The Congressional Republicans who brought us the mindless budget cuts known as the sequester have shown remarkable indifference to life-sustaining government services, American jobs and other programs. So what do they make of the country’s commitments to American Indians, its longstanding obligations to tribal governments under the Constitution and treaties dating back centuries? Very little, it seems. The sequester will impose cuts of 5 percent across the Indian Health Service, the modestly financed agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides basic health care to two million American Indians and native Alaskans. It is underfinanced for its mission and cannot tolerate more deprivation. Here lies a little-noticed example of moral abdication. The biggest federal health and safety-net programs — Social Security, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Supplemental Security Income, and veterans’ compensation and health benefits — are all exempt from sequestration. But the Indian Health Service is not.Get the Story:
Editorial: The Sequester Hits the Reservation (The New York Times 3/21) Related Stories:
Schools on reservations are first to feel cuts under sequester (3/20)
Minnesota tribes forced to cut back at schools with sequester (3/19)
Tribes cut back on law enforcement under budget sequester (3/18)
HUD cuts Indian home loan guarantees due to budget sequester (3/12)
IHS due to take bigger cut than expected with budget sequester (3/12)
School district on Navajo Nation braces for cuts with sequester (3/6)
Tribes brace for cuts in federal funds under budget sequester (3/1)
Eastern Cherokees prepare for budget hit with sequestration (2/27)
Indian programs at Interior face $130M cut under sequester (2/26)
Agency leaders detail effects of sequester on Indian programs (2/15)
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