State Budget Messes

Naturally nobody thinks of looking at other sources of revenue, so it is the programs which affect working people or the poor which are affected most with budget cutbacks:

In response to budget shortfalls, states have carried out deep cuts to essential social services. The CBPP reports that “budget difficulties have led some 39 states to reduce services to their residents, including some of their most vulnerable families and individuals.” The numbers are staggering. Twenty-one states have made cuts that will restrict access to health care services for low-income families. Twenty-two states are “cutting medical, rehabilitative, home care, or other services needed by low-income people who are elderly or have disabilities, or [are] significantly increasing the cost of these services.”

Thirty-two states have made cuts in funding to colleges and universities while 24 states have made cuts in K-12 and early education. Forty-one states have had to reduce the hours of state employees or the size of their public workforce.

In North Carolina, where layoffs are widespread and the unemployment rate is at a record high of 11 percent—89,500 manufacturing jobs have been wiped out since 2007—state workers are now bracing themselves for the worst. In the Burlington, North Carolina school system alone, 130 teaching assistants have been laid off as a result of the state’s budget crisis. At least 200 teachers have been told they may also lose their jobs as the start of the school year draws nearer.

North Carolina’s poor and unemployed are increasingly turning to a woefully-unprepared system of private charities. The Winston-Salem Journal recently reported that this month the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina ran out of food for the first time in its 28 year history. The organization has been unable to keep up with the demand for food which has risen an alarming 76 percent this year. According to the latest numbers, 20 percent of North Carolina’s children live in poverty.

Republicans, of course, believe the poor should turn to "private" charities, which are totally inadequate in providing for their needs. As long as these creeps don't have to pay for it, it's okay.

Meanwhile, the crooks who created the economic mess we are in are getting billions of bonuses, courtesy of you and me.