Let me juxtapose a couple quotes from Curtis King in today’s Yakima Herald article about the now $9 billion dollar hole in our state budget. To get a clearer picture, the total budget is $37 billion. So, legislators need to cut a quarter of state government to balance the budget.
Leah Ward point out that this will probably mean a $10 million to $25 million cut to Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, the end to the Basic Health Plan which covers over 100,000 Washington residents and the end to a program that helps the chronically poor.
OK…the first quote from Rep. King: “Republicans, including Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, point out that the shortfall is more about wants than needs”
For example, 100,000 people WANT access to our health care system because they NEED to take care of themselves when they get sick. So, it’s a stupid quote that underscores the Republicans ideology over reality. But, then he adds insult to injury. Here’s the second quote:
King said the Yakima Valley’s legislative delega-tion remains committed to keeping the Yakima Valley School open despite the governor’s proposal to close it in 2011.
“We have to protect the most vulnerable,” King said.
So, let me try to get this straight. The Yakima Valley School is a NEED but 100,000 people losing access to health care, dramatically cutting funding to local hospitals and shredding the social safety net is a WANT.
When King says we need to protect the most vulnerable, who on God’s green earth is he talking about?
I guess if I WANT to ensure that we don’t close state parks, leave a 100,000 people without health care and shred the social safety net, I NEED to rely on sensible, smarter legislators in Olympia than Yakima’s own Curtis King.