HB2625, sponsored by AZ House Majority Whip Debbie Lesko, allows employers to opt-out of certain mandated benefits, based on the business owner’s beliefs. It doesn’t authorize the firing of women, it doesn’t violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), it won’t deprive women of health care or contraceptive choices, kill kittens, or dictate the color of your panties.
HB2625 merely lets a business owner choose what they will and won’t pay for in the reproductive health insurance area. Contrary to the ACLU’s dishonest agitprop, the bill doesn’t, “give your boss the green light to fire you for using birth control.” It does prevent employees and politicians from forcing their beliefs onto a business owner. An employer’s rights shouldn’t be any different than yours.
Sadly, there are allegedly liberated women, freaking out that the government might not use laws to take care of their tender bits. Shocking isn’t it?
This outraged woman happily shared her personal details with Arizona State Representative Brenda Barton and everyone else on Facebook. Alvin (not her real name) can’t claim privacy rights when she’s posting the details of her period for the whole world to see.
I thought most women wanted the government to stay out of their nether regions. These outraged women are unfortunately getting false information and haven’t stepped back to look at the situation. If you invite the government, and your employer, into your “women’s healthcare” issues, don’t be surprised when the government, or your boss, wants to have a say in what you do with those body parts. This bill removes your boss and your government from your reproductive organs.
If you believe contraceptive issues are your private business, please support HB2625 and don’t use the government to force other people to pay for your beliefs.
On Friday, Congressman Raul “Boycott Arizona” Grijalva sent a letter to the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regarding Arizona’s efforts to balance the budget by proposing cuts to AHCCS, the state’s Medicaid program. In his letter, Grijalva states
This will devastate our economy in several ways, and the public deserves a chance to make its voice heard before any action is taken by the state of Arizona.
This is rich coming from the man that led the charge against Arizona and used his political clout to ask the country to refrain from spending their dollars in Arizona. There is still plenty of time for the public to comment on these proposals as they move through the legislature, but Mr. Grijalva doesn’t let facts get in the way of a possible political score.
Today, Speaker Adams responded to Mr. Grijalva’s letter with a letter of his own. And it’s good. In addition to Speaker Adams, 35 members of the House Republican Caucus also signed the letter.
Below is the text of the letter from Speaker Adams (I know, it looks long. Don’t be scared, it’s worth the read):
Congressman Grijalva:
We have read your letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regarding the proposed reductions in Arizona to our Medicaid program as well as your comments in the Arizona Daily Star. At the least, your statements demonstrate limited comprehension of the magnitude of the economic crisis facing your home state. Either you do not understand the issues surrounding Arizona’s Medicaid program – or you just chose to ignore the facts. Whatever the case, your efforts to delay and sideline our important progress of balancing the state’s budget will continue to leave many Arizonans with the false impression that we can provide services for which, in reality, there is no revenue source. To date, you have failed to provide any solution to that mathematical problem.
You apparently are not aware that Arizona faces a $543 million shortfall in the current year and a $1.15 billion shortfall in fiscal year 2012. Already, we have cut $2.2 billion from Arizona’s budget since 2008 due to plummeting revenues. Over the same period of time, you and your colleagues have increased spending by more than 30 percent on the federal level. Unlike Congress, we do not have the ability to spend money we do not have – nor do we believe that is a responsible way of conducting business.
Meanwhile, over the past decade, our Medicaid program has expanded at a record and alarming rate. In 2002, membership was just under 800,000 people. Today, it has spiked to nearly 1.4 million. That’s 1.4 million people on government subsidized health care in Arizona. Our general fund obligation over that time has increased from $675 million to $1.5 billion per year. That means that today, Arizona provides more generous Medicaid coverage than 44 other states in the country. More than 20 percent of Arizonans are covered by government subsidized care – a growing and unsustainable weight of responsibility given our current budget crisis.
Faced with this crisis, Governor Brewer had the courage and leadership to put forward a bold proposal in January that seeks to reduce our Medicaid rolls by approximately 250,000 people. Given the massive expansions in the system over the last decade, even with these significant cuts, more than 1 in every 6 Arizonans will still be covered by Medicaid. This remains a responsible and generous level of care.
In your letter to Medicaid and State Operations Director Cindy Mann, you allege that Arizona has “considered using cuts to Medicaid eligibility to pay for tax cuts.” That is flat out false. We are considering reductions to our Medicaid program in order to balance our budget – an exercise you have demonstrated no experience with given the aforementioned information.
You also state in your letter to Ms. Mann that the “recession has taken a heavy toll on our society.” That is very much true, especially here in Arizona. That’s why we as legislators have taken steps in Arizona that Congress has been unwilling to take, including rightsizing state spending to align with revenues. We also passed an historic and significant Jobs Bill, which you appear to criticize in your letter even though you do not have your facts right. As far as we can tell, your only contributions to impacting Arizona’s economy have been calling for a dangerous national boycott of our state and voting for Obamacare, which will further obligate our state to spend money we don’t have on Medicaid requirements. We believe our pro-growth measures are more productive than your inflammatory and destructive approach.
Despite your grandstanding attempt to jump into this process at the 11th hour, this issue has received extensive vetting and debate and will continue to receive hearings and opportunities for public input and discussion in the appropriate venue. It’s unfortunate that you did not participate in this discussion earlier. It’s also unfortunate that you have decided to criticize our governor’s proposed solution to our budget crisis, but failed to offer any alternative solutions. Arizonans deserve more from their elected officials.
Sincerely,
Kirk D. Adams
Speaker of the House
District 19
Like many other states, Arizona is broke. The cuts to our state health care system are an unfortunate necessity, and contrary to what the left would have you believe, these cuts will not kick granny out of her wheelchair and on to the street. For the real story on the ACCHS budget cuts, check out Papa Todd’s interesting facts about Arizona’s AHCCS budget cuts.
It’s official now, the Obama Adminstration has created the Interwebs Police. On the whiteouse.gov’s blog, there is now a post called “Facts are Stubborn Things” (irony alert), and it states:
There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation(emphasis mine). Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.
Um, they didn’t just tell me to report my neighbor, co-worker, family member for having an opinion on the health care reform issue that doesn’t match the Obama libtard propaganda, did they? Anyone else thinking Germany between 1933 and 1945?
I don’t think it’s what they have in mind, but I’m going to take them up on this by sending them lots of website addresses like dailykos, Organizing for America and Moveon.org. Feel free to join in and overload their email with their own propaganda.
Hat tip to @calebhowe and @jonhenke on Twitter for bringing this site to our attention.
