The New York Times
January 9, 2004
Sick State Budgets, Sick Kids
By Bob Herbert
While headlines continue to tell us how great the economy is doing, states across the U.S. are pulling the plug on desperately needed health coverage for low-income Americans, including about a half-million children.
Even as the Bush administration continues its bizarre quest for ever more tax cuts, the states, which by law have to balance their budgets, are cutting vital social programs so deeply that tragic consequences are inevitable.
It seems extremely strange that in the United States of America, the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the world, we are going backward in the 21st century in our ability to provide the most fundamental kinds of health care to ordinary people, including children.
Maybe the nation itself needs a doctor. Shoving low-income people, including children, off the health care rolls at a time when the economy is allegedly booming is a sure sign of some kind of sickness in the society.