"Let them eat cake."
(Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
The great white hope of the Iowa Republican party, Governor Chris Cristie of New Jersey, has recently made only bad news for himself: his vicious attacks on public school teachers and other public employees, turning away federal dollars for a critical public transportation program, his propensity for
living high on the hog at government expense. All of this has sent his
approvals into the tank.
His latest isn't going to help him reshape his image as a callous lout sponging off the misery of others. Literally.
Despite recent polls that show Americans are just as protective of Medicaid as they are of Medicare, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is trying to gut the popular program in his state and prevent 23,000 people from receiving benefits. Christie has proposed cutting Medicaid eligibility to absurdly low levels: from the current maximum income of $24,645 to $5,317 a year for a family of three. Apparently, the governor believes a family of three making $6,000 a year is simply too rich to receive Medicaid.
The New Jersey press has reported that the main effect of his proposal would be to slash help for the working poor, tearing a huge hole in the state’s social safety net:
Adults in a family of three that makes as little as $103 a week would earn too much to qualify for health care provided by Medicaid under a sharply curtailed program Gov. Chris Christie wants the federal government to approve this year, according to state officials and advocates briefed on the proposal.[...]
The Christie administration is expected to propose cutting the maximum income level of Medicaid from $24,645 to $5,317 a year for a family of three [...“That is about a third of the poverty level,” Castro said. “That means that an uninsured parent working full time at a minimum-wage job wouldn’t be eligible. … A parent who works half-time for minimum wage wouldn’t even qualify.
How do you even parody that level of cruelty? And this is the guy many Republicans see as their 2012 savior? That's Republican family values, for you.
