In Congress, the “super committee”—a bi-partisan panel of 12 lawmakers— is debating how to cut $1.2 trillion from the federal budget over the next ten years. Severe reductions in Medicaid funding have been put at the top of their cut list. We must urge our Senators and Representatives to take a balanced approach to reducing the deficit and reject proposals that hurt the most vulnerable members of our community.

Medicaid provides a safety net for 850,000 Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander children, 180,000 elders, and many members of our community with disabilities. Nearly 1 in 10 Asian Americans and more than 1 in 8 Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are projected to gain Medicaid coverage when the program expands in 2014.

Send Your Representatives a Message on Facebook:

1. Find your Representative at www.house.gov by entering your zip code into the “Find Your Representative” widget at the top left hand side of the page. When the search results page loads, pay attention to your Representative’s name and district number.

2. Visit www.govsm.com/w/house to find Facebook information for your Representative. Representatives are listed in alphabetical order by state and listed by district number. Scroll down to your state and look for your Representative by your district number.

3. If your Representative has a Facebook page, click on the Facebook icon to visit the page.

4. Log in to your Facebook account. In order to interact with your Representative you will need to “like” his or her fan page.

Sample Message:

Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders support Medicaid. We must find a balanced approach to reducing the national deficit that keeps our families and communities healthy. Cutting Medicaid means more people will wait until they get very sick to go to the doctor, raising costs for everyone. Cutting Medicaid means caretakers and providers will lose their jobs. Our economy cannot recover by destroying this essential program for the vulnerable while giving tax breaks to the wealthy.

Send Your Senators a Message on Facebook:

1. Find your Senators at www.senate.gov by entering your zip code into the “Find Your Senator” widget at the top left hand side of the page.

2. Visit www.govsm.com/w/senate to find Facebook information for your Senators. Senator are listed in alphabetical order by state.

3. If your Senators have a Facebook page, click on the Facebook icon to visit the page.

4. Log in to your Facebook account. In order to interact with your Senators you will need to “like” their fan pages.

Sample Message:

Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders support Medicaid! We must find a balanced approach to reducing the national deficit that keeps our families and communities healthy. Cutting Medicaid means more people will wait until they get very sick to go to the doctor, raising costs for everyone. Cutting Medicaid means caretakers and providers will lose their jobs. Our economy cannot recover by destroying this essential program for the vulnerable while giving tax breaks to the wealthy.

Post a message on your own profile and tag your Representatives and Senators.

1. To tag your Representative or Senator in a Facebook post, in the message box, type @username.

2. A drop-down box will appear populating names as you enter it in.

3. Select the name and it will be highlighted in your status update.

4. Complete the message and click “share.”