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This morning the Budget Conference Committee is taking up the human service budget. The Committee has been mostly closing small items and leaving big ticket items open and we anticipate more of that today though it is possible the conferees will reject some proposals. Yesterday's hearing was puncuated by a steady drumbeat of questions from Democratic members asking variations of "If we do this will somebody die?". Yes California literally is at that barbaric a level.
This morning the Budget Conference Committee is taking up the human service budget. The Committee has been mostly closing small items and leaving big ticket items open and we anticipate more of that today though it is possible the conferees will reject some proposals.
Yesterday's hearing was puncuated by a steady drumbeat of questions from Democratic members asking variations of "If we do this will somebody die?". Yes California literally is at that barbaric a level.
Incredibly time and again the answer came back yes, somebody might die from denying dialysis. People probably will die if they don't get their AIDS drugs, some disabled people may die if they can not get an IHSS worker. Domestic violence victims might not get to be survivors but, hey, government can't do everything. Can this really be the state we are living in?
Today we will consider kicking a million kids off cash assistance. Willl some of them end up dead? We certainly hope not but we are pretty certain many will end up in foster care, dropout of school due homelessness or end up in the corrections system. This is all forseeable. We also are seriously thinking of cutting off all cash aid to blind, aged and disabled legal immigrants. The last time their aid was threatened some of the recipients committed suicide.
This stuff is real. These people are real. To those who say government isn't the only answer, we respond that government is the only system we have to insure that all in need get a fair chance at state services. A system dependent upon the kindness of the wealthy is a sytem full of holes and despair. From this vantage point, we are geting awful close to strangling the state baby in the bathtub, Grover Norquist style.
2010 Events