President Bush’s veto of SCHIP legislation impacts lives in cities and in suburbs and in rural areas. Read what Charity has to say:
Speaking as a citizen of a very red state (Nebraska) – I was on a conference/town hall meeting phone call with our representative just two nights ago. The biggest concern was health care – the lack of it and the fact that we see so many children going with out and being hurt by that lack. This is a very fiscally responsible state – we have a balanced budget admendment which has resulted in steep cuts. Yet still, the people here want ALL children covered. And if anyone thinks the average Nebraska is communistic, I would like to see him stand up and tell that to a crowd of Husker fans on game day.
This IS going to hit us hard here – health care cost in rural areas is MORE expensive than urban – mainly because we don’t have enough doctors and nurses willing to work in those areas. Other costs of living might be lower (and I do add the might – housing is a little less expensive, but food isn’t do to transportation costs) but we have the highest property tax rate in the nation (lots of land, no people and farms aren’t taxed as high).
So, in my point of view, this isn’t a red-state, blue-state issue – poverty is poverty be it urban or rural.