Melissa Fox: Right on Target Again!
Melissa has a fine, typically on-target blog post out today blasting Arnold’s & Republicans’ dishonest and inhumane attacks on seniors’ in-home health care. You may have already glanced at my co-blogger Art’s knee-jerk reaction to Melissa’s statement. Whenever he has a personal vendetta against a particular Democrat, he’ll just lazily parrot the Republican line, which is predictably, BLAME IT ALL ON SOME UNION.
Sad to see this sometimes-proud ex-Republican sink to that level. Who cares though. Let’s first look at what Melissa wrote, and then see if it really has ANYTHING to do with “shilling” for the “corrupt” SEIU, or whether she indeed makes valuable and vital points:
Forcing Seniors From Their Homes
When it comes to home health care, our local representatives to Sacramento have shown little concern for protecting seniors living on fixed incomes.
The Governor and our local representatives want to eliminate adult health care services that provide in-home care to more than 430,000 Californians, of whom six in 10 are over 65-years old and one in four over 80-years old.
That’s a quarter of a million people who worked hard all their lives, and now need a little help that their families may not be able to provide.
These seniors would be forced into nursing homes and hospitals.
In Laguna Woods alone, 40% of the people enrolled in adult health care services would be forced into institutions.
These cruel cuts to vital, cost-effective services make no sense. Forcing seniors into institutions will cost California more money than it saves, and cost California 370,000 jobs.
As a member of the Assembly, I will fight to stop these cuts and ensure that seniors have the health care they need to maintain their independence in their own homes.We can keep seniors from being forced from their homes. Please contribute $50, $100 or any amount you can afford to help us reach voters at this critical time.
Melissa
May 11, 2010
Actually, all the facts check out. Arnold’s proposed budget attempts to cut spending in exactly the way that Ms Fox describes above, and all Republicans will be enthusiastically supporting that cut. And if Republican intransigence or Arnold’s line-item veto makes these cuts reality, the result will be exactly what she describes – up to a quarter-million seniors forced out of their homes, into nursing homes and hospitals.
Art’s probably factual citations of SEIU corruption, and his dark warning that he’s gonna find out whether any unions contribute to Melissa’s campaign (like, duh!) are totally beside the point of what’s happening here. Most IHHS (In-Home Health Service) workers are indeed represented by SEIU; some are represented by other unions; some are not unionized at all. In contrast to the caricature of overpaid union hacks, they generally make $8-10 an hour. Many of them are family members who have quit much higher-paying jobs to care for their loved ones. Many of them are welfare-to-work people, having landed this job in order to get off welfare, thanks to reform. Arnold’s brilliant plan is to put these 430,000 people out of work. (Jim Benson seems to have heard some slightly different facts and figures, but it’s still just as outrageous.)
And the seniors who lose their care through this humane plan will be forced into nursing homes and hospitals, where they will be cared for – at California taxpayer expense – by higher-paid unionized workers. BRILLIANT!!!
Melissa could have gone even further about the pure stupidity of this plan: as a study from UC Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education shows, these cuts will cost us hundreds of millions in both tax revenue and Federal money:
Cutting in-home care services by $1 billion – reducing spending on the very old, the very young, the poor and the disabled is one of the perennial proposals to save state funds – would mean the loss of more than 215,000 full-time-equivalent jobs in the next year…For every dollar spent by the state government on in-home supportive services, we get $2.47 from the feds….Cutting in-home services by $1 billion (also) would result in an estimated loss of $359 million in state and local taxes, so the actual savings would be much less than projected….
These cuts will be felt most dramatically and devastatingly in Laguna Woods, which is in Melissa’s district (the 70th) and LW residents are perfectly aware and concerned of the danger. I would like to hear Melissa’s Republican challengers Amante, Wagner and Choi, tell those seniors whether or not they’re in favor of slashing the budget on their backs.
The real soft underbelly of Art’s weak post is in his third paragraph:
No Melissa, they don’t want to eliminate home health care services. Most likely they just want to undo Davis’ union scheme.
In two sentences, he condescendingly tries to school Melissa on an issue he’s obviously never given any thought or research into, and then actually guesses what Arnold and the California GOP might be trying to do here. “Most likely.” – isn’t that just touchingly trusting of him? “There’s just no way Arnold could be trying to do that to our seniors, it must be some kind of secret plan to fight the dirty unions!”
Back in fact-land, NO, ART, there is NO secret plan to replace these vital workers with non-union workers or anyone else. There is simply an incredibly dangerous and stupid plan to save a quick buck cutting all these vital workers so that our seniors can either die or check into hospitals and nursing homes to be cared for on the taxpayer dime by OTHER union workers.
There are certainly criticisms to be made of unions, including the SEIU. Many unions are in need of reform, including the SEIU. Pensions should probably be re-negotiated in this economic climate. But what’s happening here has nothing to do with unions. My Juice Brother Art is being lazy, dishonest and malicious, and reverting to his old GOP propaganda. It’s a shame to see this behavior from someone who wrote just YESTERDAY, explaining his pro-immigrant stance:
“I have great empathy for the working poor. That’s all.”
I think Art should find some more deserving White Whale to rave obsessively against. There’s Wagner and Amante who are the real immediate danger to his boy Choi, there’s the looming crypto-fascism of Bill Hunt and Allan Mansoor, there’s the BIBLICAL corruption of Ken Calvert and Gary Miller, there are probably other Democrats more worthy of attack whom I wouldn’t bother defending, but I won’t name them here. But for each hit piece he puts out on Melissa, look for me to be here with the real facts within hours.
Typical Fox hyserical manifesto. She offers no solutions, as usual.
Let’s recap. She wants to spend more on education and now she wants to avoid cuts to home health care.
Well Fox, where the Hell are you going to get the money for all of this spending? Our state is broke.
If she is going to insist on screaming about cuts I would like to see where the money is going to come from…
Art’s right. I’ve been writing about California politics for 23 years, 19 of that for the O.C. Register. And I’ve been warning of this disaster for all that time: blowing money on huge pensions and other government waste would lead to the state going broke.
The party’s over. Massive cuts are coming. Tax increases wouldn’t help becuase the state already is taxed to the max, and more taxes would only lead to more people leaving. Too bad for all the seniors and others who will be hurt, but this is what happens when voters keep electing fools.
Thanks John, and yes, this Fox appears to be another fool in the making…
Thank you Vern. You really are the man I think you are.
Nice to see you again. Welcome back!!!
Well, Art, that’s progress from just screaming “corrupt UNION shill!” You ask, how is she going to solve the state budget crisis without making this particular inhumane cut. (As though she is supposed to single-handedly figure out what’s escaped all Sacramento thus far.) Well, I do have some answers for you, some I know she agrees with, some I think she might:
First, easiest answer: NOT THIS WAY.
I believe there’s enough information in my post to show that this “cut” won’t really save us money at all. Sure, on paper, THIS YEAR,it might look like a cut.
But let me summarize from above: Much less federal dollars coming in. Hundreds of thousands of California thrown back into unemployment, no longer paying taxes, and draining resources. Seniors forced into hospitals and nursing homes, where they will still be cared for AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE, BY HIGHER-PAID *UNION* WORKERS. Catch all that? This is a typical Schwarzenegger gimmick.
Now, how WOULD Melissa (and most other Dems) both raise revenues and cut expenses?
I’ve already mentioned two BIG ways –
The oil extraction tax, which I hope you read my post on, so you won’t keep thinking that it will cost us at the pump. (I’ll be very frustrated and disappointed in you if you still think and say that)
And marijuana decriminalization/taxation, which will not only bring in hundreds of millions of tax dollars, but also SAVE hundreds of millions in enforcement costs (enabling cops to focus on more dangerous drugs and crimes.)
Melissa has promised – on her website you pored through – not to raise taxes on middle class people, just as Obama did. There are a couple other things that come to MY mind, though I’ve not heard them from the fabulous Ms Fox:
There were a bunch of corporate tax loopholes pushed through last year by Arnold when we could least afford them – those should be undone.
The top 1 or 2% of earners can certainly afford to pay a little more, as they have many other times in recent history; it REALLY helps out a lot when they do. Thank you guys! You’re the greatest.
And for cutting expenses, there’s a few things that I KNOW you and I agree on, Melissa I’d have to check with:
I’m sure she agrees with us on three-strikes reform; cutting our prison costs a lot.
And you bring up ending the death penalty which would save a shitload of wasted money. I bet you’d like her to commit political suicide by coming out against that while running in a red district. I think it’s courageous enough that she came out for pot legalization. Let’s just say she has a conscience, as you and I do.
Plenty of ways to cut costs and raise revenue, without leaning on the beleaguered working & middle class or driving our seniors out of their homes.
One more thing: I’ve asked the Fox people to put more details on their website about how she proposes to pay for her ideas, and i won’t be surprised if the very popular and long-overdue oil extraction tax ends up there. But her people point out – most other campaign websites are very short on details as well. MOST NOTABLY DR.CHOI’S.
That’s really just typical of campaign websites. Dems and Reeps alike know that the more details you put, the more likely one of your details will piss somebody off – that’s just Campaign 101! Also, one lone assemblywoman does not make fiscal policy all on her lonesome, it’s a big collaborative process up there for better or worse.
All that being said, I hope this settles some questions. Oh look. John Seiler. With very predictable stuff. Let’s see him read my artilce, though, and try to justify THIS stupid, stupid cut. It is a monstrosity through and through.
“blowing money on huge pensions and other government waste would lead to the state going broke.”
Well John, I understand your concern about government waste, but I wouldn’t consider the IHHS program as such. It is one of most humane program out there, helping seniors and disabled members of our community enjoy a better quality of life. And if you’re concern about the cost, there are other ways of cutting expenses and/or create additional revenue as Vern has stated.
Problem with saying that though, Lam, is these Republicans and “Libertarians” don’t care about “humane.” That sounds like a liberal bleeding-heart word to them. They like to feel like they’re being “tough” and beat their chest.
I find it’s more effective to show how their ideas DON’T WORK, which is usually true!