Sen. Eric Schmitt: “Americans are outraged over being ripped off as taxpayers”
WASHINGTON, D.C. (KY3) - Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt is addressing concerns from a local agency in response to Title X funding delays.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that it’s withholding 10 payments to the Missouri Family Health Council. That money supports several planning groups, including the Ozarks Area Community Action Corporation, which provides pap smears, breast exams, and STD testing.
“I think that sort of the parlor game right now, is that we get these stories, I get asked these questions all the time there’s speculation or there’s concern that something might happen and those things never happen,” said Sen. Schmitt. “I think there’s an effort to sort of gin up outrage all the time. I think people are outraged that they’ve been ripped off as taxpayers for a long time, and that there are all these programs that have never been vetted, that don’t really serve people but continue to get funded. Now, this one in particular, I’m happy to look at it more closely. I just think this idea that somehow everything’s in jeopardy, it’s just not true. It’s not true. Now do Guatemalan sex changes need to go? Yeah, we don’t need to fund that. Do we need to fund DEI in Burma? No, we don’t need to do that. Do we need to fund DEI Sesame Street in Iraq? We don’t need to do that, that’s part of the problem, though, right? All of this stuff is just going out the door, nobody’s looked at it, it’s been really irresponsible. As far as programs that help real people get back on their feet, I support that stuff. There ought to be work requirements for Medicaid. I just think there’s a lot of things that we need to do here that haven’t been looked at in a long time, which is why we’re in a real mess fiscally.”
In response to Sen. Schmitt’s comments, the Missouri Family Health Council sent us this statement:
“For the nearly 35,000 low-income Missourians who depend on the federal Title X family planning program for their birth control, cancer screenings, and related preventive services, this is a very real threat to their healthcare access; these individuals might otherwise go without care if not for Title X. We invite Sen. Schmitt to meet with us and health center representatives to better understand Title X’s importance and impact, as well as urge him to look into the funding delay immediately – the community action agencies, health departments, and FQHCs that rely on Title X funding to keep their doors open are counting on him.”
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