Snowe: House Republican budget 'a race to the bottom' #p2 #tcot

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/25/978931/-Snowe:-House-Republican-budget-a-race-to-the-bottom-?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29

Sen. Olympia Snowe is going to be a solid "no" vote on the House Republican budget, and has issued the strongest GOP condemnation of the proposal so far.

"I am going to vote no on the budget because I have deep and abiding concerns about the approach on Medicare, which is essentially to privatize it," Snowe told The Portland Press Herald on Tuesday.

She added that the House GOP budget's proposal to block grant Medicaid and let states decide how to distribute the funds was also troubling.

"The states are the great laboratories," Snowe said. "But we also have an overall obligation to serve specific populations under Medicaid. We don't want to encourage a race to the bottom."

Ouch. Good for Snowe for focusing on Medicaid as well as Medicare, as the cuts to that program could result not just in millions of people losing healthcare, but the loss of two million private sector jobs. States just can't afford that now.

Snowe joins fellow Mainer Sen. Susan Collins, as well as Sens. Scott Brown (R-MA), and Rand Paul (R-KY) in opposing the plan. In case you're curious, Paul is opposing it because it's not sufficiently extreme in its cuts. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (disgruntled R-AK) hasn't decided yet, saying she's "not so sure about the components of his [Ryan's] Medicare proposal."