Brace yourselves California, the government is about to hack off limbs. Arms and legs and blood and gore are about to hit the streets in Sacramento on Tuesday according to my source – a lobbyist on a bar stool in midtown (it’s what I love about midtown, it’s always good for blogging material). My beer-swilling lobbyist said that the Governor’s staff is working through the Memorial Day weekend to make the cuts needed to make up a 21 billion dollar budget deficit.
According to my source, Wednesday protests could be massive in Sacramento so the networks better get their TV satellite trucks rolling this way.
Among the cuts that I’m told are about to be made are: Healthy Families (health care for children), the entire Welfare program, the entire mental health program, and over 8 billion to education (that used to be the entire federal budget for Title I, the largest federal [i.e., nationwide] education program). It sounds draconian and yet, it is what the voters wanted in defeating the propositions on the recent ballot.
Or is it what was asked for? The voters voted NO because we want the government to live within their means. It isn’t that we want all the programs to go away. I say it’s a cop-out, it’s a ploy to make the average schmuck like me say “OH WOW! We can’t cut those programs!” Well I say we don’t have to, we only have to cut the salary and benefit packages of all state workers to conform with present reality and government will be able to live within their means and able to do what’s necessary for the least among us.
It’s a bait and switch on the part of the Republican Governor. He knows that the public is not ready for the level of homelessness that will result from the cuts to welfare and mental health. He knows that the public isn’t ready to stomach Mexico-levels of begging. He knows that people won’t stand for that and if my source is right and that is the choice presented, that some parts must be cut instead of “the whole” going on a diet, then I say recall Arnold. He knows that in order to get Republicans the cover they need to vote to raise taxes the pain has to be extreme for the average citizen. What a cop-out.
I wonder if people aren’t really going to back down in the end and give the tax increases that the government wants before there is a realistic attempt to make government make the cuts that are needed to reflect the current economic reality. They should be able to make cuts that reflect the seriousness of the situation reducing salaries and benefits of all state workers just as the rest of us have been cut back. AND we have! I can attest to 40% personally!
I think that is the crux of the issue. Why not cut everyone’s salary at the state level by say 20% and save every program on the cutting block? Why not cut salaries back to reflect the current economic reality? Why not?
I’ll tell you why, because everybody is selfish and the leadership is GUTLESS and state workers like everyone else are up to their asses in debt and can’t afford to take a cut. Everyone has spent and spent and spent thinking that Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride would never ever end.
Well, the headline is that THE RIDE IS OVER and now it’s time to prioritize. I think that cutting whole programs instead of taking back some of the wages of everyone in the government is throwing out the baby with the bathwater. It’s an PLOY to leverage more taxes by grandstanding, by avoiding doing the rally hard stuff which would be making everyone mad by cutting everyone a little to save the whole.
It’s about placating the powerful by sacrificing the children and the poor. It’s about ensuring that there isn’t a total revolution in state government because the public doesn’t like people on welfare and is uncomfortable with people with mental health issues.
Making draconian cuts to these programs is actually closely aligned with the idea that I’ve heard described during the Nazi era when Nazis came for the Jews and nobody complained and then they came for the Catholics and nobody complained… and pretty soon there was nobody to protest. Divide and conquer should be Arnold’s theme for his speech on Tuesday. I think that state workers who allow their co-workers and programs to go down in flames to save their own asses are playing a fools game.
I say Cut Every Salary and cut Every Budget by whatever percent is needed and live with current reality.
This zero sum game where we are about to be told that we HAVE to cut some state workers who serve the neediest among us so that other state workers can continue their comfy lifestyles is simply bull shit.
Man, what a great read. I completely agree with you 100 percent.
I also agree with the above comments.
Love the truth about how state workers are up to their ying yangs in DEBT,like scores of other Californians living beyond their means.
I also want to add that the only cuts Schwarzenegger has carried through so far have been SSI and SSD disability checks for the Elderly,Blind and Mentally Ill.
The poor and the mentally ill don’t have the clout needed to stop cuts. Many feel so powerless they don’t get out and protest.
Yes, the Schwarzenegger cuts have hit SSI a couple of times and already have made the amount too small to sustain life. There has been little mention in the news as the news covers middle class foreclosure issues and job layoffs.
Not only has the monthly income of SSI been cut drastically, any support programs i.e. one time a year renters assistance and all dental and eye care have been eliminated. Poor people with diabetes will go blind without exams to catch problems early, and treatments such as eye drops could keep them seeing.
Eyeglasses on Medicaid were all made in Pigeon Point Prison in a training program… cutting eyeglass benefits hurt not only the recipients but the training program as well.
For years, Medicaid has declined payment to providers so many times that any medical provider was really working for free. My ophthamologist said they paid about one out of ten bills he sent. I’ve heard that from several health care providers. They paid $9-$12 for an office visit… not enough to even pay the costs of seeing a patient. Then, they get denied payment no matter how thoroughly they complete the forms.
We’re hurting down here at the bottom of the chain. And middle class Americans never know when or if they will need these programs, or their elderly parents.
Thanks for the comments, I agree that we need to take care of people in need and cut the perks for he wealthy. I advocated for public health care in today’s post if you care to read it. Thanks for reading!
in third world countries, mental health is never a priority..`-