The guy has got TRILLIONS for mass-murder, but NOTHING for US!!!
Ass-hole!!!!!
"Governors of both parties decry new Medicaid rules"
"by Robert Pear, New York Times News Service | February 24, 2008WASHINGTON - Governors of both parties strongly objected yesterday to a half-dozen new federal Medicaid regulations that they said would shift billions of dollars in costs to the states, forcing them to consider cutbacks in services.
But he's tossing out foreign aid and rebuilding countries all over the globe.
How about getting that $6 billion back from Israel for us?
The rules, scheduled to take effect in the next few months, would reduce federal payments for public hospitals, teaching hospitals, and services for the disabled, among others.
State officials voiced their concerns as they arrived here for the winter meeting of the National Governors Association.
Federal health officials said the new rules were needed to end creative financing techniques that states had used to obtain excessive amounts of federal Medicaid money.
But governors said the Bush administration was unilaterally reshaping Medicaid in ways that would harm some of their most vulnerable citizens. Moreover, they said, the rules are taking effect at a time when the national economic slowdown is cutting into state tax revenues.
"Governors strongly oppose the changes," said Governor Jim Douglas of Vermont, a Republican who is chairman of the association's health and human services committee. "The timing could not be worse."
Yeah, and that is a REPUBLICAN that said that!
Not a DemocraP, but a REPUBLICAN!!!!
One of the rules would ban the use of federal Medicaid money to help pay for the training of doctors, a use that has been allowed since the inception of the healthcare program more than 40 years ago. Another would set new limits on Medicaid payments to hospitals and nursing homes operated by states, cities, counties, and other units of government.
Translation: Bush is gutting the health care system -- except for payouts to health insurance conglomerates.
A third rule would limit Medicaid coverage of rehabilitation services for people with disabilities, including serious mental illnesses.
Yeah, fuck the ertards, 'eh?
Federal officials estimate that the rules will save the federal government $15 billion over five years. But that figure may be low. California alone says it could lose $12 billion over five years.
That's what it is all about -- so we can PAY FOR MORE WARS!!!!
Congress delayed some of the rules last year, but they will soon take effect unless it intervenes again.
Well, I won't be waiting on them.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, a Republican, said the rule changes "would effectively end the federal government's participation in many crucial components of the Medicaid program."
Isn't that the plan?
The National Conference of State Legislatures joined governors in criticizing what it described as "the regulatory activism" displayed in the new rules.
The federal government and the states share the cost of Medicaid, which provides health insurance to more than 60 million low-income people, including 30 million children.
But Bush is saying, "Hey, fuck them!"
Dennis G. Smith, director of the US Center for Medicaid and State Operations, said the rules were needed to "protect the fiscal integrity of the Medicaid program."
Since 2003, Smith said, federal officials have persuaded 30 states to end "questionable Medicaid financing arrangements." The purpose of such arrangements is to maximize the use of federal money while holding down the use of state and local revenue.
How about looking into the WAR LOOTING and THEFT instead?
How about getting THAT MONEY BACK?
Good Christ!!!!
Although the most blatant problems have been corrected, the administration says, many states still use federal Medicaid money for purposes unrelated to Medicaid."
Better for that than wars based on lies!
And he isn't even going to fund the Drug War, readers!!
ANOTHER FAKE WAR!!!!
"Sheriffs protest fed drug-war fund cuts"
"From Arizona to Oregon and east to Kentucky, county sheriffs are bracing for stiff cuts in a federal funding program that has helped them battle drug cartels.
Congress in January cut funding for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant by two-thirds, from $520 million to $170 million for fiscal 2008. Local agencies say that's a threat to the officers who do much of the law enforcement spadework....
I guess I can kind of see this, I mean, what, with the CIA being the biggest drug-trafficker on the planet.
The Bush administration has argued that the program should end because crime is down and the money is needed elsewhere.
Yeah. like for WARS for Israel!!!
That assessment clashes with reports from many states of record hauls of drugs, especially methamphetamine and marijuana, and increased activity by drug gangs....
Oh, so the White House lied again?
Yawn.
Money from the Byrne program can be used for other programs as well, including anti-gang efforts, some prosecution costs and child and spousal abuse prevention.
Oh, so it also funds a whole bunch of other stuff we need!
Pfffffftttt!
But critics say the program has been tainted by abuse and corruption, sometimes racially based, with many complaints coming from Texas.
Best-known is a case in Tulia, Texas, where a 1999 Byrne-funded investigation led to the cocaine arrests of 46 people, most of them black, on evidence so flimsy that 38 were pardoned by Gov. Rick Perry in 2003. The undercover agent responsible for the arrests was convicted of perjury and the defendants got a $5 million settlement from the state.
It's always the same old story!!!!
The Texas ACLU has identified more than a dozen other Byrne-funded operations it says were abusive and several other states have investigated similar complaints. Texas has imposed strict limits on Byrne-funded drug task forces.
Well, now I'm for scrapping the damn thing (was anyway)!
Can use ALL the money for health care.
Some national drug enforcement leaders say it makes more sense to go after the higher-ups rather than fill local jails with lesser offenders....
Except that never happens because higher-ups control the justice system!
In Oregon, local drug agents last year pulled up a record 262,000 marijuana plants, double the number for 2006, but their Byrne funding will drop from $3.4 million last year to $1.2 million this year.
Actually, that's good.
Don't pull that shit up, let it grow.
Shouldn't even be a crime.
Most seizures of marijuana "grows" in Oregon are made in the state's southwest corner, but counties there already are on the ropes from sharp cuts in federal payments made to offset revenue losses resulting from cutbacks in logging on national forests....
Yeah, let's leave them with selling dirt as an option.
And if they don't sell it, they can eat it!
Kentucky, the second-largest marijuana producer after California, is in similar straits.
"Local governments have already put up money and they can't put up any more," said Van Ingram, branch manager for compliance for the Kentucky Office of Drug Compliance."
Kentucky is SECOND in the nation for growing weed?
I guess that explains Bluegrass then!
