Medicaid Overhaul Would Harm the Poor

Re “Bush Seeks Overhaul of Medicaid,” Feb. 1: President Bush proposes to eliminate taxes on dividends and the rich. Then he turns around and proposes cuts in health care for the poorest among us. The greatness of a country is not measured by how financially rich it is but by how it treats its neediest citizens. We may have the greatest health-care system in the world, but we have the worst health-care delivery system in the industrialized world. Rob from the poor to give to the rich. President Bush: the anti-Robin Hood.

Craig S. Blanchard

Long Beach

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I have been upset by the administration’s plans to stimulate the economy by focusing nearly exclusively on tax cuts that would primarily benefit the wealthiest Americans. Then I read that Bush plans to overhaul Medicaid by “giving states almost unlimited authority to run their health-care programs for the poor while curbing the amount of federal money they could receive.” It went on to say that the proposal was designed to force states to cut Medicaid spending, a move that would be devastating to the poor and disabled.

I was angered first of all at the injustice of this proposal, then at Bush for claiming to be a “compassionate” Republican. As I reflected further, though, I realized that I could not remember his ever stating whom it was that he was going to be compassionate for. Now we know. His compassion for the very wealthy becomes clearer every day.

I suggest that we the people need to take more responsibility in the 2004 election by asking probing questions of our candidates and not being satisfied with sound bites and self-anointed labels.

Don McNeal

Long Beach