Thread: Schwarzenegger: Cut welfare, state health care

Schwarzenegger: Cut welfare, state health care

Posted 6m ago

SACRAMENTO (AP) — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday proposed eliminating welfare for 500,000 families and terminating health coverage for nearly 1 million children to help close the state's ballooning budget deficit.

The Republican governor's administration released details of $5.5 billion in cuts, a week after state voters defeated special election ballot measures.

The new proposals are on top of those previously announced by Schwarzenegger.

Also among the cuts are stops to college fee assistance for thousands of students, fewer vocational training opportunities for state inmates and the elimination of $70 million in funds for the state park system.

The state is trying to close a $21 billion deficit, although the Schwarzenegger administration said Tuesday that its proposed budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year was outdated. The governor's finance team said the deficit now was projected to grow to $24.3 billion through June 2010.

The revised budget now includes borrowing from local governments that will have to be repaid and consolidating state boards and commissions. The administration wants to eliminate a welfare-to-work program that provides more than 500,000 families, saving $1.3 billion but forgoing $4.2 billion in federal matching funds.

Schwarzenegger also seeks to cut health care coverage for nearly 1 million low-income children under the Healthy Families program, saving about $250 million for the year. For the state's students, he wants to phase out a college aid program and reduce $335 million in funding for the University of California and California State University systems.

Schwarzenegger's previously proposed cuts include laying off 5,000 state government employees and cutting billions of dollars from K-12 schools, potentially shortening the school year by a week. The administration also was expected to announce another $3 billion worth of budget solutions this week.

The governor had warned of "cuts, cuts, cuts" after voters defeated last week's ballot measures.

State Assemblyman Roger Niello, a Republican, said during a joint legislative budget committee hearing that the state was "being driven by an economy that has absolutely collapsed. This is nobody's vision of what we wanted to be, where we're seeing revenue drops of unprecedented proportions."

The governor has said he would not support further tax hikes after agreeing to $12.8 billion in higher sales, personal income and vehicle taxes earlier this year. He said Tuesday that "if we don't make those cuts, I think we will face catastrophic consequences because the state would simply run out of money and get insolvent, which we cannot afford to do."

State Republicans also said they were not willing to raise taxes.

But State Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, the budget committee chairwoman, said she wants lawmakers to consider raising revenue rather than cutting so deeply into state programs.

"I will look under every rock and every leaf so that we can make sure women and children are fed and their medical needs are taken care of," Evans said.

The state Legislature's constitutional deadline to approve a budget and send it to the governor was June 15, but Evans said lawmakers were unlikely to meet it.
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GET RID OF THE ILLEGALS, YOU IDIOT.....THAT MAY BE ALL THAT IS NEEDED!!!

How liberal are the Medi-Cal and other aid programs. Do they vet the recipients for legality or has this been a free-for-all giveaway?

Originally Posted by vortex

How liberal are the Medi-Cal and other aid programs. Do they vet the recipients for legality or has this been a free-for-all giveaway?

.....a free-for-all giveaway

Most of these cuts will target illegals or the anchor babies, let's face it. All these programs mentioned target those people or the anchor babies from the Reagan amnesty of 1986! When you look at the poor in California Hispanics are the number one recipient of all of this. I'm waiting for lawsuits and the latino activists to cry foul.

Originally Posted by carolinamtnwoman

GET RID OF THE ILLEGALS, YOU IDIOT.....THAT MAY BE ALL THAT IS NEEDED!!!

One baby step at a time...the sad thing is some poor Americans are going to have to suffer too.

I am sure the ACLU and the U.S. Chamber are sitting behind closed doors figuring out how to sue California.
The only leg these "fools" have to stand on is the discrimination bent and the ruin of American business profit, which is not going to hire expensive American workers for anything. (Wasn't it Wal-Mart that paid its employees so little, gave no health insurance or benefits, so that these people were eligible for food stamps, etc. at taxpayer expense?)

Originally Posted by carolinamtnwoman

GET RID OF THE ILLEGALS, YOU IDIOT.....THAT MAY BE ALL THAT IS NEEDED!!!HELLO CAROLINA WOMAN. you are my neighbor. this is so true, if these states like Cali and North Carolina would stop taking care of those who are in the country ILLEGALLY,then maybe they would not be in the shape that they find themselves. These people receive benefits even though they have 2 incomes coming into the household.And then you have American Citizens who really need the help and they are denied. The system is not designed for American Citizens its all about taking care of people from other countries. That is a major part of the reason some of the states are going BROKE.

Wait until the illegal aliens find out that their anchor babies aren't going to be the main source of income for the family anymore and they actually have to pay for their own kids. I hope they all return home, and take their anchor babies with them. But they might go off and leave the anchors here and we will get stuck taking care of them.

Originally Posted by LadyStClaire

Originally Posted by carolinamtnwoman

GET RID OF THE ILLEGALS, YOU IDIOT.....THAT MAY BE ALL THAT IS NEEDED!!!HELLO CAROLINA WOMAN. you are my neighbor. this is so true, if these states like Cali and North Carolina would stop taking care of those who are in the country ILLEGALLY,then maybe they would not be in the shape that they find themselves. These people receive benefits even though they have 2 incomes coming into the household.And then you have American Citizens who really need the help and they are denied. The system is not designed for American Citizens its all about taking care of people from other countries. That is a major part of the reason some of the states are going BROKE.

Howdy, neighbor! You are right! Also, from another article posted by JohnDoe2 at:

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-157291.html

"Schwarzenegger also wants to transfer 19,000 inmates who are illegal immigrants to federal custody, saving $182 million."

At least Arnie is finally acknowledging one of the many drains to their economy!