While Obama, Gates and Crowley prepare to knock back a brewsky and solve American race relations, Governor Schwarzenegger is out in Cali acting like a complete Republican, right-wing, lost-his-mind, somebody-slap-him-into-the-middle-of-next-week gangster. I understand my home away from home state of California is under some mammoth budgetary pressure, but Schwarzenegger’s recent veto and budget cuts look like a scene from some survivor movie from the '70s. And you know that kind I’m talking about: a plane crashes in the cold mountains and after a day or two of discussion the healthy decide to leave the old and sickly behind to fend for themselves.
Schwarzenegger literally cut $80 million that pays for workers who help abused and neglected children; $50 million from Healthy Families, which provides healthcare to children in low-income families; $6.3 million from services for the elderly; and $52 million in HIV/AIDS programs. I know a state has to do what it has to do, but from where I sit and blog it looks like Schwarzenegger got tired of the debates and decided only the strong survive and the rest of the folks better figure out a way to fend for themselves.
Thoughts?
Keith Josef Adkins is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and social commentator.