Matt Blunt Goes Into Lion's Den, Has Breakfast

Governor Matt Blunt attended a breakfast meeting of private organizations and defended state government funding cuts and emphasized the role of private organizations in helping those who cannot help themselves:

In the wake of state Medicaid cuts that ended services for 90,000 Missourians, Gov. Matt Blunt and social service agencies said Wednesday they must work together to help the poor.

Blunt, one of a panel of speakers on finding health-care and other solutions for the poor, told a St. Louis audience of 300 faith-based and other service providers that social safety nets are being threatened by the loads they bear. He cited a need to balance taxpayer-funded programs and those of non-profit agencies.

Blunt said economic growth in Missouri is essential to lifting people out of poverty, and his vision is to create an entrepreneurial environment in the state.

Of course, his message is lost on those whose very budgets are traded for increased prosperity and rising standard of livings to the people whom organizations claim to serve:

While the breakfast meeting emphasized public-private partnerships, the head of the agency that sponsored the event suggested these were not an avenue for the state to abdicate its role.

"We're not letting government off the hook," said Theresa Mayberry-Dunn, president and chief executive officer of Grace Hill Settlement House, a century-old social services agency that will lose $1.7 million in state assistance for its St. Louis health clinics for the poor as a result of recent Medicaid cuts.