Evil walks among us:
It's called the
Gimme Lobby
Senate President Thomas Birmingham (D-Chelsea)
joined the coalition, calling the two tax cuts "overly aggressive and highly regressive." While
acknowledging a "steeply uphill fight" to defeat the income tax cut, he said the rate reduction
would hamper government's ability to spend more money ...
Income tax cut crusader Barbara Anderson, who
watched the event from the edge of the crowd, said afterward she thinks it's a "sin" to use a disabled
child as a press conference prop and to "frighten his mother" by threatening service cuts. The income
tax cut wouldn't affect existing programs, she said.
"If they want to take the money that Sen. Birmingham
voted for Fenway Park and give it directly to Jamie and his mother, that is fine with me," said Anderson,
director of Citizens for Limited Taxation. "But they should be ashamed of themselves for using sick
children to prevent a tax rollback, the money of which they simply use to build their own power and
buy votes."
State
House News Service
Sep. 28, 2000
How despicably evil is the Gimme Lobby. When it
needs to advance
their agenda, without hesitation they trot out the sick, the halt and the lame on cue and scare the living bejesus out of
the unfortunates in the process.
Yes, evil.
We've seen it in every campaign where an attempt is made to
let taxpayers keep more of their hard-earned income ... every time, without exception, unless it's done
their way.
Evil incarnate.
Whether it's "cutting school lunches" when it's an increase
in spending ("investment" in PC-Speak) that's not as much as the Gimme Lobby demands, "throwing the elderly out into the
streets" or the perennial "roads and bridges are crumbling all around us," when they can't get even more of our money -- there's
always a prefabricated and timely "dire crisis" that never explains what all our
already "invested" money has purchased.
We eternally need to "invest" more, but we never seem to get
any return on the "investments" we've already made -- the goal post just gets further and further out of reach the more that's
taken from us ... oops! ... "invested."
Yesterday's news release from the governor's office
(full
text below) is another example. It noted:
"Massachusetts has been nationally recognized for leading
the way in providing health insurance for families and for children in particular. Last month, Governor Cellucci
and Swift released a report on the uninsured population in Massachusetts. Since 1998, there has been a significant
drop in the number of uninsured, from 8.2 percent to 5.9 percent, with an even more dramatic reduction in the
number of children without health coverage, from 5.8 percent to 2.8 percent."
The evil Gimme Lobby's response: State Sen. Richard Moore
(D-Utopia), at its dog-and-pony show yesterday, observed that "while progress has been made during the economic boom of the
last decade, much more remains to shore up a fragile health care system."
Even though the state budget has doubled in just the last
dozen years, "much more remains" to be done.
"More Is Never Enough!" (MINE!)
More never will be until they have it all.
And they won't stop until they do.
Barbara reports that Sen. Birmingham threatened yesterday
that the promised tax rollback would destroy dental care and even housing for children! She calls it his "teeth and home"
scare.
There is no morality too sacred, no compassion for the less
fortunate too revered, beyond which the shameless Gimme Lobby will not transgress when its stranglehold on our wallets and
its power is threatened.
Drag an unfortunate wheelchair-bound child and his stressed
mother, terrified by lies and misinformation, into their news conference as a sympathetic prop to advance their agenda?
Nothing new. They do it all the time and, after all, they
did vow to do "whatever we have to do" to defeat Question 4. They do "whatever we have to do" all the time, and there isn't
much if anything they won't do.
Remember the elderly seniors around the state they terrified
then subpoenaed into a Boston court when they desperately needed to disqualify signatures on our first rollback petition?
Compassion? Caring? Honesty?
Not from that crowd. Not when their
power is at risk.
Evil. Selfish, stark and heartless evil.
 |
|
Chip Ford |
State House News Service
Thursday, September 28, 2000
New health care group warns subsidies,
services
threatened by tax cut
By Elisabeth J. Beardsley
Tax Rollback Committee
NEWS RELEASE
Tax Rollback Committee
rebuts coalition's scare tactics
The Boston Herald
Friday, September 29, 2000
Business
High tech hears tax plan: Gov pitches rollback proposal
by Tom Kirchofer
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Executive Department
NEWS RELEASE
Thursday, September 28, 2000
Contact: John Birtwell
Shawn Feddeman - (617) 727-2759
Rich Copp - (617) 727-0077
Cellucci, Swift launch kids health care campaign:
Unveil New Flyers to Educate Parents
on Health Insurance Options for Children
BROCKTON -- Lieutenant Governor Jane Swift today launched an
outreach campaign to ensure that every child in the Commonwealth has health coverage and unveiled a new flyer that
will be sent home with all schoolchildren informing parents about the availability of health
insurance programs for children.
"Every child in Massachusetts is eligible for health insurance and we have made tremendous
progress in making sure they get the care they need," said Swift. "But, there are still
thousand of children who are uninsured in Massachusetts and this new flyer and outreach campaign
should help reduce those numbers even more dramatically."
More than one million flyers, printed in both English and
Spanish, will be distributed to every public and parochial school student in the state later this fall. In addition, every
day care center in Massachusetts will receive the outreach flyers to send home with parents. The new outreach
tool, bearing the slogan, 'It costs a lot to raise a child... at least now health care doesn't have
to,' provides parents with information on the state's health insurance programs,
MassHealth and the Children's Medical Security Plan (CMSP), including a toll-free number and Web site
address.
Swift noted that other outreach efforts include the distribution of frisbees, pens, pencils and
other promotional items touting the toll-free numbers to hospitals and community
health centers statewide. In July, the Cellucci-Swift Administration awarded $1.2 million to health care
providers, community organizations, and human service agencies statewide
to develop new programs aimed at signing up uninsured children and families for MassHealth or
CMSP.
Massachusetts has been nationally recognized for leading the
way in providing health insurance for families and for children in particular. Last month, Governor Cellucci and Swift released
a report on the uninsured population in Massachusetts. Since 1998, there has been a significant
drop in the number of uninsured, from 8.2 percent to 5.9 percent, with an even more
dramatic reduction in the number of children without health coverage, from 5.8 percent to 2.8 percent.
Swift noted that there is still room for improvement and the Administration will
continue to work aggressively to promote the available health insurance programs.
Statewide, Massachusetts has enrolled 231,000 previously
uninsured residents into MassHealth since July 1997 when Governor Cellucci signed a law expanding the eligibility
requirements. In Brockton, nearly 3,300 children and 4,300 adults have been insured
through the MassHealth program in just three years.
"We have taken a leadership role in ensuring that patients
who are uninsured or underinsured have access to care and our help in obtaining health insurance," said Norman B. Goodman,
Brockton Hospital President. "Through programs such as Children and Youth and our
Outpatient primary care and specialty clinics, we provide true 'safety net services' that assure
access to care."
More than 900,000 Massachusetts residents receive their
health care coverage from MassHealth, which pays for a full range of health care benefits such as doctor visits, dental
services, vaccinations, prescription drugs, eyeglasses, hospital stays, lab tests, X-rays, and
many other medical services. CMSP pays for primary and preventative care for
children in families that are ineligible for MassHealth because their income is too high.
In order to qualify for health care coverage under MassHealth, a family of four must have an annual income of
$34,104 or less. Children in families with higher incomes are automatically eligible for
CMSP.
For more information on free or low cost health insurance
available from MassHealth and CMSP or to receive an application in the mail, call 1-800-841-2900 or visit the MassHealth
Web site at www.state.ma.us/dma.
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this
material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes
only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml