Demagoguery Runs Deep in Pelosi Camp

Medicaid Cutbacks Divide Democrats
House Condemns Provisions Crafted By Governors

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 28, 2005; Page A01

Controversial House legislation designed to gain control of Medicaid growth has split Democrats, with lawmakers in Washington united in their opposition while Democratic governors are quietly supporting the provisions and questioning the party's reflexive denunciations.

The Medicaid provisions have become a flashpoint for the opposition of Democrats -- and some moderate Republicans -- to the $50 billion budget-cutting bill that narrowly passed the House last week. The provisions would reduce Medicaid spending by $12 billion through 2010 and $48 billion over the next decade, in part by making it difficult for more affluent seniors to transfer their assets to relatives, then plead poverty to get Medicaid to pay for them to stay in nursing homes.

But the measures would also save $2.4 billion over five years by allowing state governments to impose higher health insurance deductibles, co-payments and premiums on poor Medicaid recipients, including, for the first time, impoverished children and pregnant women. An additional $3.9 billion would be saved by relaxing mandated preventive health care and screening of children and pregnant women.

The changes would trim just 1.7 percent from a program expected to spend nearly $2.8 trillion though 2015, but the proposals have prompted bitter condemnation from congressional Democrats.

"As the number of people without health insurance has increased for four years in a row, Republicans are charging ahead with $45 billion in cuts to Medicaid -- the health insurance program that provides medical care to America's poorest children and many of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) thundered Nov. 18, just before the pre-dawn passage of the bill. "Republicans give new meaning to the words 'suffer little children.' "

What she did not say is that those changes were proposed over the summer by a bipartisan task force of governors, led by Virginia's Mark R. Warner, whose popularity in a Republican state has made him a rising star in the Democratic Party.

In fact, the most controversial provisions in the House bill were adapted almost word for word from a document drafted by Govs. Warner, Tom Vilsack (D-Iowa), Haley Barbour (R-Miss.), Janet Napolitano (D-Ariz.), Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.), Jennifer M. Granholm (D-Mich.), Dirk Kempthorne (R-Idaho), Jim Doyle (D-Wis.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), and Edward G. Rendell (D-Pa.), said Ray Scheppach, executive director of the National Governors Association.

More proof of the amorality of Pelosi and her supporters. In spite of the fact that the proposal was the result of "a bi-partisan task force of governors, led by Virginia's Mark R. Warner," a Democrat. The egregiously hateful and deceptive Nancy Pelosi sees nothing wrong with blaming Republicans. Really Nancy, you can't even support a 1.7% cut on a $2.8 Trillion program? Where are you going to get this money? Do you want to destroy our economy? Do you really care so little about the American people that you will saddle them with a Jimmy Carter Economy? Nancy, you must really hate the American people to be so cold blooded and political. I have changed my mind, you are not stupid, you are evil and a malevolent influence on our nation.

Full Story: Pelosi's Hatred for America and Capitalism

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