CONTACT: Hugh Davis, Executive Director, (262) 751-5030, [email protected]
Dear Senator Johnson:
On January 3rd of this year, you took an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” You swore “true faith and allegiance to the same.”
That Constitution, which you vowed to uphold “without… reservation,” identifies six principles that guided our Founding Fathers in its creation, one being to “promote the general welfare” –the concern of government for the health and safety of its citizens.
Our question to you, Senator, is this: When did you decide to break your oath?
Was it when you included per-capita caps on Medicaid funding in the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson Amendment to HR 1628, the “American Health Care Act of 2017?” These caps would be devastating to children with mental health needs in Wisconsin, and cripple the state’s keystone program to improve mental health care for children and adults.
Was it when you created a loophole in your proposal that would allow insurers to deny coverage for a series of essential services, including treatment for mental health and substance use disorders?
Or was it much earlier than that, when a certain political action committee gave your campaign a cool half-million dollars? Did they convince you with their erroneous and laughable-if-it-weren’t-tragic assertion that general welfare programs, rather than allowing people with disabilities to contribute to society, are “bankrupting our nation?”
Don’t worry, Senator. When people like you and your colleagues forget their oaths to better
society and promote the general welfare, small, underfunded nonprofits like Wisconsin Family Ties “will well and faithfully discharge the duties” of caring for this nation’s citizens who, through no fault of their own, need our help.
“So help me God.”
