Blunt’s budget backs disabled in Missouri into tough corner

See this op-ed column by that title in the Columbia Daily Tribune. The first few grafs:

Gov. Matt Blunt’s first budget is his million-dollar baby.

The brutal document landed on the legislative canvas with the thud of a boxer going down for the count. It’s not pretty, but that doesn’t bother the governor, who promised his constituents a government that would cut back and not raise taxes. Having promised not to take money from the mouths of school babes, Blunt had no choice but to target the biggest heavyweight of all: Medicaid.

He slashed with impunity, lowering qualifying levels to those who don’t even have the federal poverty line in sight. He added co-pays and cut entire programs. His targets were the fringes of society, folks whom most of us don’t want to think much about anyway. The elderly. The poor. The disabled.