Calif. contemplating rewrite of social contract (i.e. they're thinking about cutting welfare)

Associated Press ^ | June 7, 2009 | Judy Lin

[Zakeet]

With empty pockets and maxed-out credit, California is debating whether it can continue honoring all parts of its social contract with the state's most vulnerable residents.

The state faces an unprecedented drop in tax revenue and a widening budget deficit amid the deepest recession in decades, prompting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to propose cost-cutting steps that once seemed unthinkable.

At stake are programs for the poor, elderly and frail, placing millions of people in the nation's most populous state at risk of falling through a decades-old social safety net.

Ending the welfare-to-work program for mothers and their children would affect some 546,000 families, and health insurance could be eliminated for 1 million children from low-income families. Services for Alzheimer's patients, disabled and other frail recipients of in-home care also would be greatly reduced under the governor's latest budget proposal, leaving more than 400,000 people without such support.

Schwarzenegger acknowledges that his proposals will be painful.

[Snip]

California spent 5.4 percent of all its state and federal funding on public assistance in 2007, compared to a national average of 1.7 percent. That doesn't include Medicaid and other social service spending.

[Snip]

Conservatives say states still have a long list of assistance programs and few people would be left without any help.

Federally mandated programs such as food stamps, low-income housing and Medicaid — the U.S. health program for low-income people, seniors and the disabled — will continue ... Those programs received financial boosts under the federal recovery act.

[Zakeet]

Picture's caption from the Article: Carolina Fuentes and her daughter Katherine, 5, wait for an appointment at the Sacramento county welfare office in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, June 1, 2009. Facing a $24.3 billion state budget deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzengger has proposed ending welfare for poor mothers and their children, wiping out health insurance for 1 million children and disbanding care for people with Alzheimer's disease or other disabilities. Fuentes, 22, a newly-single mother , doesn't qualify for benefits having crossed the U.S.-Mexico border as a teenage, applied for cash assistance, food stamps and health coverage of her daughter.

Additional information from the Article: Carolina Fuentes waited for more than two hours at a Sacramento County welfare office on a recent day to apply for cash assistance, food stamps and health coverage for her 5-year-old daughter, Katherine.

The 22-year-old single mother said she is looking for a job and does not qualify for benefits herself because she crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally as a teenager. She doesn't know what she will do if core state assistance is eliminated for her daughter.

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A classic example of MSM bias:

California is breaking its "contracted" promises to poor people by scaling back on welfare programs which are already more than three times higher than the average for all states. "Millions of people are at risk of falling through a decades-old social safety net" even though they still get food, housing and medical care through federal benefits which were significantly increased by porkulus maximus. Illegal aliens will be especially hard hit.

[Psycho_Bunny]

I’m confused about why she isn’t waiting in a jail cell.

[spokeshave]

free bus tickets to the border ping

[bgill]

I thought just a couple days ago Arnold swore he wouldn’t do this. Flippity-flop.

[spokeshave]

"Illegal aliens will be especially hard hit"

Exploit the opportunity in every crisis....dims play book.

[bgill]

Illegal aliens will be especially hard hit.

Cry me a rio grande.

[Clock King]

We should just conquer Mexico. It would be cheaper and make more sense in the long run.

[Myrddin]

Another illegal alien leveraging her anchor baby to sponge off the taxpayers. Send them both back to Mexico. Her anchor baby can apply for citizenship and "repatriation" at age 18.

[Lancey Howard]

A California Democrat Speaks the Truth! (May 30, 2009)

Nearly all of the billions of dollars in cuts the administration has proposed would affect programs for poor Californians...

“Government doesn’t provide services to rich people,” Mike Genest, the state’s finance director, said on a conference call with reporters on Friday. “It doesn’t even really provide services to the middle class.” He added: “You have to cut where the money is.”

[null and void]

We should just conquer Mexico. It would be cheaper and make more sense in the long run.

We will. It's a tradition of Nazi kleptocracies to invade their neighbors. They pretty much have to after their policies destroy their own industries.

[omega4179]

You want another 109 million peasants under our flag to demand health care and welfare?

[reaganbooster]

Applying for food stamps? In the picture it looks like they are both eating snack junk food. I wonder who paid for that? I think we know the answer.

It’s really too bad Arnold won election as Governor of California. Even though he’s not a conservative, the press will pin all the heartless cuts made by the “Republican” governor. The Democrats will never get the blame for the upcoming sob stories and social unrest.

[Lurker]

because she crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally as a teenager. She doesn't know what she will do if core state assistance is eliminated for her daughter.

Paging La Migra. Paging La Migra. Please pick up the white Courtesy phone.

L

[taxtruth]

I see that local,state,and federal governments are breaking down at an alarming rate.They have used the public as it’s cashcow long enough.I think the public finally is tired of being fleeced.Nobama needs a smart/dum car for his travels and a rowboat for international matters and make Hillary row with Tim and Ben.Maybe you can get Barney and Teddy at least to assist.

[JohnBovenmyer]

“Government doesn’t provide services to rich people,” Mike Genest, the state’s finance director, said on a conference call with reporters on Friday. “It doesn’t even really provide services to the middle class.”

So 'jobs' for middle class and rich union members aren't 'services.'

[Pearls Before Swine]

We should just conquer Mexico. It would be cheaper and make more sense in the long run.

Absolutely not. They would have full access to the US and all of its services. Much better to fence it off!

[CindyDawg]

I could be wrong but I doubt most mothers and fathers are going to let their children go hungry. I also doubt that families won’t take care of their elderly and disabled. Why work though or provide assistance, if the government will pay you not to?

[Oldpuppymax]

Uh, oh. Looks like the nice, liberal whites who have paid the tab for the past 40 years in Kalifornia have finally had enough. BUT little do they know that this is probably a “Chicken Little” scam designed to have Hussein jump to the rescue with more federal funds. I mean after all, Kalifornia demand that blacks and illegals begin to pay their own way, take responsibility for their breeding habits and remove their teeth from the public teat??!! Somehow I just can’t see it.

[DoughtyOne]

I don’t know any member of my immediate family that has ever gotten a dime of welfare. If and when it is cut, it won’t effect any of us.

If those cuts were done, and spending went down as a result, it would probably be good. It won’t take the state two seconds to divine another good leftist cause to replace it.

[BunnySlippers]

Why not stop all services for illegals? And stop all welfare for the able-bodied?