Politics can make for strange bedfellows. In an unusual break with the Obama administration, several prominent Democrats in Congress have filed an amicus ("friend of the court") brief in the Supreme Court, urging that private citizens be allowed to sue states that are not fulfilling their obligation to provide health care to eligible Medicaid recipients if they accept federal Medicaid funds (which all the states do).
The debt ceiling deal recently reached by the White House and Congress has some negative consequences for current and future college students who rely on some forms of federal financial aid to help pay educational costs. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the debt deal cut overall financial aid funding by $4.6 billion through 2021. This will increase costs for students by nearly $7.4 billion from 2012 through 2016.
Some members of Congress are driving the United States and the world to the brink of economic disaster on the grounds that they have to stop “out-of-control” government spending. This is a dangerous myth and it’s about to steer us over a cliff – completely unnecessarily.
A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to take part in an exploration of equity and justice. I recently spent a week in Memphis at the Voices for America’s Children National Forum. You always wonder if leaving town to attend a conference is going to be worth putting your day-to-day workload on hold for a week.
There has been a lot of media attention lately about the importance of Medicare to seniors, thanks to the U.S. House-passed budget proposal that would have eliminated Medicare as we know it. The vast majority of voters would agree that Congress should keep their hands off Medicare. What’s getting less attention is that Medicaid is equally important to voters and especially important to voters in New Mexico.
Good news released May 23rd shows that New Mexico’s Land Grant Permanent Fund is now at $10.6 billion. The fund’s growth comes from two sources – investments in stocks and bonds, along with income generated from public lands. In the last three months, investments yielded $503.5 million and income added another $100.8 million to the fund.
Finding high-quality affordable child care remains one of the biggest challenges for New Mexico’s working families. Three out of five New Mexico children need care outside the home while their parents work. And as any parent knows, child care is expensive.
If access to health care is a human right – as suggested in a recent op ed by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) – then it makes slaves of physicians, hospital janitors, and everyone else working in the health care sector. That’s according to Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), the physician-cum-politician, who never saw a government program he didn’t hate.
Mother’s Day is coming up. As a mom, I can’t help thinking what a big help America’s new health care law will be to moms like me around the state in promoting and protecting our children’s health and the strength of our families.
Everyone should take a close look at The People's Budget, published on the website of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. It is very readable and it offers a reasonable and humane alternative to both the Ryan and the Obama plans for deficit reduction.