February 13, 2008 Los Angeles (LPAC) - Educators and health care professionals in California are bracing for the effects of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's draconian budget cuts, as the initial 45-day deadline for legislative action draws near. Under the terms of his declaration of a state of financial emergency, the legislature is mandated to either support his budget, or come up with an alternative within 45 days. Thus far, there has been no action to change or reverse his proposal to inflict at least 10% across-the-board cuts in state programs.
The cuts proposed by Schwarzenegger, who is providing an advanced glimpse in one state at what a President Bloomberg would do nationally, if elected, will gut key programs which are matters of life and death for poor, elderly, and disabled Californians, while his cuts in education would devastate an already under-funded system, which is performing poorly.
For example, one program slated for cuts is In-House Supportive Services (IHSS), which pays for care workers to provide aid and comfort to sick and disabled people. The program allows people with serious illnesses and little income to remain in their own homes instead of a care facility. Schwarzenegger's budget cuts the IHSS program by 18%, which will increase the death rate of those it presently covers, as the lack of care will be compounded by cuts in funding for care facilities. Democratic Party Assemblyman Jim Beall, Jr. (San Jose) points out in an op ed in the San Jose Mercury News that funding for social service programs in the state has increased by less than 9% in the last four years under Schwarzenegger, failing to keep up with inflation and caseloads, while spending for prisons has gone up 74%!
As for education, the Governor, who is increasingly known as a hitman for fascist George P. Shultz, has called for cutting $4.4 billion from education funding for children from kindergarten through high school. Educators have been forced to plan for cuts to school health programs, counselors, librarians, custodians and cafeteria workers, and teachers. Classrooms, which are already overcrowded, will have more students added per teacher, and schools, which are already old and overcrowded, will have cuts in maintenance.
Further, given the rate of acceleration of foreclosures and the related drop in property values, tax revenues earmarked for schools and local government continue to collapse, while the state budget deficit, already at almost $15 billion, may skyrocket to $20 billion, as the revenue stream to the state declines. Democrats, who have been strong-armed by Shultz's partner Felix Rohatyn and his flunkey, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have thus far failed to break out from under Arnie's control, leaving it to members of the LaRouche Youth Movement to ask the relevant question: How many people have to die before California Democrats break with Shultz, Rohatyn, and their would-be Mussolini twins, Schwarzenegger and Bloomberg, and rally behind LaRouche's Home Owner and Bank Protection Act, and related FDR antifascist policies?
