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Dear Nevada News Service supporters,
We wanted to let you know that the story related to Budget Policy & Priorities that aired on 7/20/2011 was picked up by the Clear Channel (460 stations) NV Statewide and distributed to 460 news talk stations across the country.
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http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/21305-1
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Las Vegas, NV — On Tuesday, President Obama renewed his push for a bipartisan deal to reduce the national deficit, but the scope of that deal – which appears to still include deep cuts to food assistance programs and Medicaid – concerns local advocates. They say the need for these programs continues to rise, and worry that the main impact of the debt plan is to shift the burden of paying for these programs to the states. Comments from Cherie Jamason (JAY-ma-son), president and CEO, Food Bank of Northern Nevada; and Jon Sasser, advocacy coordinator, Statewide Legal Services.

Public News Service-NV
July 20, 2011
NV Advocates: Latest Deficit Deal Shifts Burden to States
LAS VEGAS - Nevada ranks third in the nation for the number of new people signing up for help putting food on the table through the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. But SNAP is one of the programs House Republicans have targeted for deep cuts of $20 billion, in order to trim the deficit.

Cherie Jamason, president and chief executive officer of the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, says high unemployment has driven double-digit growth in the demand for food assistance for three years in a row.

"Right now, one in five kids in Nevada lives in a home where there's not enough food for three meals every day. So, the only way to accommodate a $20 billion cut is to serve fewer people or to provide a smaller benefit."

The current benefit is already less than $1 a day per meal per person, Jamason says, and further cuts will mean more Nevadans will experience hunger. President Obama, who says time is running out to meet the deadline to raise the nation's debt ceiling, still is working to forge a deal that includes a combination of cuts and new revenue.

Late Tuesday, six U.S. senators offered a plan that calls for $4 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years. It also appears to impose deep cuts to vital programs such as Medicaid, says Jon Sasser, Statewide Legal Services advocacy coordinator.

"Under these proposals, the percentage of medical costs paid by the federal government would go down and the percent paid by the state would rise. This so-called 'deficit reduction plan' doesn't actually reduce government costs, but simply shifts these costs onto the states. "

The Medicaid caseload is up by more than 100,000 in Nevada, Sasser says, and the state can't afford the deficit-reduction plans on the table in Washington.

"The result of these proposals is to balance the federal budget on the backs of the most vulnerable Nevadans, and I hope that Sen. (Harry) Reid will use his position as Senate majority leader to reject these ideas."