In his latest act of madness, Arnold is now proposing a five percent cut across the board for all state employees:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to propose a 5 percent across-the-board pay cut for state workers to save nearly $500 million in next year’s budget, a spokesman said Thursday.(SacBee 5/28/09)

The thing is that these “across the board” cuts are simply lazy. Resources aren’t as important in one place as they are another. That’s why we don’t simply grow or scale back the budget by a percentage each year. There are some programs that are more important than others.

At this point, it is imperative that progressives work to provide some visiblity for these crazy cuts.  One such group who is doing that is SEIU, whose workers just wrapped up their 48-hour Sacramento vigil to avoid the drastic cuts in in-home support services (IHSS).  Yesterday, I spoke to Eliseo Medina, about the situation here in California.  



While it wasn’t surprising to hear that this situation was really only different from other situations in other states by the willingness to work together by the governor, the bigger issue that grabbed my attention was the way the issue was sort of blown off.  Before the May election, SEIU leaders had a sit-down with the Governor, and reached out to work together for solutions to the budget situation.  But once the election passed, there was silence on the other end of the line. No word from the Governor or his nominally Democratic CoS Susan Kennedy. It was straight to the “cut to the bone rhetoric.”

The thing about IHSS is that there really isn’t a cost-efficient way to cut.  Here are the alternatives:

1) Cut wages from $12 to minimum wage, $8. You lose a slew of IHSS workers to other service sector jobs, even in this economy.  These people are generally reliable people, and that’s always in demand. And when you get more money working at In ‘N’ Out, why do we expect the dedicated IHSS workers to stick around?

2) Cut service levels. Even at higher wages, IHSS care is far cheaper than nursing home care. Up to 4 times cheaper. So when the governor threatens to cut both per client services and service availability, what he is really saying is that these people should simply go to nursing homes.

Funny thing about this is that when they get on MediCal, because they will, the state simply ends up paying on the other end. Guess what, there are laws about what you can do to people.  Under both California and federal laws, we have commitments to provide care. SEIU has already filed one lawsuit, and plans to bring another.  When you are cutting into the bone, it’s simply not as easy as Arnold would like to portray.

On the other hand, nothing is really easy these days.  SEIU is also facing a fight with the former leaders of UHW who have created their own union, NUHW. NUHW recently won a local election in San Pablo and there’s another election in Fresno.

Barack Obama visits California for a couple DNC fundraisers today.  I doubt he’ll have time to turn on the teevee.  But if he does, he will be greeted with a new ad featuring Pauline Beck, the woman who Obama worked with in the SEIU’s “Walk A Day In My Shoes” campaign during the Presidential primaries.

The ad is aimed mostly at Arnold Schwarzenegger, who mandated cuts to home health care worker pay, and got the federal government to sign off on them without impacting the flow of stimulus dollars.  Basically, Schwarzenegger used the technicality that counties would not be responsible for backfilling worker pay, and therefore burdened with dealing with state cuts, because they always have the option of just cutting the workers completely.  It’s just another example of the Governor thinking that the message of “the people” is to place the entire burden of the budget deficit on the backs of the most vulnerable members of society.

But a new print ad running in today’s LA Times actually addresses Obama directly over the issue.

Dear Mr. President,

I am Pauline Beck – the California home care worker you spent a day on the job with in August 2007. You helped me provide care to Mr. John Thornton, an 86-year old man in a wheelchair who is able to stay in his home because of the care I provide.

I know you are very busy, but Mr. John and I, and my fellow home care workers and their clients, need your help.

You see, Governor Schwarzenegger wants to cut my pay back to $8 an hour. These are tough times, but if my pay gets cut to minimum wage I won’t be able to support my family. It’s just wrong to pay us so little for taking care of people who have given our communities and our country so much…

I know you are a good man and I am proud of the job you are doing. I hope you and the Governor can work together to help Mr. John, me and the 750,000 of Californians just like us. It would make such a difference in our lives. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Pauline Beck

SEIU is right to personalize this crisis and take on the Governor and the political leadership.  The President ought to know about how California is seeking to reverse his stimulus package by slashing the salaries and services of those most able to contribute quickly to the economy, forestalling recovery.

…incidentally, at this link you can write a message to the Governor about these home health care worker cuts.

UPDATE by Brian: I was going to write about the 48-hour vigil that SEIU workers are engaging in right now, but it fits with Dave’s post quite well. Beginning yesterday at around noon, homecare workers have been set up at Capitol Park to protest wage and service cuts. They’ll be testifying about the very real pain these proposed cuts will cause.

SEIU has been focusing on the fact that there was a billion dollar plus corporate tax cut despite the budget mess, and they’ll be hitting that note in a number of protests tomorrow.

Commenter seanp mentioned this in my Calitics diary about the Obama Administration waiver for the Governor to cut In-Home Support Services salaries for health care workers:

When Obama was running as a Presidential candidate in 2007 he spent a few hours working with a home health care worker in Alameda, 61 year old Pauline Beck. Remember, this woman had a union contract:

While Beck’s life – struggling to make ends meet with two jobs and regular visits to the food bank – couldn’t be more different than the 46-year-old Democratic presidential candidate’s, she came away feeling “he just cares about people. … He wanted to know about me, yes, he did. He really wanted to feel what I did.”

I wonder how Pauline Beck feels about the Obama administration helping cut her wage from $12.10 an hour to $10.10 an hour. I guess she can get a third job.

Actually, according to Andy Stern, Pauline and IHSS workers like her will get cut back to $8 an hour.  Several bigger bloggers and national groups are picking up on this story today.  As Greg Sargent notes, Pauline Beck even spoke at the 2008 DNC.  There’s video of the then-candidate’s visit with Pauline Beck.

Sargent confirms with SEIU that Beck would be hit by this reduction in wages, just two years after Barack Obama walked a day in her shoes.  The Administration could have used the power of the purse – and the threat of pulling stimulus money away from California – to get the Governor to back off on these wage reductions.  Instead, they acquiesced, and Pauline Beck, Obama’s former work buddy, will pay the price.

Brian Beutler of TPMDC has more on this, and Andy Stern has sent a message to his supporters asking them to call the Governor and stop the cuts, although the President is implicated in his message as well.

Two years ago, President Barack Obama walked a day in the shoes of SEIU home care worker Pauline Beck.

Today, Pauline and home care workers across California face pay cuts of up to 33% — from $12.10 an hour down to $8.

Governor Schwarzenegger’s belief that solving the state’s fiscal problems on the backs of those who take care of the most fragile among us is an absolute disgrace.

Please call the Governor’s office and tell him you strongly disagree with his misguided priorities:

916-445-2841

Earlier this week, Californians sent a clear message of no confidence in Governor Schwarzenegger — soundly rejecting his proposed budget reforms.

He proposed four ballot initiatives, and all four went down to overwhelming defeats.

The L.A. Times noted that some are beginning to write his “political obituary.”

It’s no wonder why.

Stern intimates that he will “file a challenge” against the Govenror’s decision.  Maybe Schwarzenegger needs to walk a day in the shoes of these home health care workers- oh, wait, that didn’t work either.

Arnold Twitters in that he got “permission” to enact the budget cuts on home health care workers and still qualify for all federal stimulus money in the health care sector.  Cap Weekly has more.

The state of California has received permission from the federal government to cut wages of home healthcare workers without fear of losing federal stimulus dollars.

The ruling comes as a victory for the Schwarzenegger administration, and a defeat for the Service Employees International Union  which had sought federal intervention to stop the cuts.

Cuts in home healthcare worker pay were part of the budget solution passed by Gov. Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders in February. As part of his May budget revision, Schwarzenegger has proposed further cuts for in-home support workers. The Legislature cut IHSS worker pay by $2 per hour, lowering wages from $12.10 to $10.10 per hour. The cuts saved the state an estimated $74 million.

It’s important to note that, while these cuts suck and will really hurt IHSS workers, they are relatively minor compared to the cuts in health care and education Schwarzenegger wants to enact, while still qualifying for stimulus money.  So the Administration can still wield some power here.  But obviously this is a bad sign.  The Governor should not be allowed to essentially reverse the effect of the stimulus on his own.  In fact, he ought to just resign.

…Arnold takes the flawed message from the election that it was a tax revolt.

Schwarzenegger said he received the voters’ message “loud and clear: an overwhelming majority of people told Sacramento, ‘Go and do your work yourself, don’t come to us with your problems….”

“The message was clear from the people, go all out and make those cuts and live within your means,” he said.

Voters were so worked up, in fact, that they turned out in the lowest numbers in state history, and they voted down the same borrowing gimmicks and spending cuts for successful programs that will now compose the Governor’s agenda.  Let me suggest that I don’t believe in his message-taking ability.

Marc Cooper actually has a decent column on Arnold’s total failure.