Kalifornia contemplating rewrite of social contract!
SACRAMENTO, Kalifornia - June 7, 2009 - With empty pockets and maxed-out credit, Kalifornia is debating whether it can continue honoring all parts of its social contract with the state's most vulnerable residents.
The state faces an unprecedented drop in tax revenue and a widening budget deficit amid the deepest Depression in decades, prompting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to propose cost-cutting steps that once seemed unthinkable.
At stake are programs for the poor, elderly and frail, placing millions of people in the nation's most populous state at risk of falling through a decades-old social safety net.
Ending the welfare-to-work program for mothers and their children would affect some 546,000 families, and health insurance could be eliminated for 1 million children from low-income families. Services for Alzheimer's patients, disabled and other frail recipients of in-home care would also be greatly reduced under the governor's latest budget proposal, leaving more than 400,000 people without such support.
Schwarzenegger acknowledges that his proposals will be painful.
"I know the consequences of those cuts are not just dollars. I see the faces behind those dollars. I see the Alzheimer's patients losing some of their in-home support services," he told lawmakers last week. "It's an awful feeling, but we have no choice."
