Sunday, June 25, 2017

Ron Johnson: your 'health' bill quickly cuts disease prevention $$

[Updated from 6/14/17] I noted in a post yesterday that Wisconsin Tea Party/GOP Senator Ron Johnson was busy parsing the meaning of the word "cut" 
Ron Johnson, official portrait, 112th Congress.jpg
when denying that his party's high-bracket tax-cut bill crafted in secret and disguised as a health-care plan cut the life-saving Medicaid program - - watch this video, Senator - - which is absolutely targeted for deep and massive cuts to pay for the big tax cut Johnson and his party have long sought for upper-income Americans which keep the GOP afloat: 

As The New York Times disclosed

...tax increases for high-income Americans that Democrats used to help pay for the Affordable Care Act are being scrapped entirely.
A 3.8 percent tax on investment income over $250,000 for a couple would be history, as would an 0.9 percent surcharge on payroll taxabove that same level. The Tax Policy Center estimates that would amount to an average tax cut of $54,000 for households making over $1 million.
Here's another cut in the hurriedly-drafted Senate bill I haven't heard the former Oshkosh plastics manufacturer address - - the one that would wipe out funding for disease and bioterrorism prevention which the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides to cities and states (that would include Wisconsin and Oshkosh), as The Washington Post explains:
The health-care bill that Senate Republicans released Thursday would eliminate critical funds for core public health programs that make up about 12 percent of the budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The money supports programs to prevent bioterrorism and disease outbreaks, as well as to provide immunizations and screenings for cancer and heart disease.
The Senate bill would end funding starting in fiscal 2018, which begins in October. That’s more quickly than theHouse GOP legislation, which would gut funding for the Prevention and Public Health Fund starting in October 2018...
The CDC’s own immunization program received $324 million from the fund last year, dollars that were sent directly to states and local communities to improve immunization registries and infrastructure.... about 40 percent of the CDC’s total immunization program budget last year.
That support has been especially crucial given the increase in recent years of vaccine-preventable diseases outbreaks such as measles, mumps, and whooping cough. An ongoing measles outbreak in Minnesota has already exceeded the total number of measles cases reported in the entire United States last year.
I am waiting for Johnson to address those cuts.

Perhaps he'll settle on a 'financing reprogramming,' or 'negative dollar allotment.'


Or say nothing.

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