[Nfbmo] from the St. Louis Post Dispatch

[fred olver]

What Nancy didn't tell you concerning her post from the Dispatch, follows.

Copyright 2012 STLtoday.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be 
published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

I know, I saw the same post on another list.



Also, there is a link to a recorded copy of the post made by an A C B  MO 
member. It is:

Although, I'm betting it is up on the KMOX website as well.



http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5378846/Medicaid%20Cuts.mp3?dl
Fred Olver

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary Wunder" <GWunder at earthlink.net>
To: "'NFB of Missouri Mailing List'" <nfbmo at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, February 20, 2012 3:49 PM
Subject: Re: [Nfbmo] from the St. Louis Post Dispatch


> Good post. Thank you Nancy.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of Nancy Lynn
> Sent: Monday, February 20, 2012 3:02 PM
> To: nfbmo list
> Subject: [Nfbmo] from the St. Louis Post Dispatch
>
> I got this from another list.
>
> Missouri panel votes to cut blind benefit from Medicaid
>
> Those blessed with eyesight should stare hard at the three photos that
> accompany
>
> this editorial. They are the faces of St. Louis-area Republicans Anne Zerr
> of St. Charles, Sue Allen of Town and Country and Paul Curtman of Pacific.
> They, along with their Republican colleagues on a House budget 
> subcommittee,
> decided last week that blind people in Missouri
>
> no longer deserve state-provided health care.
>
> "It came out of left field," said Denny Huff, president of the St.
> Louis-based Missouri Council of the Blind
>
> . The committee provided no notice and took no testimony in its attempt to
> pull the proverbial wool over taxpayers' eyes.
>
> "The cut would be just devastating," Mr. Huff told us.
>
> The vote - which must be reversed later in the budget process - would turn
> back the clock on more than four decades of public policy in Missouri. 
> That
> policy has been
>
> such a rock-solid commitment that even in 2005, when Gov. Matt Blunt and 
> his
> fellow Republicans slashed Medicaid benefits to the state's poor and
> disabled, they left
>
> the blind alone.
>
> Apparently these days, some Missouri Republicans are so committed to 
> cutting
> costs, with no regard for the state's revenue problem and no willingness 
> to
> look at corporate
>
> entitlements, that they think it's time to cut the blind out of the safety
> net.
>
> Here's what's so disgusting about the stunt pulled by Rep. Tom Flanigan,
> R-Carthage, chairman of the particular budget subcommittee: Mr. Flanigan
> surely knew that cutting
>
> a $28 million health care program for 2,858 blind people in Missouri would
> create
>
> a stink.  So, rather than debate the cut, or give Democrats on the 
> committee
> any notice, or even let the advocates for blind Missourians know what was
> going on, he orchestrated
>
> the move in a 10-minute hearing without even giving members of the 
> minority
> party time to understand what they were voting on.
>
> Rep. Jeanne Kirkton, D-Webster Groves, who is a nurse when she isn't being
> bullied by insensitive Republican chairmen, asked Mr. Flanigan to explain
> himself. The chairman refused.
>
> "We should have the right to voice our opinion," Rep. Rory Ellinger,
> D-University City, told us.  So should the blind. We suspect they'd show 
> up
> in full force, ready to plead their
>
> case in front of Mr. Flanigan's committee. Wouldn't that make for some
> interesting television?
>
> Here's what we'd ask: If times are that bad, shouldn't you be cutting
> lawmakers' health care? Are corporate tax credits more important than
> protecting Missouri's
>
> most vulnerable citizens? Have you all, seriously, lost your ever-loving
> minds?
>
> Backing the budget bus over the blind without even stopping to honk the 
> horn
> isn't just irresponsible and it isn't just mean, it is despicable.
>
> Ms. Zerr, Ms. Allen and Mr. Curtman are under no obligation to follow the
> ridiculous actions of their chairman. One of them, or all of them, should
> have stood up for
>
> their blind constituents.  In their silence, they failed the test of 
> common
> decency.
>
> Copyright 2012 STLtoday.com. All rights reserved.
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