Cutting Programs the Poor Need!

This week I read an article from The New York Times called, States Slashing Social Programs for Vulnerable. This article talks about how we are, "battered by the recession and the deepest and most widespread budget deficits in several decades." Because of this many states are using their safety nets which is crippling the programs that would over time save us money. The $787 billion stimulus package is helping the states with some these programs by, "providing large amounts of money to pay for education and unemployment insurance, bolster food stamp programs and expand tax credits for low earners." However the money will only help forty percent of the problem and 34 states have cut some of these programs so far. In Arizona the elderly seem to be struggling the worst. More than 1,000 of them are having to make it without home-care aides with their every day life such as bathing, going to the doctor and etc. Because of this many may become even sicker and have to be put in nursing homes which cost even more. In Ohio and a few other states they are facing large cutbacks on child welfare investigations which means many more children may be hurt and put into foster care. Despite tax increases California ended dental coverage for adults on Medicaid. According to Linda J. Blessing and the facts we are cutting things for short term savings that will result in a greater long term health and financial cost.Some Republican legislators still argue that state expenses are too large, while officials say that carving another $2 billion from the budget will wreak havoc.
California is blowing my mind! According to the article, "As revenues sank late last year, forcing across-the-board cuts this spring, the child protection agency stopped investigating every report of potential abuse or neglect, and sharply reduced counseling of families deemed at risk of violence. Some toddlers with disabilities like autism and Down syndrome are not getting therapies that can bring lifelong benefits. And here, as in other states, the drive to help disabled people live at home has been set back." I'm going to be a social worker so this upsets me very much. It's like the government doesn't even care about people they're just worried about money!
The article goes on to talk about a few people who really need help that are on a waiting list. "Mary Beth Thompson, 57, is seriously overweight, with chronic pain and weakness on her left side, she has trouble moving about and cannot step into the bathtub without falling. She's even gotten a broken wrist from this. Winona Conn, 75, who uses a wheelchair because of a paralyzed leg, has been on the waiting list for home aid for a year." More and more people are needing help however the states keep cutting the programs. "State support for home and community services was reduced by $2 million in 2008, and the waiting list has grown to 50,000 from 30,000." Mary Lynn Kasunic stated, “If you don’t give people a bath a couple times a week, change the linens and make sure they get their medicines, their health will decline much faster. They end up in the emergency room in a crisis, and then in a nursing home.”
The Illinois governor's budget proposal is wanting to scale back home visits to ill equipped first time mother's, who are given advice during these visits to help reduce child abuse and better prepare the child for school. In the article it is stated that we spend $1.2 million on child welfare a year so why don't we spend a lot of money on keeping them out of this as well. Ohio's budget will be "dramatically decrease our ability to investigate reports of abuse and neglect,” and lose 75% of our investigators.
"New York State is using stimulus money and a tax increase to avoid most of the large cuts in child care, nurse visits to inexperienced mothers and other services that were originally proposed. But if revenues keep falling by the billions all bets are off."
In Arizona they had to cut $1.6 billion from their $10 billion budget. In the next fiscal year it is said that they expect a $3 billion shortfall. "Ms. Blessing, of the Department of Economic Security, said her agency had already laid off 800 workers, including 15 percent of its child protection investigators, and imposed furloughs amounting to a 10 percent pay cut." Again this is horrible because we need social workers, in fact we need more than we have and here they are getting rid of them!
However he state has secured $18 million from the stimulus package to save child care subsidies for the working poor. But they've cut some of the programs such as the, in-home counseling of troubled families, so deeply that they only have the choice to either remove the children and put them into foster care or wait and see if something bad happens. Counseling truly helps these families, sometimes it's their only option besides breaking up the families and that's something we've worked to prevent over the years. We want families to be able to stay together.
This article has truly gotten to me. I cannot believe that the states and government are actually cutting these programs. These programs are the only things many people have to live. They are extremely important and to think that they are actually getting rid of the child abuse investigations and just letting the abuse happen! I mean I can almost but not completely understand the cut backs on some of the programs but the child abuse investigations, and the cut backs on the much needed counseling!! It really sickens me! I never thought that the government would cut back this, I mean to me it's the most important thing out there. It keeps the children safe! I guess this means that everyone needs to be paying closer attention to your neighbors and kind of investigating them yourself to keep the children safe.