Starve the beast

If you can't kill government programs outright by voting to repeal them, the Republican strategy has long been "starve the beast," i.e. defund the programs by not appropriating the money in the budget.

Conservative Republican Grover Norquist, president of the Americans for Tax Reform, said it most vividly years ago: "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."

So now we see that strategy unfolding in the House. They voted to repeal the health care reform bill, but that died in the Senate. So now their plan is to cut funding that the federal government allots to states to help pay for Medicaid -- one program that the new law covers.

Governors are now crying foul: Repeal of the Affordable Health Care Act failed, so the states still have to follow the new law's requirements on Medicaid, but the House GOP is trying to cut the funds to pay for it -- leaving the states holding the bag for millions each year that they can't afford in this time of budget shortfalls.

Yes, and that's exactly what "starve the beast," and "drown it in the bathrub" mean to do. That's the way the game is played -- and the poor people are the losers.

Democrats need to do a better job of hanging that one around the necks of House Republicans.

Ralph