Posted on 06/02/2025 10:45:14 AM PDT by John Semmens
Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) assailed the Big Beautiful Bill's cuts to Medicaid as "an unfair assault on the heath of America's most vulnerable people. Millions will be denied coverage. Others will be forced to work in order to get health care. When voters find out what Republicans are doing they will vote them out of office."
Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Ind) defended the legislation, saying "if you think about the four things that we're doing in Medicaid to strengthen it, you'll see that we're removing any payments that are illegal, ineligible or duplicate, and we're ensuring that able-bodied adults have a very modest work requirement, in exchange for receiving benefits. Those things are overwhelmingly supported by the American people."
Hochul called the changes to the Medicaid program "discriminatory. The immigrants that former President Biden so generously allowed into this country are among the poorest folks living in America. They have no jobs, can't speak English and have some serious health problems. They need medical treatment. Denying it is the kind of cruel and unusual punishment that is banned in the US Constitution."
"Under our Constitution everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," Hochul argued. "It doesn't say that folks have to work for any of these rights. They are God-given and it is the government's responsibility to make sure that everyone enjoys these rights. A person can't live without food, clothing and shelter. Logically, it is the government's obligation to provide these items if a person is unable or unwilling to work to obtain them. Trying to make access to these items conditional on whether a person works for them infringes on his or her liberty to do whatever he or she wants in the pursuit of happiness. What Republicans are trying to do by making folks work for their benefits is to bring back slavery. Voters won't stand for it."
Houchin pointed out that "Gov. Hochul's interpretation of the role of government in a free society is illogical and impractical. The food, clothing, shelter and medical care she wants the government to provide requires that people work to produce them. If the beneficiaries of what her government wants to supply them with refuse to work then someone else--the taxpayers--are the ones who are compelled to toil so that what they've earned can be given to others. Forcing taxpayers to toil for the benefit of those who refuse to work is the real rebirth of the slavery that Democrats once imposed on the blacks who labored on their plantations."
"The flaw in the Republicans' reasoning is their belief that majority of humanity favors individual self-sufficiency," Hochul observed. "Democrats know that the majority of humanity prefer to live at someone else's expense. This is why socialism will be the dominant form of government wherever people have the power to elect a government that will force a minority to pay for the living expenses of the majority."
No one has a “right” to someone else’s money, property or skills.
asking able bodied people to pull their own weight = unfair in the mind of gimmedat liberals
Hey, give her a break ... she knows the only way Democrats stay in power is by buying votes, stealing votes and getting dead people to vote for them so this is just normal campaigning to her.
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