| Welcome
to the e-Voices MONDAY MINUTE, your weekly email newsletter from New
Mexico Voices for Children. Please take a minute to add your voice to the
pressing issues of the day. Also, tell us what issues you'd like to know more
about so we can tailor the MONDAY MINUTE to your interests. Thanks! May
8, 2006 The House of Representatives will soon be voting on their FY 2007 budget resolution. In order to pay for tax cuts for the rich and an expensive war, the House budget makes significant cuts to programs that serve our most vulnerable children. The budget will reduce funding for childcare, health care, child abuse prevention, and nutrition.
As if that weren’t enough, the House is also set to take up the tax reconciliation bill, which will give us more of the same bad math -- some $70 billion in new tax cuts for the people who need it the least, and cuts to entitlement programs for those who need it the most. Foster care, TANF and child support will all be at risk. Not to mention the enormous burden of debt the tax cuts will pass down to the very generation that’s most affected by today’s funding cuts.
What you can do: Email your Representatives and urge them to vote NO on both the budget and the tax cuts.
For background information on the House budget spending and tax cuts, check out these reports by Voices for America’s Children:
A
Bill of Bad Health Speaking of legislation that helps the few and hurts the many, the U.S. Senate is currently considering the “Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act of 2005,” aka S. 1955. The bill is lauded by its conservative sponsors as a way to reduce health insurance costs, but a study by the Center on Budget Policy Priorities (CBPP) shows otherwise.
What S. 1955 will do is override laws enacted at the state level that were put in place to regulate the industry and protect consumers. This will allow insurance companies to base the rates they charge any given business on the age and health status of that business’ employees. The result, many believe, will be that rates will go up for small businesses – particularly those with an older workforce or employees with pre-existing conditions – who will then either have to drop their employees’ insurance or resort to significantly scaled-back coverage. Bargain-basement coverage, the AARP says, that will no longer include vital screenings for illnesses such as cancer and diabetes.
The Senate is scheduled to debate S. 1955 this week. What you can do: Email our senators and tell them to vote NO on 1955.
Listen
In
Race
to Register for Race Matters There are still slots available for next week’s Race Matters Conference. Attendees will be eligible for 5 CEUs. But hurry, time and space are running out!
Register now for the RACE MATTERS conference to be held on Tuesday, May 16, 2006. Visit http://action.voiceshub.org/nmvoicesforchildren/events/racematters2006/details.tcl for more information.
|