The Quiet Revolution in America’s Statehouses

[marmar]

from truthdig:



The Quiet Revolution in America’s Statehouses

Posted on Mar 22, 2012
By Bill Boyarsky


There’s nothing good about the House Republican-Mitt Romney budget plan. But perhaps its worst feature is the way it targets the many millions of working and unemployed poor who rely on the federal-state Medicaid program for medical care.

It does this by proposing huge reductions in Medicaid spending, and, most significantly, putting the program in the hands of the states, whose governments, strapped for money, are increasingly run by conservatives.

.....(snip).....

The Republican plan would turn Medicaid over to the states by giving them money in the form of “block grants,” large amounts of money that can be used with little restriction. Federal Medicaid expenditures would be reduced by $810 billion—45 percent, The New York Times estimates—over 10 years. So the states would be getting much less to care for their poor.

.....(snip).....

I noted in Truthdig a while back how the Republicans in 2010 won a majority of the nation’s state legislative seats. It was the largest majority for the Republican Party since 1928. The Republicans now control a majority of legislatures in the South, plus more governorships, including Florida, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Iowa. These victories came with the help of super PAC donations. Matt Sledge in The Huffington Post cited a study by the National Institute on Money in State Politics showing super PACs gave $36.8 million to state candidates between 2008 and 2010. Most of the donors were conservative. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_quiet_revolution_in_americas_statehouses_20120322/

[Vincardog]

1. States run by conservatives are increasingly strapped for money, by design. Why elect people

who profess Government is the problem and then set out to prove it?
Is there any more sure way to destroy government than to put people determined to destroy it in charge?

[Global Teach-In]

2. Spam deleted by Ian David (MIR Team)