Jackson Free Press

June 11, 2004—Today in The New York Times, columnist Bob Herbert nails Barbour's cuts to Medicaid recipients—the worst Medicaid cuts ever: "If you want to see 'compassionate' conservatism in action, take a look at Mississippi, a state that is solidly in the red category (strong for Bush) and committed to its long tradition of keeping the poor and the unfortunate in as ragged and miserable a condition as possible. How's this for compassion? Mississippi has approved the deepest cut in Medicaid eligibility for senior citizens and the disabled that has ever been approved anywhere in the U.S."

"The new policy will end Medicaid eligibility for some 65,000 low-income senior citizens and people with severe disabilities—people like Traci Alsup, a 36-year-old mother of three who was left a quadriplegic after a car accident. The cut in eligibility for seniors and the disabled was the most dramatic component of a stunning rollback of services in Mississippi's Medicaid program. The rollback was initiated by the Republican-controlled State Senate and Mississippi's new governor, Haley Barbour, a former chairman of the national Republican Party. When he signed the new law on May 26, Mr. Barbour complained about taxpayers having to "pay for free health care for people who can work and take care of themselves and just choose not to."

"The governor is free to characterize the victims of the cuts as deadbeats if he wants to. Others have described them as patients suffering from diseases like cerebral palsy and Alzheimer's, and people incapacitated by diabetes or heart disease or various forms of paralysis, and individuals struggling with the agony of schizophrenia or other forms of serious mental illness."

Previous Comments

ID

137584

Comment

a friend in minnesota sent me the NYT article yesterday. what could I say.. I forwarded it to the local newspaper editor for comment, we'll see. meanwhile, I looked up MHAP - they seem like a fine group, also MS Health Policy Research Center. maybe some coverage of those would be good. we need to see news about the smart and caring people here, and not let the 'compassionate' conservatives get away with harm while pretending to 'care.' It may be possible to reverse the legislation somehow. I'd like to know what efforts are in the works, what can we do?

Author

haupc

Date

2004-06-12T18:43:27-06:00

ID

137585

Comment

Ironic, ain't it? That it comes from Herbert in the Times..... There's some more here The Thorn Papers... [i">Y'all come by now

Author

mitch

Date

2004-06-13T07:57:22-06:00

ID

137586

Comment

haupc, you're right. We've done some smaller pieces about the Medicaid cuts, but there hasn't been enough substantive coverage of this issue in the state, yet. We're trying to back up and look at the big picture, so hope to have something good out soon. And, you're right: the what-to-do is very important, instead of the fatalistic, done-deal messages that our corporate media saturate us with in Mississippi about whatever the radical right and big industry wants.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2004-06-13T12:38:31-06:00

ID

137587

Comment

I posted this in a thread that was probably the wrong one, so I'm going to repost it in here. Still asking the same question and hoping someone has the answer. According to these articles our Governor is touring the country bragging about the tort reforms he was able to have instituted in our state: http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/state/8885210.htm and http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040610/BIZ/406100321/1002 My question is - who is paying for this *little* junket? It wouldn't be the taxpayers of Mississippi, would it? The taxpayers who were asked to fork up money for improving roads to casinos and $13 million to spruce up our rest stops and welcome centers (all good uses of money, if you have it to spend), but were told that the state didn't have the money to fund education or pay for Medicaid recipients who have prescription bills higher than their incomes. Those taxpayers? If the taxpayers of Mississippi are paying for this trip on the governor's new plane (which said taxpayers just bought him), they ought to have sense enough to scream bloody murder. Oh, right, right, I'm one of those taxpayers.......ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!! Somebody tell Haley he is not in DC or in private business anymore, and his expense account runs in front of a lot of auditors . . . uh, voters . . . now. Oh, never mind, don't bother telling him. We'll just have to get someone thriftier in three years. Unless things turn up, we won't have a choice (Haley is too high-maintenance for this state already).

Author

C.W.

Date

2004-06-14T08:42:12-06:00

ID

137588

Comment

and he was complaining about the $30K it will cost to keep the Special Session open long enough to reverse his Medicaid horror.... he's a different kind of man, that Haley Barbour. He's used to his clients (formerly only those with enough money and the proper ideology to hire one of, if not the, most powerful of Republican lobbyists, and now the entirety of the poor folks of Mississippi) picking up even the most outrageous tabs. why? does this bother anyone? surely not....

Author

mitch

Date

2004-06-14T09:05:58-06:00

ID

137589

Comment

i'm thinking all this slash-and-burn he's pulling points to his larger plan: a presidential run in '08. he doesn't care one LICK about 90% of this state. think of it: haley v. hillary. [shudder]

Author

Jay

Date

2004-06-14T15:27:16-06:00

ID

137590

Comment

Well, Mitch, it doesn't appear to bother many people. I don't understand why the purportedly liberal media is giving this man a pass *again*. And Jay, you just sent shivers down my spine - I never thought of that! Haley vs Hillary. Haley vs anybody. Darn it, you're enough to make a grown-up cry. P.S. Mitch - love your site - wonderful, guy!

Author

C.W.

Date

2004-06-14T19:53:24-06:00

ID

137591

Comment

The liberal media is a myth. National media is a corporate, profit-driven enterprise, beholden to governmental bodies (Congress & the FCC), and local media, for the most part, is almost universally hesitant to speak the truth about "one of our own." I'd guess that would be the root of Haley's pass down here; that and the fact that the poorest of our poor have never been high on the list for governmental compassion, while the upper "haves" of Mississippi like to think they're part of Haley's "club." C.W-- Thanks for the kind words...please stop by often, and share the link with any and everyone you think would get something from it.

Author

mitch

Date

2004-06-15T07:09:40-06:00

ID

137592

Comment

You certainly have your finger on where most of the media is (thank God for alternatives in general, specifically the JFP locally, and blogs). You are also right, to an extent, I believe, about why the press gives Barbour such leeway. However, I wonder if some of this is not just reluctance to stir up the poor and middle-class white regressives in our state (who are really the ones who put Barbour over the top). I have to give him credit for courting them so adroitly (with so little of substance). A little smoke, a few mirrors, a bit of sleight of hand, and he had them so entranced they didn't see what the other hand was up to. Three more years of this performance, and I think all of us will become more sceptical. These are the people who are not part of Haley's "club" but they seem to think they will end up with some crumbs from those who are - or at least they believe Barbour will keep anything that is theirs from being taken and given to blacks. These tend to be the same people who believe (mistakenly) that the majority of those on the Medicaid rolls are black. If they realized the truth, they would be clamoring for Haley's head, because most of those elderly and disabled people are THEIR relatives, not some unknown black person (who they are willing to believe are just too lazy to work, unlike their own elderly and disabled). Many people in Mississippi have not yet understood the basic truth that when things like health care and education are improved for the state, not just part of the people in the state, we all benefit. Too bad the Mississippi Economic Council has it's head stuck in the tort law sand as well. We could outlaw any redress to abuses of big business or medical practice (most of the real pressure is coming from big business) and all we would have economically would be a few new lowpaying and physically dangerous jobs that no one else in the country wanted. Investing in education and health care is much more profitable long range for everyone (except big business). It boils down to who you think deserves the priority in economic improvement - whether you want to help the have-nots move up or whether you want to fatten the already fat pocketbooks of the haves. They could really made a difference if they would get out and lobby for education and the DHS they way they did for tort reform. Blake Wilson needs to rally his team to step up to this plate and *really* play ball. I'd have a lot more respect and support for the MEC if they did. I had already put a link to your site on my Links page, and you might do the same for mine if you will: http://www.mississippipolitical.com If you know of any other Mississippi blogs or sites that I have missed, I'd appreciate some input, as well. Thanks.

Author

C.W.

Date

2004-06-15T10:38:36-06:00

ID

137593

Comment

I do need to put some local Missisippi links up at The Thorn Papers. I'll do that. Yours & the JFP to begin with.... And yes, we should all be thankful for the army of bloggers holding these folks accountable and keeping stories alive and under investigation....

Author

mitch

Date

2004-06-15T11:04:31-06:00

ID

137594

Comment

CW, good points about "getting crumbs". To be a broken record, I think people vote for Haley for cultural reasons more than anything else. While I'm perfectly willing to vote for Republicans myself, FAR too many people here act like the Republican Party is as pure as God (that or conveninently ignore that party's mistakes while forever demonizing Democrats). I'm not saying economics aren't part of the reason, but I think Haley gets elected for more cultural/value reasons. They can trust Barbour to defend "traditional values" much more than they could trust Musgrove to (never mind that Ronnie opposed gay marriage!).

Author

Philip

Date

2004-06-15T17:31:25-06:00

ID

137595

Comment

Why not call a spade a spade, Phillip? (Off-color pun intended). The cultural reasons to vote for politicans who pander to the lowest common denominator (who lately seem to be mostly Republicans) are "white" culture. And the "traditional values" translate into "traditional white values". Something that isn't realized is that this forces blacks into voting for their own self-interests more exclusively to keep from losing any further ground. Every action has a reaction. I agree with you, (and I occasionally vote Republican myself), but I prefer to just state things baldly rather than be polite about it. Politeness is for sparing feelings, and I don't see any feelings to spare in this case. And really, it was much easier to vote Republican when they held at least some pretentions to the title of fiscal conservatism. The Democratic Party appears to be much more fiscally conservative than the Republican Party nationally; I think the conservatism of Republicans in Mississippi is in a rearrangement of priorities in most cases; the choice of places to cut funding makes this self-evident.

Author

C.W.

Date

2004-06-15T18:17:45-06:00

ID

137596

Comment

C.W.Why not call a spade a spade, Phillip? (Off-color pun intended). Philip Because sometimes discresion is the better part of valor. I guess I'm on a different tactic -- trying to bring people in. If you start start calling a spade a spade too much -- that'll make the job even tougher than it is now, because that will really, and i mean REALLY hurt peoples' abilities to open their minds to what I have to say. No need to make the job more difficult than it already is. C.W.The cultural reasons to vote for politicans who pander to the lowest common denominator (who lately seem to be mostly Republicans) are "white" culture. Philip Not in all cases, CW. I grant that you probably are right when you say there is some racial element in the knee-jerk Republicanism in this state. Even without the race issue, MANY, MANY whites are conservative across the board. Prayer in public schools isn't really a racial issue (remember, this IS the Bible Belt). Neither, is the United Nations (The Book of Revelation / anti-Christ stuff, you know). With property rights (at least residential property, zoning, etc.) there's already a very strong "government stay out of my life streak" here. Nothing racial about that issue. Moving to foreign issues, I agree with many scholars who say the "culture of honor" streak in The South (where a "man's" honor comes from "kicking the a** of any rogue nations that cause trouble") contributes to a fairly strong "pro-defense" tendency. With the obvious exception of The Civil War, the South has vigorously supported EVERY major war the US fought in (in fact, Roosevelt could not have continued aid to Churchill in the pre-Pearl Harbor days were it not for the South's vigorous pro-military streak. Ditto for Reagan and his 80s arms build-up to squash the USSR. In fact, the Congressman in most vigorous support for sending arms to 1980s Afghanistan was from East Texas, which is VERY "Southern"). Back in my ultra-conservative days, race never entered into my political calculus -- for me, it was about a strong national defense and "getting the government out of our business" (I still tend to be conservative on foreign policy and military issues, though I've moderated quite a bit on economic matters, and ESPECIALLY liberalized on issues like school prayer, teaching "controversial" material in elem & high school, gay rights, etc.) . So, to repeat/sum it up, not all "white conservatives" are that way because of race. Take away the race issue completely and Mississippi will still be a wet Utah with pine trees and cotton fields

Author

Philip

Date

2004-06-21T10:03:22-06:00

ID

137597

Comment

Philip, I understand and fully support your approach. At the same time, I don't necessarily believe that one approach will work on a stubborn problem. When you are talking about my statement, "The cultural reasons to vote for politicans who pander to the lowest common denominator (who lately seem to be mostly Republicans) are "white" culture.", you have misunderstood what I was saying. When I said "pander to the lowest common denominator", I meant race (as the lowest common denominator). Since that's what we'd been talking about, I thought I was being clear, but apparently it was clear only to me. I was definately not making a blanket statement about either conservatives or Republicans in general, only those who use racial innuendo and "deniable" racial symbolism (that which each side understands except for the most naive, but which can be denied to have racist intent if things get a little too hot to handle). I sometimes vote Republican myself, but never for the aforesaid politicians. Democrats sometimes do this as well. I'm not affiliated with either party, and basically think they are both deep in the wrongdoing. The only reason I don't vote straight thrid party is because I don't believe most of them have a chance, not at this point, anyway.

Author

C.W.

Date

2004-06-21T23:09:12-06:00

ID

137598

Comment

CW & Philip, I think you're both right. I don't think every republican is a racist, and I don't think every racist is a republican. To me the difference is between 'party members' vs. 'party strategists.' Philip, I know that for many republican party members, the issue of racism is not a factor, basically for the reasons that you describe. But, what I think happens (for both parties, on different issues) is that what CW is calling the LCD gets used by party strategists as a way to win votes. It's the Southern Strategy that Donna talks about in her editorial. It's all the 'us vs. them' divisive cultural issues that get brought into political situations (as in, why the heck with Blackmon and Tuck ever even talking about abortion rights, which the Lt. Gov of MS has no real influence over - oh, right, it was to divide people on that issue). It's political strategists who want to create wedge issues to either hurt their opponent or help thenmselves. And race is a very easy way to do that, still. And, it happens on both sides of the fence, make no mistake.

Author

kate

Date

2004-06-22T08:16:35-06:00

ID

137599

Comment

Just in: Press statement from Barbour re: Medicaid. He does seem to be spinning out of control on this issue. Perhaps he should have asked some actual Mississippians for advice before he starting kicking Ma-Mas off Medicaid. Only so much the Southern Strategy's going to help him on this one. GOVERNOR BARBOUR TRAVELS TO WASHINGTONTO WORK FOR MEDICAID WAIVERS; MEETS WITH FEDERAL MEDICAID OFFICIALS (Jackson, Miss.) - Governor Haley Barbour met today with senior officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to continue his work for federal waivers that would allow 18,000 current Medicaid beneficiaries to continue to stay on the program. "I appreciate the positive responses we are receiving from officials at CMS. I am confident that the waivers we are asking for will be granted," said Governor Barbour. When the Medicaid Reform Act takes effect, the waivers are expected to be in place to provide the needed coverage for many at-risk beneficiaries. Dr. Warren Jones, Executive Director of Medicaid, and others from the Barbour Administration will meet with federal officials again Friday to continue talks regarding the waivers. Of the 6% of the Medicaid population affected by this reform, *Approximately 5,000 are not eligible for Medicare because they are either not yet 65 years of age, they have no work history, or they are in the midst of a two-year waiting period required by federal law when applying for Medicare; and *Approximately 13,000 are either end-stage renal disease patients on dialysis, cancer patients on chemotherapy, or organ transplant recipients on anti-rejection drugs. Those who are mentally ill patients on anti-psychotic medications are being included in this wavier also. This equals 18,000 beneficiaries whose health care coverage will continue under Medicaid. The other 47,000 beneficiaries are shifting from Medicaid to Medicare for their health care needs. Every single person who is shifting to the federal Medicare program is eligible to get their drugs from patient assistant programs. These programs provide over 1350 drugs for FREE or no more than $15 per month. They can sign up for a Medicare-Approved Drug Discount Card that will provide discounts on prescriptions drugs they cannot get for free. They also get $1200 to help pay for any prescription drugs they cannot get for free. "We would have never made these changes if even one person was going to be left without proper coverage. Mississippi Medicaid recipients should not be confused by misinformation. They should go to the source - the Division of Medicaid - for direction by calling 1-800-421-2408," Barbour added. ###

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2004-06-24T14:36:31-06:00

ID

137600

Comment

let's not forget what Barbour had to say back in May: "We just are not going to ask the taxpayers of Mississippi who work two or three jobs to pay taxes to pay for free health care for people who can work and take care of themselves and just choose not to," Barbour said during a bill signing ceremony in his Capitol office."

Author

mitch

Date

2004-06-24T14:48:40-06:00

ID

137601

Comment

Good one to retrieve from the memory hole, Mitch. Glad you're hand didn't get shredded in the process. ;-)

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2004-06-24T16:02:47-06:00

ID

137602

Comment

I have been sighing since November. One small conquest for the "Good Ole Boy" system of politics where Barbour uses the "ignorant" to gain political power and a hopeful slot on the Republican primary ballot in '08, one HUGE evolutionary step BACKWARDS for our state. Disappointing. I never thought I'd see the day where I beg to get Musgrove back. Please, Ronnie? Please?

Author

Ali

Date

2004-06-24T22:39:34-06:00

ID

137603

Comment

With all the talk about recalling Barbour, petitions, recalls and impeachment, http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/local/9061651.htm http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=1978039 http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040630/NEWS010504/40630003/1002/NEWS01 I thought it might be fun to run a little poll on that subject. Anybody wanna vote? Won't let you vote more than once per ISP address, so no ballot stuffing, folks (sorry) :-) http://www.mississippipolitical.com/

Author

C.W.

Date

2004-07-02T22:54:27-06:00