By Mark Scott
Buffalo, NY – Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton says Senate Republicans are behaving like the "Grinch" during this holiday season. In a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday, she said the Republicans are making child care and health care for the poor more costly.
Congress is considering budget and tax bills that would cut spending on social programs and lower taxes. Clinton said it's ironic that they're willing to finance corporate tax breaks while taking a budget axe to programs that working families depend on.
"It seems to me that the Republican majority wakes up each morning and says what are we going to do to help our friends today," Clinton said. "Never has so much been done for so few who need it so little."
During a telephone news conference with reporters following her floor speech, Clinton detailed what she described as "devastating budget cuts." She said they include a $700 million cut in the food stamps program.
"If we just simply reinstated the Superfund polluter tax, which forces companies that pollute to bear the expense of cleaning up the pollution, that would generate $7.3 billion over the next ten years, more than ten times the cost of the food stamps cut," Clinton said.
Clinton was also critical of plans to trim funding for child care programs. Carol Saginaw of the New York State Child Care Coordinating Council says that could end up costing the government more in the long run.
"We know that without subsidies, working parents cannot work," Saginaw said. "They don't have the money to keep their children in regulated day care. They're faced with the decision of either placing their children in what may be substandard care or leaving their jobs and returning to public assistance."
Also under fire are proposed cuts to the Medicaid program. Clinton said such cuts would shift the financial burden onto state and local governments, which are already reeling from the program's existing costs. Laura Caruso of the New York Medicaid Matters Coalition said she's troubled by one provision that would require Medicaid patients to pick up more of the cost for their health services and prescription drugs.
"Studies show that the more you increase out of pocket costs for Medicaid consumers, the less likely they are to access the services they need and the drugs they need to stay healthy," Caruso said.
WBFO News placed a call to the Senate's Republican leadership but it was not returned. But Republicans told the Associated Press that Clinton invoked the wrong Doctor Seuss book and should switch from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" to "The Cat in the Hat." New Hampshire Republican Senator Judd Gregg said he thinks Clinton was, quoting here, "talking through her hat."
Fellow Republican Johnny Isakson of Georgia accused Clinton of trying to demonize Republicans as anti-poor. He called her argument "ludicrous."