Fixed income seniors are going to have a very hard time “under revised health and social service cuts proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger,” according to the Sacramento Bee. “Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting $3.4 billion from health and social service programs, from a projected budget of $33.2 billion to $29.8 billion.”
Amongst the cuts will be government-sponsored health insurance and the state in-home care program.
Here are a few excerpts from the Sacramento Bee article:
Under the Schwarzenegger plan, “an estimated 84,000 seniors would lose help with daily chores like laundry, cleaning and bathing. Seniors and the blind and disabled would not receive a cost-of-living increase in their Social Security checks despite rising gas and food prices.”
Poor adults would lose basic dental and vision care. Health premiums for children of low-income families would increase by $3 or $4. Legal immigrants would be restricted to emergency health care.
Working poor families would receive 5 percent less in cash assistance. And the average amount given to care for a foster child would drop from $723 per month to $651 starting in October.
And all of this will happen as we suffer under the Bush recession and as home foreclosures continue to increase in California.
It will be even worse in Santa Ana, where the City Council, which is dominated by Democrats, raised the water rates last year, even though I discovered that Santa Ana spends a third of its water budget on administration, as compared to similar budgets that spend about 19% of their budgets on administration.
And fixed income seniors throughout Orange County will suffer because of two more Democrats, Santa Ana Councilman Sal Tinajero and La Habra Councilwoman Rose Espinoza. Those two combined last year to push through a 60% increase in sanitation fees over the next five years.
But that’s not all! The Democratic Party of Orange County (DPOC) in combination with Santa Ana Mayor MIguel Pulido and his City Clowncil are backing another tax increase in the form of the fraudulent SAUSD Measure G, which is a bond measure.
I thought that the Democrats were supposed to be the party that helps the poor? Between Schwarzenegger in Sacramento and the Clowncil in Santa Ana, not to mention the rest of the DPOC, local fixed income seniors and other working poor have no hope. And it will get worse before it gets better.
We need to make it easier to help needy seniors. Presently, you can give to “Alley Cat Allies” to take care of cats, or to that sea lion support group in Laguna Beach and get a tax deduction.
However, if you help your parents buy their health insurnace or prescription drugs, you do not get a tax deduction. That is wrong in my mind, but right in the eyes of Sacramento politicians.
My Health Savings Account proposal reforms the insanity of our tax code with regard to health care. All Americans should be able to deduct their health care costs regardless of who they work for and if their employer has adopted a section 125 plan. My proposal also permits a tax deduction when you help another person in need.
Andy Favor
73rd Assembly District Candidate
http://www.AndyFavor.com
Senior citizens vote, thus electeds are usually doing all they can to avoid angering them, and intstead try to please them. Thus, can’t believe these proposed cuts to the most frail and poverty stricken seniors will actually occur. Perhaps a new tax on every blog post as a revenue source?
think of how much $$$$$$ we would save if we stopped giving services to illegals . than the savings we can pass it on to these people . the real u. s. citizens ..
Grate One, you picked the right day to pull out that nonsense, I’m writing about that myth as we speak. Lemme just copy/paste from http://mediamattersaction.org/reports/fearandloathing/online_version, this should be instructive to everyone:
The Myth: Undocumented immigrants consume a disproportionate amount of social services and don’t pay taxes, thereby constituting a drain on American society.
The Truth: Some believe that undocumented immigrants benefit from federal programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, SCHIP, and welfare. In fact, undocumented immigrants are ineligible to receive these benefits; anyone seeking to obtain them must provide proof of legal status.25 Since the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, even documented immigrants are ineligible for most forms of public assistance for the first five years they reside in the United States or until they attain citizenship.26 While there are some social services undocumented immigrants do use — public education for children, for instance — contrary to the rhetoric one hears on cable news, they also support government spending through the taxes they pay.
Undocumented immigrants pay all kinds of taxes: they pay sales taxes whenever they purchase goods and services, they pay property taxes in the form of rent, and they pay payroll and income taxes. Many undocumented immigrants use false Social Security numbers to obtain employment; when they do so, these workers then pay payroll taxes (for Social Security and Medicare), and often federal and state income taxes as well, through paycheck withholding. As the New York Times reported in 2005, the Social Security Administration estimates that three-quarters of undocumented immigrants pay payroll taxes, adding as much as $7 billion in Social Security taxes a year to federal coffers, and another $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes. Under current law, none of these funds will ever be paid back to undocumented immigrants in the form of Social Security and Medicare benefits, as they are not eligible.
This does not mean, however, that in the short term some states and localities will not pay more for services to undocumented immigrants than they collect in taxes, even if when all levels of government are considered, immigrants more than pay for themselves. According to a December 2007 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, “Over the past two decades, most efforts to estimate the fiscal impact of immigration in the United States have concluded that, in aggregate and over the long term, tax revenues of all types generated by immigrants — both legal and unauthorized — exceed the cost of the services they use. Generally, such estimates include revenues and spending at the federal, state, and local levels…”
Thank you for reading the Orange Juice Blog!
Vern,
I can write same crapola in opposition to your article.
Where is your proof?
I mean aside of a copy and paste the socialistic propaganda.
In contrast, by definition, in the law abiding society a lawbreaker cannot be an asset to that society. [Emphases added]
Won’t aim to convince Anon #5, but if anyone wants to check out what I copy/pasted the link is there with COPIOUS footnotes. Nobody does FACTUAL better than Media Matters.
Notwithstanding your copy/paste Vern, please explain to us how is a lawbreaker an asset to the law abiding society. Please use your own faculty!
For example:
(1)How does modern society benefit from the multibillion dollar contraband drug industry.
(2)How does modern society benefit from the multibillion dollar contraband labor industry.
media matters a very credibal website what a bunch of crapola vern . media matters you might as well pull your info from lulac . la raza, the aclu and move on .org
yess it is creddibal grate wun you r teh crapola u dummy now go bak to red cownty and wanck
Oh sorry #7 I didn’t notice there was someone serious here. I think the answer is in your words “lawbreaker” and “contraband” – the laws obviously need to be changed. Business needs the cheap labor and these people need work, why should their efforts to feed their families be illegal? Remember, this is work that American citizens don’t want to do – that “they’re taking our jobs” line is BS. They’re doing work that teenagers used to do, but won’t now.
Of course as a good progressive I want to see them paid reasonably and have decent working conditions.
Don’t get your drug reference. I’m pretty sure drugs are illegal.
Way to go Vern, steal the post why don’t you?
Art, I’m afraid you’re hitting the nail on the head, we can’t cut our way out of this budget mess.
They are going to have to raise taxes.
We can’t cut the meager amounts of assistance already being provided. We cant cut spending to education. We can’t cut enough.
It cuts too deep.
“Business needs the cheap labor and these people need work, why should their efforts to feed their families be illegal?”…… Interesting socialistic tyranny Vern!
There are about 7 Bilion people in the world who need a work to feed their families legally.
How do you gone accomplish that, Vern?… by encouraging exodus?
So you think that Mexicans have more value than Black Haitians?… Huh? Of course, you do know that they are eating mud cakes in Haiti, do you?
Your socialist friend Jean-Bertrand Aristide did not help either.
So you will let some die and some to live, or what?
Vern, I have been observing you for a while and must conclude that your IQ is on the level of an idealistic teenager.
Except for your woman like whining you are just a walking talking nothing and should not be taken seriously.
Fiala! Behave now you loonie or you know what happens. Art’s blog, etc… Now don’t make me do it!
“I think the answer is in your words “lawbreaker” and “contraband” – the laws obviously need to be changed.”….. amazing legal concept.
So the bank robber should claim his innocence on bad laws?… and you have been educated in Santa Ana?… Mater Dei?… Wow!… “Education First”… huh?
I am not surprised that the socialism does not work.
Vern, stick to your piano!… There you are harmless!
hey vern when dose your code pink meeting start . a progessive another word far left loon like you , just like a a far left liberal all for free speech except if its from the other side than they get all pissed off . what part of breaking the law do you not understand .