Two Republican Moral Obscenities!

It is all too apparent that the Republican super wealthy are rushing to steal as much of America while killing off as many of the poor as they can. The two items below are beyond the pale. Anyone who has had to prove airline identity knows that such things as birth certificates or passports are expensive and hard to come by in a rush. So to defer medical care until one can locate such means of identification means that death may be at one's door before such credentials can be obtained -- if a poor person can afford to purchase them! They can cost more than a week's pay for just one member of a family: http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/fees/fees_837.html

Age 16 and older: The passport application fee is $55. The security surcharge is $12. The execution fee is $30. The total is $97.

Under Age 16: The passport application fee is $40. The security surcharge is $12. The execution fee is $30. The total is $82.

In Europe one qualifies even as an alien (e.g. an American) for medical coverage just by being there or with a minimal fee (e.g. it was $25.00 for a daughter studying in Italy a few years ago and another needed not even that outlay as a summer intern in London).

And so far as the Republican move to end estate taxes is concerned -- such a small percentage of the super wealthy are taxed at death that a multi millionaire can leave his or hers to heirs with no taxes at all. And as Krugman points out in his column, not one family farm has been sold to pay 'death taxes'.

These two Republican moves are nothing less than moral obscenities -- the so-called death tax cut will directly connect with deaths -- those of poor people deprived thereby of funding for critical medical care!

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Medicaid Rules Toughened on Proof of Citizenship
By ROBERT PEAR
Recipients will be required to show passports or birth
certificates and a limited number of other documents.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/05/washington/05medicaid.html?th&emc=th

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OP-ED COLUMNIST
Shameless in the Senate
By PAUL KRUGMAN
There's still a clear connection between tax breaks for the
rich and failure to help Americans in need.

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/06/05/opinion/05krugman.html?th&emc=th
(Available only to TimesSelect subscribers)

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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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