Rep. Joe Neal, who also serves as the SC Progressive Network’s Co-chair, speaks at the rally May 25.
Advocates working on behalf of South Carolinians with HIV/AIDS rallied at the State House yesterday morning to pressure the legislature to restore the funding for critical services that the House proposed to cut in its budget bill. Reps. Joe Neal and Bakari Sellers addressed the crowd, praising them for staying vigilant and standing for the state’s most vulnerable citizens.
The rally was organized by the SC Campaign to End AIDS, a member of the SC Progressive Network.
The House cuts would end all state funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and drug assistance, would limit prescription drugs for Medicaid patients and cap enrollment in the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Later in the day, the Senate rejected the cuts to health care. The bill now goes to conference committee. (See story in The State.) The Senate has named Sens. John Land, D-Clarendon, Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, and Mike Fair, R-Greenville, to the committee. The House has named Reps. Kenny Bingham, R-Lexington, Bill Clyburn, D-Aiken, and Dan Cooper, R-Anderson, to the committee.
Those committee members need to hear from us.
To see more photos from the rally, click here.
Our politicians should be ashamed of themselves. They make me wonder day after day why I should ever consider voting for a Republican. I try to give these guys a chance, but the older I get, I find myself being pushed further to the left by things like “real life.”