Thanks, Arnold...

and a special "Thank You" to your co-ideologues.

Government in California has been shrunk to bidet size, and now the Republicans, led by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, are aiming for the golden thimble. He's found yet another social service program to cut, one that not only serves the Hummer-less, but also serves the entire state population in the long run: Healthy Families.

From the Sacramento Bee:

A state-sponsored program that provides low-cost health insurance to needy families stopped accepting new clients Friday as a result of California's ongoing budget mess.

For the first time since its inception in 1997, Healthy Families began turning away Californians who make too much to qualify for Medi-Cal, but not enough to pay for private health insurance.

"This is a huge loss for families," said Jennifer Kwan, a program manager at Cover the Kids, a Sacramento agency that contracts with the state program. "They're not going to be able to get the services they need." ...

Program officials said that as many as 400,000 children might be turned away in the next year unless the money is restored. ... [Emphasis added]

We are not talking about St. Ronnie of Reagan's "welfare queens" here, we are talking about families in which both parents work at entry level jobs which may or may not provide health insurance, and even if they do, provide it only for the employee, leaving the rest of the family naked. The article cited notes one such family and the difficulties they will now face.

Hey, but these are just children, post-born children.

You'd think that those who are so vocal about the sanctity of life would step up at this point and insist that we care for these latest additions to the family, but I've noticed a deafening silence, especially among some of the commenters to the story. I guess if you're poor, retroactive birthcontrol is acceptable.

But it's not just that family, and families like it, which will face some difficult challenges. The rest of us might very well be affected by the impact in ways we shouldn't have to. Children who have not been vaccinated or who come down with any number of communicable diseases will be untreated and will expose their classmates, their neighbors, and their parents' employers and co-workers with the very illnesses that could have been ameliorated through treatment. But apparently that doesn't matter. All that matters is that the dues for living in a civilized society (taxes) not be raised lest the wealthy flee the state. As if.

Arnold and the Republicans are playing the worst kind of "chicken" game with the state, obviously hoping that the federal government will solve that issue with health care reform. They are obviously not paying attention. It now appears that those senators bought and paid for by the insurance industry (I'm looking at some Democrats right now, including Max Baucus and Dianne Feinstein) will give us a "reform" that benefits only the insurance companies and health care providers that have been ripping us off for years.

So, Arnold and cronies, I have a list of curses for you:

Swine Flu

Drug resistant tuberculosis

Measles

Chicken Pox

Hepatitis

Bacterial Meningitis

Polio.

Have a nice day.