Contact Congress on Oct. 17 & 18 About Setting Its Budget Priorities Straight -

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Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005 12:31 PM

Subject: Contact Congress on Oct. 17 & 18 About Setting Its Budget Priorities Straight - Don't Sacrifice Medicaid

Tell Congress To Set Its Budget Priorities Straight - Don't Cut Medicaid and Other Human Services To Fund Hurricane Relief

Take Action!

Contact Your Senator/House Member - October 17 and 18

BACKGROUND: Reversing President Bush’s call to do "whatever it takes" to help the Gulf coast states and evacuees from the two hurricanes, the Republican leadership in Congress is now on a path to make huge cuts in human services programs to pay for hurricane relief costs.

Cutting entitlements like Medicaid and food stamps and making across-the-board cuts to discretionary programs, such as IDEA and Vocational Rehabilitation, to pay for hurricane relief makes absolutely no sense. Yet, this is exactly the Republican leadership's plan in the next two months.

At the same time, the Congress still plans to enact tax cuts that will increase the federal deficit by approximately $70 billion. Delaying or repealing these tax cuts, aimed primarily for the wealthy, is a better course to help pay for hurricane relief than cutting programs for poor and vulnerable Americans.

STATUS:

October and November will be critical to the future of Medicaid and other human services programs. Despite rumors to the contrary, Congress is moving forward this month with Budget Reconciliation and its planned cuts.

As a result, The Arc and United Cerebral Palsy Disability Policy Collaboration (DPC) has joined the Emergency Campaign for America’s Priorities, which is a coalition of hundreds of other human services organizations/coalitions including AFSCME, AFL-CIO, National Women’s Law Center, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Coalition on Human Needs and others, to prevent any further cuts to Medicaid and other human services.

ACTION NEEDED:

Time is of the essence. October 17 and 18 are national call for action days and the DPC needs chapters of The Arc, affiliates of United Cerebral Palsy, constituents, self-advocates and others to contact Congress to oppose cutting Medicaid.

How can you help?

1. Call your Senators and Congressman at the U.S. Capitol toll-free - 1-800-426-8073. Tell them that:

Cutting Medicaid at a time when low-income Americans and victims of Hurricane Katrina need this program the most is both reckless and unnecessary; Low-income Americans with disabilities receive critical supports and services – like access to doctors, hospitals, medications, long-term care and more – from Medicaid and its impact is immeasurable. Medicaid, which benefits millions, must not be sacrificed to pay for tax cuts benefiting a few; It is unconscionable and fiscally irresponsible to make the poor and vulnerable of our nation pay for the hurricane relief costs; and Emergency spending, such as what is needed now for hurricane relief, does not require budget offsets since such spending will have little overall impact on the federal deficit over time.

2. Send an e-mail/letter to your Senators and Congressman. Click here to send the message to Congress that human services programs should not be cut to pay for hurricane relief costs.

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