During the debate on immigration and the shutdown, you heard an awful lot from Republicans like this, in a tweet from Mitch McConnell :
“To most Americans, taking care of our military and #veterans, providing #healthcare for needy children, and funding the @CDCgov sound like fundamental responsibilities.
“To the Democratic Leader, apparently, they sound like hostages ripe for the taking.”
Set aside the fact that Republicans have admitted that they were using CHIP children as "leverage,” that they didn't reauthorize the program to use it as a bargaining chip and let it languish for 114 days. Let's indeed put that aside and consider those veterans McConnell was expressing so much concern for.
Kymberly Grafton winces with every step she takes, the lingering burden from a training accident and car crash. And the disabled Navy reservist’s pain may soon be compounded by a budget battle on Capitol Hill that threatens her neighborhood health center.
Grafton is one of 300,000 low-income veterans who receive health care at community health centers nationwide. […]
The Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, established the Community Health Center Fund to provide money for the operation, expansion and construction of community health centers to improve access for low-income Americans and veterans who live far from a VA hospital.
The National Association of Community Health Centers estimates that without new money from Congress, centers will face an immediate 70 percent cut in funding, resulting in 9 million patients losing care and 2,800 of an estimated 10,400 delivery sites closing.
“Where am I going to go?” Grafton asked, her eyes welling with tears. “Because of everything I have been dealing with from losing family members, being in a car accident, not being able to work, literally not having any money to my name and being on public assistance, I’ve come to rely on this place a great deal. Especially for mental health services.”
Spare us your crocodile tears for the veterans, McConnell, and bring up a clean funding bill for the 27 million people who get care at community health centers including those 9 million veterans. They are still your hostage and we are still paying attention.
Jam the phone lines of House and Senate Republicans. Call (202) 224-3121, and tell them to stop holding people's health care hostage.
