Former Oregon Governor and emergency room physician John Kitzhaber writes today in The Christian Science Monitor:
As an emergency physician and former governor, I am struck by the towering contradictions - and indeed the hypocrisy - in the controversy over the tragic plight of Terri Schiavo. On the same day that the US House of Representatives voted to involve the federal courts in her case, it also approved a 10-year $92-billion cut in Medicaid funding - $30 billion deeper than the cut recommended by President Bush.
The relationship between these two decisions - virtually unreported by most media - goes to the very heart of why we're unable to resolve the growing crisis in our healthcare system. While involving the federal courts in an attempt to save the life of one highly visible individual, Congress made a fiscal decision that will deny thousands of other Americans timely access to healthcare, some of whom may die as a result.
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The proposed cuts in Medicaid funding – made at the urging of Republican leaders in the House – would go to help pay for tax cuts for the richest Americans advocated for by the president. A report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that while the Senate version of the budget will also hurt low-income Americans it is preferable to harsh House budget. Several moderate Republicans in the Senate refused to go along with the most draconian cuts in social service programs advocated by the president and his Congressional supporters. Several Christian organizations have announced that they oppose the president’s budget plans. The Christian Century Magazine quotes Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, as saying recently: “The prophets said God doesn’t judge us on the eloquence of our preaching or the beauty of sanctuaries. God will look at the condition of the poor in our midst and judge the quality of faith of God’s people. And based on this year’s budget, God would find us guilty.”
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