Surprise! IHS in trouble after GOP, Noem defund care

Remember this from last year?

Let’s be clear about this plan: It would require deep spending cuts in federal Indian programs. According to a report from The Associated Press the draft document adds some $40 billion to military spending and calls for deep cuts to all domestic programs, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service. At the same moment that the Congress is pursuing its latest “repeal” of the Affordable Care Act more states, even states controlled by Republicans, are moving forward with an expansion of Medicaid. This may be the most important part of the Affordable Care Act, especially for Indian country because it’s adding new dollars to the underfunded health care system. [Mark Trahant]

And, today:

U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem said federal health care provided to South Dakota's Native American population is inadequate and called Wednesday for an overhaul. "I stand firmly in the corner that it's the federal government's responsibility to provide health care to our Native Americans and we should be doing that through reforms to IHS," Noem said. [Dana Ferguson]

Native Sun News editor emeritus, Tim Giago supported Kristi Noem in 2010 but now he's seen the handwriting in Wall.

Noem has done little or nothing to promote legislation favorable to South Dakota’s large Indian population. Instead she has done just the opposite by opposing women’s rights, she voted to make drastic cuts in the food stamp program and has been a strong supporter of the Keystone XL Pipeline, a pipeline that is diametrically opposed by the tribes of the Great Sioux Nation. Kristi Noem laid out a bunch of things she would do for Native Americans while campaigning, but forgot to follow up on any of them once she was elected. Well, we’ve had a couple of years of Noem or as one columnist calls her, Kristi No, and we have discovered that she walks lock step with the Republican Party without considering the basic needs of her own citizens in South Dakota, and she has made it a particular point to absolutely ignore and even damage the interests of the Native Americans of this state. It is time for a change and it is early enough for all Indians to register to vote and when the time comes, get out and make that vote count. [Giago, It is high time to show Kristi Noem the door]

Noem missed 17 out of 22 meetings of the House subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs.

The Indian Health Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education, and other federal programs that deal with Indian housing, health, education, transportation, energy, economic development and so forth face over a billion dollars in Noem supported cuts. IHS alone will face $637 million in cuts. These cuts are from the Paul Ryan budget plan that that Congresswoman Noem fully supports, voted for and is campaigning on as a badge of courage. In my view there is nothing courageous about trying to balance the federal budget of the United States on the backs of Lakota children, Lakota elders and Indian country in general. [Wilson, Indian Country can't afford Kristi Noem anymore]

Now Noem feigns care for Indian Health Service while voting repeatedly to defund services for American Indians.

Despite the claims by U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., of flagrant violations of health standards that put patients "in serious danger" at the IHS hospital on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, the federal agency that administers Medicaid and Medicare tentatively has determined that the hospital is clearing up its most serious problems. [Rapid City Journal]

But South Dakota doesn't care about needs in tribal nations so Noem's apocrypha rattles on.

Kristi Noem clearly has no idea how many patients in South Dakota are already on medications for the various mental illnesses plaguing the state but she did receive $3000 from the National Rifle Association in 2014.

U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., said lawmakers need to re-evaluate mental health care programs, which can be the "root of the violence," in response to a shooting that left three dead at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic Friday. A mass shooting also occurred Wednesday in California. "Mental health issues seem to be the thread that ties so many of these crises together, but our system remains broken," Noem said in a statement.

Read it here.

Pick a lane, Kristi.

Sanford scored in the bottom 10 percent of hospitals nationally in a composite ranking of several patient-safety indicators, including accidental punctures or lacerations, post-surgical wound ruptures, medically induced lung damage and post-surgical hip fractures. The Brookings Health System ranked in the bottom 10 percent of hospitals nationally in a score that assessed site infections on patients who underwent colon surgery or hysterectomies. Two other South Dakota hospitals – Rapid City Regional and Avera St. Mary's – narrowly escaped being penalized. [Sioux Falls Argus Leader]

So, Rep. Noem wants to violate the civil rights of people with mental illnesses and restrict their access to firearms?

Noem has voted repeatedly to defund the mechanism to expand mental health care to those most at risk of acting out violently.

Noem's party may have lost a skirmish in its War on Women but, wait: Kristi wants to guarantee that guys like Scott Westerhuis have the right to assassinate their own families with a shotgun, torch the house then turn the gun on themselves.

Putting the best face on the dilation and curettage performed on her caucus by House Democrats, Kristi Noem is vowing to fight the good fight.

The hypocrisy of the Republican Party is without bound.

Kinda makes you wanna puke, init?

.@RepKristiNoem said she'd like to see IHS adopt policies similar to VA in allowing patients to access other providers through that service

— Dana Ferguson (@bydanaferguson) January 20, 2016