OKLAHOMA CITY— With state budget cuts on the minds of many people all over the state, the Reverend Jesse Jackson is joining those who are speaking out.
“What makes America great is the right to fight for the right,” Jackson said.
Jackson joined many community leaders and state representatives for a press conference in Oklahoma City on Sunday to speak out against budget cuts.
Along with education, many are fighting hard against healthcare cuts.
“My third daughter receives something called TEFRA, the supplemental insurance through the state of Oklahoma. Without it, Lucy would not be alive. Our eldest daughter died on the waiting list, the developmental disabilities waiting list,” Ryan McLaughlin shared at the press conference.”Put yourself in this little girl’s position. You know, let’s provide her medicine, let’s take care of her needs her medical needs.”
Community and state leaders are urging Oklahomans like Ryan McLaughlin not to stop fighting for those needs.
“We want you to show up to our state capitol. We want you to pick up the phone and call your governor, because we’re looking at the legislative body and the legislature has one week to decide whether you’re going to be cut or cut out,” Senator Anastasia Pittman said.
A big cut to healthcare is the looming 25% Medicaid cut that some say will put thousands of elderly people out of a home among other things.
“The governor of our great state can pick up the phone and say we’re going to accept affordable healthcare dollars, and nobody wants to say that, but I’ll say it,” Pittman said.
