It wasn't so long ago that politicians' slick veneer couldn't hide their deep-down meanness. Those days seem to have returned among Arizona Republicans.
Right-wing Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has now signed a budget that completely eliminates the state's Children's Health Insurance Program. This makes Arizona the only state to do so. It also drops over 300,000 impoverished adults from Medicaid.
This was an act of political extortion. Despite running on a platform of lower taxes, Republicans who control the Arizona legislature have been demanding an increase in the state sales tax to 6.6% - which would be one of the highest in the nation. They said if they didn't get it, they'd slash Medicaid and children's medical insurance. They're threatening to cut even more vital services if voters don't approve a sales tax referendumb that appears imminent.
The lawmakers are truly monarchs of mean. To the very bone.
They said it's about fiscal responsibility. But that's a lie. By making these cuts, Arizona actually lost hundreds of millions of dollars in federal matching aid.
The Devil better be speeding up construction of that new plane of hell.
Many of the same right-wing legislators who supported the state's new budget are among those who backed expensive social and economic engineering programs like the private school bailout of 2006 - a program that was ruled unconstitutional last year. They had money to give to wealthy private schools just to "prove" a political point, yet they don't have enough for poor children's medical care?
(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/health/policy/19arizona.html)
Friday, March 19, 2010
The monarchy of mean
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