People on a fixed income or unemployed who wouldn't be able to get healthcare without a government program aren't really in need of that assistance, says House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA). They've just been being coddled, and "do what most Americans are learning how to do, which is to do more with less."
CANTOR: We are in a situation where we have a safety net in place in this country for people who frankly don’t need one. We have to focus on making sure we have a safety net for those who need it.
WALLACE: The Medicaid people — you’re going to cut that by $750 billion.
CANTOR: The medicaid reductions are off the baseline. so what we’re saying is allow states to have the flexibility to deal with their populations, their indigent populations and the healthcare needs the way they know how to deal with them. Not to impose some mandate from a bureaucrat in Washington.
WALLACE: But you are giving them less money to do it.
CANTOR: In terms of the baseline, that is correct…What we’re saying is there is so much imposition of a mandate that doesn’t relate to the actual quality of care. We believe if you put in place the mechanism that allow for personal choice as far as Medicare is concerned, as well as the programs in Medicaid, that we can actually get to a better resolve and do what most Americans are learning how to do, which is to do more with less.
I'd love to hear Cantor's definition of "safety net." And why he thinks Medicaid and Medicare patients are already doing more with less. This is a continuation of Paul Ryan's efforts to equate Medicaid recipients with welfare queens, old and disabled people living high off the hog, taking all the good medicine in their nursing homes.
The Ryan and Cantor approach to healthcare reform is to take it away from those who might need it most. Alan Grayson was ridiculed as a crazy radical back when he said this about Republicans: "The Republican health care plan: don't get sick. . . . The Republicans have a back up plan in case you do get sick. . . . This is what the Republicans want you to do. If you get sick America, the Republican health care plan is this: Die quickly!"
That's exactly what the Ryan/Cantor message, and plan will achieve.