Subject: Democratic News
From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 22 Nov 1995 17:51:44 -0500

Democratic News

Democratic National Committee

For Immediate Release

November 22, 1995

Contact: Brian Bond

202/863-8056

REPUBLICANS STALL ON RYAN WHITE AND BACK EXTREME MEDICAID CUTS

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In response to recent attacks on President Clinton by the
Log Cabin Republicans, Democrats fired back today by pointing out that the
President has fought to save Medicaid from the GOP budget axe and has pushed
for funding increases in AIDS research.

"The Log Cabin Republicans, under the leadership of Rich Tafel, have stooped
to the worst level of misleading political rhetoric in order to justify GOP
plans to gut Medicaid and stall Ryan White funding," charged Brian Bond,
director of the Democratic National Committee's Lesbian and Gay Outreach
Desk. "By attacking the President, Tafel is attempting to cover up the
shameful record the Republicans have amassed on these issues. In the three
budgets submitted since the President took office, it was President Clinton
-- not congressional Republicans -- who proposed a 40 percent increase in
AIDS research funding, including a 108 percent increase for Ryan White CARE
Act programs. The President is committeed to standing up for the principles
of Medicare, Medicaid, education and the environment."

In a recent issue of The Washington Blade, Tafel attempted to tie potential
disruption of Ryan White funding to President Clinton's rejection of the GOP
budget, which forced a government shutdown.

"Tafel is trying to deflect Republican inaction on appointing House conferees
for the re-authorization of Ryan White," Bond said. "He also is trying to
draw attention away from Republican efforts to make significant cuts in
Medicaid and shift the responsibility for those services to the states. The
Log Cabin Club espouses gutting government. In the end, their philosophical
belief will throw thousands from our community out on the streets and deny
them the care they deserve and desperately need."

For Americans living with AIDS, Medicaid is the single largest source of
health care financing, providing coverage for more than 50 percent of such
adults and more than 50 percent of children living with AIDS. An estimated 30
percent of people with AIDS are uninsured, Bond noted. In states like New
York, California, New Jersey, Florida and Texas the percentage of people
reliant on Medicaid for coverage is estimated to be much higher.

According to Bond, the proposals by Republican leadership in Congress to
repeal the Medicaid statute and replace it with a fixed block grant payment
to the states presents a particular hazard to people with AIDS. Both the
House and Senate bills would reduce federal Medicaid payments by $182 billion
over seven years, including a 30 percent reduction in 2002.

Bond concluded, "Republican proposals and cuts in Medicaid will no doubt lead
states to impose limits an prescription drugs, the number of hospital days
and physician visits to absorb the devastating cuts."

Eric Bauman, president of the L.A. Stonewall Democratic Club, the largest
lesbian and gay organization in California, joined in by saying, "For Tafel
to state that the President is playing partisan politics, just days after
Newt Gingrich acknowledged that he planned to shut down the government last
spring, is the epitome of hypocrisy and demagoguery. Tafel's comments are a
smoke screen to cover up the devastating effects of draconian Medicare and
Medicaid cuts served up by the Radical Right."

Bauman concluded: "It's time for Rich Tafel and the Log Cabin Club to wake up
and admit that the Republican agenda is determined to destroy every health
care advance made by the lesbian and gay community in the last decade. While
Republicans in Congress declare us immoral and undeserving, Bill Clinton has
stood firm on the issue of AIDS funding time and time again."

According to Bill Burrington, President of the Washington, D.C., Gertrude
Stein Democratic Club, "Instead of spending time inaccurately criticizing a
very supportive President, the Log Cabin Club ought to be pressing the
Speaker and House Republican leadership to appoint conferees for the Ryan
White CAR Act re-authorization. In the midst of a national health epidemic,
it is both sad and irresponsible for the 'Log Cabin Gang' to play partisan
politics with peoples lives."

- 30 -