Protesting Protests
They've been told to stop circulating fliers at the Capitol. Some were ushered from a budget hearing after chanting, "dental, dental."
But advocates fighting to restore dental and vision benefits for adults on Medicaid resumed their innovative lobbying tactics Tuesday. A group affiliated with the Disabled Rights Action Committee -- some of them Medicaid recipients with missing and rotting teeth -- distributed mock referral slips to several Republican legislative leaders.
"We are referring dental and vision patients to you. Please check that your home phone numbers are correct.... We hope that with your powerful connections, you will have no trouble finding dentists who will provide these services for free," read the slips.
The handouts didn't sit well with lawmakers. Tuesday night, security staffers initially blocked some of the advocates for more funding from attending a public budget hearing. Security finally relented but only after warning that any disruption would lead to arrest.
But were these and other antics cause for retaliation?
Sen. Curt Bramble denied that legislators are withholding funding as payback. But the Provo Republican admitted that "personally, I don't believe in rewarding protests and confrontation with more money."
-- Kirsten Stewart
But advocates fighting to restore dental and vision benefits for adults on Medicaid resumed their innovative lobbying tactics Tuesday. A group affiliated with the Disabled Rights Action Committee -- some of them Medicaid recipients with missing and rotting teeth -- distributed mock referral slips to several Republican legislative leaders.
"We are referring dental and vision patients to you. Please check that your home phone numbers are correct.... We hope that with your powerful connections, you will have no trouble finding dentists who will provide these services for free," read the slips.
The handouts didn't sit well with lawmakers. Tuesday night, security staffers initially blocked some of the advocates for more funding from attending a public budget hearing. Security finally relented but only after warning that any disruption would lead to arrest.
But were these and other antics cause for retaliation?
Sen. Curt Bramble denied that legislators are withholding funding as payback. But the Provo Republican admitted that "personally, I don't believe in rewarding protests and confrontation with more money."
-- Kirsten Stewart
2 Comments:
I wanted to express my gratitude to the three SL Tribune reporters who worked at the Utah State Legislature and fed us all of the great information they did.
All three are great reporters, seem to be balanced and very efficient at sharing good, informative news.
I have a tremendous respect for all three of you. Does the SL Tibune give you "hazardous duty pay" while you are up there? I hope you will do it again. In the meantime, keep writing the news you do. You make Utah politics more bearable.
Thanks!!
Typical Republican puke response. Screw the poor, screw the sick, screw the mentally and physically challenged.
But money for a school or a highway..yeah baby! We got the money for that!
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