Urge Congress to Fulfill Their Obligation and Fund State Medicaid Programs!

Senate Republicans are fillibustering H.R. 4213, the Jobs Act of 2010, which would extend federal aid to state Medicaid programs. Beyond the fact that they were supposedly against the practice of fillibustering. they've taken a truly indefensible position: opposing the extension of unimployment benefits and COBRA (the insurance of last resort for the unemployed), as well as adequate funding for Medicare. The end result of this obstinacy is that more than half the states, including PA, will have to go back to the drawing board on their budgets. For more info, click here. 

New York is choosing to raise taxes on cigarettes by more than a dollar a pack, raising the price to above $10 a pack. That actually doesn't sound so bad to me, when I recall that my mother died of heart failure, caused in part by 40-plus years of smoking three packs a day. Pennsylvania's proposed means of balancing the budget strikes me as much worse: cut programs, cut jobs--up to 25,000 of them unless Congress votes to fund programs to the level originally promised. See Governor Rendell's letter to Senators Specter and Casey, who have been heroes in defending people who need help now more than ever, as the recession continues to keep them jobless. 

But several of PA's representatives in Congress, especially Blue Dog Democrats and Republicans, are hesitating to vote for H.R. 4213. Urge them to vote YES by clicking here! 

I actually had intended to blog about my visit to Sunbury last Thursday for a workshop on health care reform. But this seemed urgent, to let people know what's going on right now and what they can do to make a difference. More on Sunbury tomorrow...