I am so very sorry that I have to write this diary.
When you vote on November 7th, remember the babies.
For one moment, can you bear to read about one more atrocity?
Words just about escape me today. I think of the nightmares these people must endure. Maybe they don't dream, but it scares me terribly that people who are remorseless and amoral lead our country.
We must look deeply into the soul and heart of our next president, for this person will inherit an America in ruins.
This person will inherit a wounded and bleeding America.
This person will inherit a desperate America.
What will historians write about America, 2000-2008? They will write about babies, that's for sure.
The New York Times is reporting this morning that babies born of undocumented immigrants will not be automatically enrolled in Medicaid. Medicaid provides healthcare for the poor.
Under a new federal policy, children born in the United States to illegal immigrants with low incomes will no longer be automatically entitled to health insurance through Medicaid, Bush administration officials said Thursday.
Doctors and hospitals said the policy change would make it more difficult for such infants, who are United States citizens, to obtain health care needed in the first year of life.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Two words: Terry Schaivo.
Illegal immigrants are generally barred from Medicaid but can get coverage for treatment of emergency medical conditions, including labor and delivery.
In the past, once a woman received emergency care under Medicaid for the birth of a baby, the child was deemed eligible for coverage as well, and states had to cover the children for one year from the date of birth.
Under the new policy, an application must be filed for the child, and the parents must provide documents to prove the child's citizenship.
This morning, also in the New York Times, Paul Krugman described the graft and corruption that went to Bechtel and Halliburton for the "rebuilding" of Iraq. Of course, we know these companies did nothing, Iraq is in ruins. Juxtapose this against the story about babies born in America--American citizens, being denied proper healthcare by the regime.
Bechtel, the giant engineering company, is leaving Iraq. Its mission -- to rebuild power, water and sewage plants -- wasn't accomplished: Baghdad received less than six hours a day of electricity last month, and much of Iraq's population lives with untreated sewage and without clean water. But Bechtel, having received $2.3 billion of taxpayers' money and having lost the lives of 52 employees, has come to the end of its last government contract.
. . .As for how this could have happened, that's easy: major contractors believed, correctly, that their political connections insulated them from accountability. Halliburton and other companies with huge Iraq contracts were basically in the same position as Donald Rumsfeld: they were so closely identified with President Bush and, especially, Vice President Cheney that firing or even disciplining them would have been seen as an admission of personal failure on the part of top elected officials.
http://www.deeperwants.com/...
[You can read the entire column for free here]
Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld all of them--they are not incompetent, they are criminals, and it's time we recognize this and stop using pleasant euphemisms.
This is what historians will write. Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney sent our best young men and women to die on behalf of their most malevolent benefactors--Halliburton and Bechtel.
And then, still not satisfied, needing to futher tamp down an out-of-control orgy of spending and tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, they came after the babies.
Obtaining a birth certificate can take weeks in some states, doctors said. Moreover, they said, illegal immigrant parents may be reluctant to go to a state welfare office to file applications because they fear contact with government agencies that could report their presence to immigration authorities.
Administration officials said the change was necessary under their reading of a new law, the Deficit Reduction Act, signed by President Bush in February. The law did not mention newborns, but generally tightened documentation requirements because some lawmakers were concerned that immigrants were fraudulently claiming United States citizenship to get Medicaid.
Marilyn E. Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Medicaid program, said: "The federal government told us we have no latitude. All states must change their policies and practices. We will not be able to cover any services for the newborn until a Medicaid application is filed. That could be days, weeks or months after the child is born."
About four million babies are born in the United States each year, and Medicaid pays for more than one-third of all births. The number involving illegal immigrant parents is unknown but is likely to be in the tens of thousands, health experts said.
Please tell your friends about this. Please tell the mother of a newborn. Please tell the fathers you meet this weekend in the Park with their beloved child.
Please tell the seniors you know. Please tell them that Mr. Bush and the Republican Congressperson in their district are coming after babies who could be their grandchildren.
Please tell your friends and neighbors.
Please tell people who are ill who might benefit from stem-cell research, that Mr. Bush believes that throwing an embryo in the garbage is acceptable but using the identical embryo for research is murder.
Please remind them of the lunacy. Then tell them that this thug, who we call Mr. President, in the next breath has his government implement a policy not to provide healthcare for infants born of immigrants in poverty. Please tell them that this has become the official policy of the United States of America.
The United States of America--a beacon of freedom, spreading Democracy to Iraq, the richest nation on the planet.