Yesterday I was just complaining about how H.R. 4213 didn't extend Medicaid payments to the states, and along comes this action alert from AFSCME calling for just that. The action alert is appropriately strident -- I don't think Congress should leave until they finish all of H.R. 4213's work, either -- but the alert doesn't point to any specific piece of legislation that would extend Medicaid payments. H.R. 4263, a Tammy Baldwin production that never even got a committee vote, would extend increases in Medicaid payments to the states for one year, but I'm not seeing a bill that would restore the lost payments in total. No matter. Communicate your will to your Reps and Senators, and when they blow you off, keep communicating your will to your Reps and Senators. I'd like to think this is still a nation where the public will matters, and giving up isn't a good way to test that belief.
Meanwhile, closer to home, Lancaster County commissioners mull over getting rid of the county's Human Relations Commission, which investigates civil rights violations. Elimination of the Human Relations Commission would save a whopping $470,000, and of course since we are in a recession we have to give up not-very-costly things that actually work for people, right? Ha ha ha. The county votes tomorrow night on whether to eliminate the Human Relations Commission, and Keystone Progress helps you demand that they vote to keep it. Also, if you're near Lancaster, you can go to the Unity Rally to Defend Civil Rights, at Binn's Park, 100 N. Queen St, tomorrow at 5.30 pm. That should send a message to the County commissioners, who meet an hour and a half later down the road, at 150 N. Queen St., Room 102.
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