Healthcare cuts inspire protests

Author: Kaity Potak

Governor Jim Douglas faced heat from the town of his alma mater regarding the latest state budget and health-care cuts this past week.

Middlebury residents gathered on Court Square on Feb. 2 to call attention to the details of Douglas' cuts and to remind citizens to continue pressuring the state government for healthcare reform. With buttons reading, "No More Budget Cuts" and "Raise New Revenue," and handmade signs crying, "Don't Balance the Budget on Our Backs" and "What Obama Giveth, Douglas Taketh Away," protestors asked that attention be focused on the federal stimulus first. They demanded that state services and jobs be protected and more emphasis be placed on public education and affordable health-care programs.

Middlebury's rally was just one part of a statewide movement known as Save Our State (SOS), which seeks to pressure the state government and remind Vermont's citizens to get involved in raising a sustainable revenue. While there were hundreds more citizens throughout the state shouting the word "Enough!" in the streets, Middlebury itself saw 65 protestors who each gave two-minute testimonies, voicing their opinions of the Vermont state budget for the 2010 fiscal year.

Many of the protestors on Monday called specifically for the end of budget cuts to programs such as Early Education Grants and Assistance to Needy Families and lower premiums for Catamount Health, VHAP and other programs that help the uninsured. Many Vermonters believe that citizens earning more than $250,000 a year should be subject to higher income taxes to help low-income Vermonters.

Rally attendees pressured Douglas to approve only those carefully-planned budget cuts that would prove prudent in the long term and ensure protection for low-income citizens - particularly children, the elderly and the disabled - from the devastation that would ensue if such services were cut.