My grandfather is one of the reasons I’m a priest today. He gave me a form of unconditional love that helped make it possible for me to believe in a God of unconditional love.
Granddad was born on a farm in a dogtrot house. He settled with my grandmother in the small town of Iuka, Miss., where he worked various jobs until he became part-owner of a Chrysler-Plymouth dealership. He served one or two terms as a town alderman.
After he retired, Grandad kept working, serving as the county Commodity Clerk. He ran a government welfare program that distributed staples such as cheese, powdered milk, canned meats and vegetables, flour and lard to poor people. He laughed and said he was a lot more successful in his career giving things away than he ever was selling.
Late in life my grandmother had a stroke and was so disabled that she needed round-the-clock nursing care. My parents moved her to a nursing home in our hometown of Oxford.
Every morning Granddad impatiently waited for my mom to drive him to the nursing home to be with my Grandma until evening.
Eventually, Granddad needed the same level of nursing home care. For some years they roomed together.
After Grandma died, he asked to return to Iuka, where he moved into another nursing home.
Sometime later, my first son was born, and named him for Grandad.
He bragged to the nurses and residents, showing off baby pictures. Granddaddied shortly afterward, not living long enough to see in person his great-grandson and namesake.
My grandparents were survivors of the Great Depression. They were very frugal. They knew how to raise food and can it. They knew how to stretch a dollar. They knew how to save a dollar.
They worked all their lives. But when Grandma went into the nursing home, it didn’t take long for their nest egg to disappear.
Most of the nursing home care that my grandparents received was paid for by Medicaid.
I don’t know what they would have done without it.
Medicaid is a wonderful program. It brings health care to the most vulnerable of our citizens.
My grandparents never thought of themselves as poor. Granddad was a businessman and town leader.
But when they needed nursing home care, the gap between actual costs and Medicare benefits quickly exhausted all their savings. They become impoverished. Then Medicaid’s safety net caught them.
Medicaid is good. It is good for people like my grandparents. Medicaid serves mostly seniors and children. It is truly a godsend for “the least of these.”
Medicaid is also good for the state of Arkansas.
A May, 2010 study by the University of Arkansas Walton College Center of Business and Economic Research showed that every dollar the state of Arkansas spends on Medicaid generates $6.31 of total economic output impact for the state economy. Over 70,000 full time jobs, 6 percent of all employment in Arkansas in 2009 is attributable to the Medicaid program.
It seems wrong to me that some politicians want to cut Medicaid in order to fund the deficit - a deficit built up particularly during this past decade of overspending. At the end of the Clinton presidency, we had an annual surplus of $86 billion. The Bush administration blew up the national debt by more than $3 trillion.
When projected into 2020, the biggest contributor to the deficit would be the continuation of the Bush-era tax cuts, cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy. This chart above from the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that the major contributors to the deficit are:
The Bush tax cuts,
The unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and
The economic downturn.
It seems to me that the most constructive thing Congress could do is to repeal the Bush tax cuts.
I’d like Congress to close loopholes and policies that primarily benefit wealthy people like me who don’t need the breaks.
Although we don’t make as much money as the folks who primarily benefit from the Bush tax cuts, my family earns more than we need, and we could afford to pay a higher share in taxes, particularly if it would lessen the burden on those who are economically more vulnerable.
Many religious leaders are calling on Congress to resist efforts that would shred our safety net programs. It is wrong to place the burden of sacrifice on children, seniors and the disabled.
Let people like me, people who can afford it, pay the bills we owe. It’s only right.
LOWELL GRISHAM IS AN EPISCOPAL PRIEST WHO LIVES IN FAYETTEVILLE.
Opinion, Pages 13 on 07/31/2011