Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Republican Surge or Democratic Purge?

Over the last year the Republican dominated Congress engineered rational sounding rules that optimize their party's followers but hurt the country as a whole. Two areas this can be seen are elections and healthcare.

Voting apparently isn't every American's right anymore. Greg Palast's analysis shows 4.5 million votes from people of color will be scrubbed via voter ID rules, ballot spoilage, the non-counting of provisional votes and aggressive voter challenge operations.

This past summer Medicaid enacted "proof of citizenship" requirements. Experts estimate 9% of American born persons on Medicaid lack the required identification to continue receiving services. Nonprofit community hospitals, already reeling from the burden of caring for those without health insurance, took another big hit. 80-90% of community hospitals are currently experiencing some form of financial distress. Congress and President Bush twisted the screws even tighter on these fragile organizations.

Republicans don't outright ban certain types of voters or nail shut the doors of your local nonprofit hospital, but given their initiatives they might as well have. My vote is intended to say, toss 'em all.

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