Angie Pratt: You Choose - Death Or Taxes

You Choose - Death Or Taxes.

What happens when people have less access to medical care? Don't spend too long thinking about this question. There is no rocket science here. The answer is simple. People are not as healthy when they lose access to medical care.

Let's take the great state of Texas as an example. The State cut the C (child) H (health) I (insurance) P program by making some 200,000 Texas children no longer ineligible. In the six-county North Texas region that includes the heavily populated Dallas and Tarrant counties, CHIP rolls were reduced by 32%.

The State did so ostensively to avoid raising taxes.

What has the state achieved? Well . for one thing, by making cuts of about $206 million in the program, Texas did not receive about $550 million in federal matching funds. For another thing, infant mortality rose 8%.

Don't let the smoke and mirror discussions make you lose sight of what we are really talking about here. Don't obfuscate the issue by quibbling about whether or not reducing the rate of increase in spending is actually a cut or an increase. Let's be intellectually honest and judge by the number of people receiving the level of care that they need.

Why is this important? Because the Bush Administration is about to make cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. They are doing so because of the financial mess they have allowed this country get into by gutting taxes and increasing spending on elective wars. By refusing to consider a tax increase they have made cuts in entitlement programs the only option.

Make no mistake. In the process of making cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security Americans will die.

Let's talk morality here. Is it moral to cut taxes that result in deaths? Is it ethical to let multi-millionaires keep an extra 1% of his income when doing so will cause people to die?

Let's see the hands of those Senators and House of Representatives who decide that they would rather give their friends and themselves a tax cut than save lives. Washing their hands won't remove the immorality of this issue from their hands any more than it did for Pontius Pilate.

You Choose. Death or taxes.

Written by Angie Pratt ( http://www.politicalposts.com). Please run as a Letter to the Editor, guest editorial or PoliticalPosts column.

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