George Skelton, longtime Sacramento correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, says people with disabilities are an “easy target” as California officials propose painful budget cuts.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger expects to save $402 million during the next fiscal year by cutting state supplemental income payments; $124 million by reducing caregivers’ wages; and $385 million by disqualifying the majority of current IHSS [In-Home Supportive Services] recipients.

Marta Russell, an Encino-based freelance journalist with cerebral palsy and fibromyalgia, tells Skelton the expected cuts will devastate people like her who are not poor enough to receive SSI benefits but not able enough to manage on their own. She needs the benefits, she says, in order to stay out of an institution.

[Russell said,] “I expect suicides, premature deaths, a horrible disruption of the social fabric … We’re headed toward market-based social Darwinism where only the fittest will survive.”

Skelton says “the aged, blind and disabled will take the Schwarzenegger hit,” and they have good reason to be frightened.

See also:

State’s in-home, day caregivers fear budget ax – San Francisco Chronicle

Day programs for seniors and Alzheimer’s patients may be eliminated – Contra Costa Times

This entry was posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 11:34 am and is filed under benefits, budget, commentary, community services, NOT2BEMISSED. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.