Potential cuts to Medicaid aren't an option for these metro Detroiters
About 100 people turned up at a park in Milford on Tuesday afternoon to rally against potential cuts to Medicaid, the government insurance for low income and disabled people that provides health care for about one-fourth of Michigan's population.
It was the first in a series of sparsely attended afternoon and evening meetings scheduled around metro Detroit on Tuesday to focus on the passage of a U.S. House Republican-led congressional budget resolution calling for the Committee on Energy and Commerce to cut $880 billion from its budget over the next 10 years.
More: House passes GOP funding bill backed by Trump. Now a showdown looms in Senate.
The committee oversees Medicaid. And while the resolution doesn't specifically single out Medicaid for cuts, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says the Republicans can't finance their budget cuts unless they cut from Medicaid.
The energy and commerce committee's reductions are among trillions of dollars in cuts in the budget plan that are to be used to fund an extension of President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts. The U.S. Senate has yet to take up the resolution.
About 72 million people across the nation, or roughly 1 in 4, rely on Medicaid, according to government statistics. Around 2.6 million, or 26%, of Michigan residents rely on Medicaid.
Also the budget resolution calls on the House Committee on Agriculture to cut billions in spending, leaving many concerned the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) ― which feeds almost 42 million people — will be part of the cuts if House Republicans get their way.
"You may be here because you're angry. Maybe you're a little frustrated ... and perhaps, even afraid. But you're also here because you care," Sherri Masson, an organizer from Indivisible Huron Valley, which hosted the Milford rally, told people gathered there.
"You care about the sick, the elderly and the children who currently rely on Medicaid and SNAP food programs for survival. We're here because President Trump, Elon Musk and his MAGA followers ... want to cut the federal budget by trillions to give billionaires a tax cut. "
Another speaker, Mindy Denton, who is 56 and lives in Milford, told the group that a cut in Medicaid would be catastrophic for people like her 25-year-old son, Jared Denton, who is intellectually disabled and will rely on Medicaid for insurance next year. 'Although he has worked for years and will continue to do so, it is unlikely he will earn enough to receive private insurance benefits through his employment,' she said.
'Medicaid and SNAP not only advanced greater opportunity and the empowerment to succeed, they offer an investment in the health of our community, promoting broader social and economic goals — that's a win for us all," she said.
Later that evening, at a town hall meeting at the Faith Redemption Center Church of God in Christ in Detroit, about 40 people gathered to learn what might be next. How is it possible Medicaid wouldn't be touched, some wondered.
Among those in attendance: Michelle Tucker, a 57-year-old Detroit resident, who is concerned about a number of topics regarding the Trump administration and the empowerment of Musk. They include: threats to the Department of Education, an immigration crackdown, and potential cuts to Medicaid. "It doesn't take a blind person to see this is white supremacy," she said.
Still, these actions will have a ripple effect and white people will be affected, too, she added.
Said Nick Clarke, 67, of Wixom: "In a country like America, nobody ... should go hungry and nobody should go without health care."
Organizers of the event encouraged people to contact their congressional representatives and U.S. senators. They even put a QR code on a screen and images of legislators to contact.
"In every single historical point of oppression there was a point of resistance," said DuJuan Bland, a lead organizer with the community group MOSES and a minister at Faith Redemption.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Angry, betrayed: metro Detroiters rally against possible Medicaid cuts
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