The U.S. House of Representatives wants to cut Medicaid funding — the government program that provides health care to the neediest Americans — by $15 billion.

There are plenty of funds available, however, to provide subsidies to Wal-Mart — a company that raked in $288 billion in sales last year.

Just out from the Associated Press:

The U.S. House has approved a federal highway bill that includes $37 million for widening and extending the Bentonville street that provides the main access to the headquarters of Wal-Mart Stores

The company says it asked U.S. Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., to help get federal money for the project. U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, added an amendment that put the work into the $284 billion bill, now before the Senate.

After spending half a column berating prior federal interventions into state matters but justifying the conservatives’ politicization of the Terri Schiavo case, conservative columnist Ann Coulter instructs Florida Governor Jeb Bush to ignore “the illiterate ramblings of a state judiciary.” She supports her advice by providing him with this precedent:

President Andrew Jackson is supposed to have said of a Supreme Court ruling he opposed: “Well, John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.” The court’s ruling was ignored. And yet, somehow, the republic survived.

What was the context in which President Andrew Jackson uttered those famous words to Supreme Court Justice John Marshall?

In 1832 the Cherokee Indian tribe lived on land guaranteed them by treaty. They found gold on that land. Georgia tried to seize the land. The Cherokees sued. And eventually the Supreme Court, in Worcester v. Georgia, held in favor of the Cherokees. Georgia then refused to obey the Court. President Andrew Jackson reportedly said, “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.” And Jackson sent troops to evict the Cherokees, who traveled the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma, thousands dying along the way.

Yes, Ann Coulter, the republic did survive; unfortunately, the Cherokee nation certainly did not fare as well. After tens of thousands of Cherokees died along the way, the nation arrived in the new “territory” with “their government, culture, and people in shambles.”

There has been a lot of carping by the right-wing that the federal courts, by not granting a stay of the state court order to remove Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, ignored the clear intent of Congress. For example, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) issued this statement yesterday:

Mrs. Schiavo will not receive a new and full review of her case as the legislation required. We strongly believe that the court erred in reaching its conclusion and that once again they have chosen to ignore the clear intent of Congress.

Actually, Congress clearly intended that the federal court would have the discretion to grant or deny the stay that Terri Schiavo’s parents requested. This is true even in the case the legislation’s biggest proponents, like Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN). Check out this exchange between Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Frist:

Mr. LEVIN: The absence of any state[d] provision in the new bill simply means that Congress relies on current law. Under current law, a judge may decide whether or not a stay is appropriate.

Does the majority leader share my understanding of the bill?

Mr. FRIST. I share the understanding of the Senator from Michigan, as does the junior Senator from Florida who is the chief sponsor of this bill. Nothing in the current bill or its legislative history mandates a stay.

Think Congress should have stayed out of the Terri Schiavo case? According to the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), you’re just like Hitler. Here’s an excerpt from one of TVC’s recent press releases, entitled, “Hitler Targeted The Handicapped First”:

The roots of Hitler’s euthanasia program began in 1920 with the publishing of an essay by Dr. Alfred Hoche and law professor Karl Binding. The essay, “Releasing Persons from Lives Devoid of Value,” recommended a new medical ethic to deal with mental patients and those whose lives were considered worthless.

According to Hoche and Binding, useless individuals were to be killed to save money and to release them from the perceived miseries of living a life devoid of value.

Hoche introduced the concept of “mental death” to describe the retarded or those who suffered from other forms of brain damage (much like Terri Schiavo’s condition). He described these people as “‘human ballast” and said that killing them would be useful and allowable act under the law.

The release goes on to detail how “doomed patients,” including “handicapped infants and small children,” were exterminated in concentration camps and gas chambers.

The 80 percent of Americans who think the Court’s decision on Schiavo should be allowed to stand: TVC is talking to you.