Even lifelong Republicans who recognize the importance of the IHSS program are voting for Jerry Brown for Governor.
Check out these comments from Meg Whitman’s own website:
“I’m being forced to vote Democrat for the first time in my life…. I am shocked that a Republican would make me go to the Dem side, but I have been informed that you intend to do away with or seriously cut “I.H.S.S.” K. Jones, Roseville
“Meg Whitman doesn’t get it…. Every day I have to feed my daughter and help with toileting and think about what Meg says about us ‘criminals’. It is despicable. At least Jerry Brown can do the simple math and he knows that this is one program that saves money. ” C. Rose, Riverside
“I am a single father with a son who suffers a disability and needs round the clock care. IHSS provides me the resources to act as my son’s caretaker…. I make less today (a little over minimum wage) than I did 20 years ago, but the important thing is that my son is properly cared for…. Just as current governor Schwarzenegger has repeatedly attempted to dismantle the IHSS program, Meg Whitman threatens to do the same. I will be voting for Brown this November!” A. Fietz, Grass Valley
This is NOT a partisan issue. IHSS was signed into law by Republican Gov. Ronald Reagan and has been supported by legislators from both parties ever since.
But Meg Whitman wants to follow in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s footsteps by continuing to attack IHSS, one of the most humane and cost effective programs in state government.
Last year, when Schwarzenegger claimed that the fraud rate in the IHSS program was “as high as 25 percent,” his claim was disproven and widely ridiculed. The Sacramento Bee accused the governor of “spouting misleading rhetoric about waste and
fraud,” while the San Jose Mercury-News called his allegations “phantom claims.”
Yet in her campaign commercials this year, Whitman pledges to “save $1 billion” by eliminating IHSS fraud. Since the total budget for the program is $1.4 billion, she is telling us that the fraud rate in IHSS is more than 70 percent! That would be funny if it wasn’t so unfair and nasty.
The future of IHSS is at stake on November 2nd.
Most of these Republicans seem to think that everyone who isn’t a captain of industry is practically by definition a cheating parasite. They’d probably bring back workhouses if they could.