Walker’s False Choice on Cutting 65,000 from Health Care, Including 29,000 Children

MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker continues to choose corporate special interest donors over the people of Wisconsin — offering a scheme that would cut health care for 65,000 Wisconsinites to pay off part of his $2.3 billion in new tax breaks for corporations and the rich passed since he took office.

“Gov. Walker’s corporate special interest agenda has cost us our kids’ public education, our workers their rights and now add health care for 65,000 to the list,” said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. “None of these cuts would be necessary if Walker didn’t give $2.3 billion in tax breaks to corporations and the rich.”

Gov. Walker’s newest attack on health care comes when more people need to access the state service because Walker has failed to create jobs. The unemployment rate increased nearly half a percent and 14,000 more have filed for unemployment benefits since he took office in January 2011.

Walker promised during his campaign that he would “make sure kids are covered,” but his plan would result in 29,000 children losing coverage under the state’s BadgerCare program, a program created with wide bipartisan support under a Republican governor. [Appleton Post-Crescent, 6/15/10]

“Most nefarious in Walker’s scheme is that he says we will save money, but it’s by sacrificing people who will no longer be able to afford coverage under the state’s tremendously successful BadgerCare program,” said Ross. “That’s like saying we’ll have enough food for the people on a life raft as long as we push some children into the water.”