poor To Give More To The Rich

 

We have been expecting it, but the House has now taken the first steps to an insane budget. They approved (on a party line vote) a proposal to give tax cuts to the rich - and they would partially pay for that by cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from Medicaid.

It just shows they are not listening to the people who elected them.

Poll after poll has shown that huge majorities of Americans (including a small majority of Republicans) don't think the rich need a tax cut. They actually think the rich are not taxed enough! But while the public won't like more tax cuts for the rich, it is the cuts to Medicaid that will cause the most blowback.

Republican officials (and too many in their base) seem to think that Medicaid only goes to nonwhites in the large cities - and since those cities tend to vote blue, they won't be hurt. But they are going to find out that is simply not true.

Medicaid is badly needed by ALL of the poor - including whites and those living in rural areas. And losing Medicaid would not only hurt the rural poor - it would hurt everyone living in rural areas. That's because rural hospitals need it to stay in business.

Many rural hospitals have closed, and many more are in danger of closing. They are barely covering their costs. Losing the money they get from Medicaid patients would push them over the line, and they would have to close. It would mean rural patients would have to go to the nearest city if they needed hospital care, and that could be hundreds of miles from some rural areas.

This wouldn't just hurt the rural poor. It would hurt everyone living in a rural area - even those with private insurance or plenty of resources. 

Rural voters voted for Republicans because they thought it would make their lives better. Congressional Republicans are now showing them they were wrong. Cutting Medicaid to give tax cuts to the rich is just putting a knife in the back of Rural people