Crapo On Health Clinic Funded By Stimulus He Opposed: ‘One Of The Core Pieces Of The Solution’ America Needs
Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) attended a ribbon-cutting event for the Health West clinic in Aberdeen, Idaho. Crapo praised the clinic, which will specialize in assisting low-income patients in rural areas, saying, “What is happening right here in Aberdeen today is one of the core pieces of the solution that we need in America today.” What Crapo did not mention in his praise for Health West is that most of its funding came from the stimulus package that he opposed:
During a brief speech at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Sen. Crapo said the clinic is essential in providing efficient high-quality services in a rural community. He said the facility helps address two disturbing trends in U.S. health care — skyrocketing cost of services and limited access to quality care.
“What is happening right here in Aberdeen today is one of the core pieces of the solution that we need in America today,” Crapo said. [...] Stephen Weeg, executive director for Health West in Southeast Idaho, said the clinic hopes to partner with the larger medical hospitals to bring in specialists once a month. Green light for the clinic did not come until stimulus money was made available.
Weeg said stimulus money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided $500,000 of the $660,000 project. Additional money came from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. About $74,000 was raised locally, with about $35,000 left to raise.
At the time of the passage of the stimulus bill, Crapo called it “an avalanche of special funding, much of which is unrelated to stimulating our economy as a whole.” It now appears that the senator realizes, at least implicitly, that it has provided funding to important projects like the West Health center that he calls “one of the core pieces of the solution that we need in America today.”
Nothing like being absolutely for and against the stimulus in addition to taking credit for the good the stimulus does for working class Americans. Americans who right-wing zealots like Crapo have showed nothing but contempt for the last twenty years. Those that think Crapo should resign because of his obvious mental problems can contact him here.
California gubernatorial candidate Republican Meg Whitman wants the poor to fund higher education. Kind of a clue as to how conservative billionaire extremists think
But now Ms. Whitman, even Ms. Whitman, has surprised me with a new level of venality. The ad opens with a nice proposal to add a billion dollars in funding for California's UC and CSU systems.
This is a good idea. Ever since Reagan decided that higher education was a waste of money, and Prop. 13 hamstrung the state, UC and CSU have been punching bags in state politics
And how will she pay for it? It turns out that very small incremental surtax on the highest earners in the state will provide more than enough funding and, uh ....
Nah. KIDDING! Margaret will have the most immiserated people in the state cough up the dough. People will have to "work" for welfare, and then go off after two years. We'll take the money that these slackers would waste on food and heat, and hand it over to schools that now serve as an excuse to grind the most vulnerable of us further into despair.
Put aside the fact that the numbers don't even begin to add up as a way to fund higher education.
If Whitman truly earned her millions is wasn't because she knows anything about math or public policy. It is a safe bet she relied on trained employees - educated by public universities - to do the actual work that made her wealthy. Do conservatives even know what humility is? Those interested in having a non-elitist/non-airhead for California governor can contribute to Jerry Brown here.
