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For a few years I lived in southeastern Ohio and I voted several times for current governor Ted Strickland in his races for the U.S. House of Representatives. I did so under the assumption that he was a Democrat and at least shared some of my ideals. I voted for him for governor for the same reason. However, now I’m not so sure. In his first budget Strickland cut funding for the Ohio Department of Mental Health (ODMH) and the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services (ODADAS).
Now comes the following.
Sources say the areas where Strickland has suggested cutting include: dental, vision and other Medicaid services for low-income adults; the Passport program that enables the elderly to receive care at their home instead of in a nursing home; and services to protect children and adults from abuse.
The administration also proposed eliminating preschool for low-income children, a planned expansion of tax-funded health coverage to uninsured children, and planned increases in payments to nursing homes caring for disabled.
The Columbus Dispatch
It appears Strickland’s approach to balancing the budget is based on some form of social Darwinism. It’s the people who are crazy, high, poor, or old, who should be penalized for this mess. But of course he knows that’s not true. Strickland just doesn’t have the political courage to ask all Ohioans for more sacrifices. Especially those who are wealthy and part of the upper class that helped create this budget crisis in the first place.
Unlike President Obama who has proposed bold initiatives on the federal level and unlike Mayor Coleman who has asked residents of Columbus for a tax levy to help those in need, Strickland asks for nothing. Instead, he cuts services for the people most in need apparently based on the fact that they have no political power. I think it’s possible I may have voted for a closet Republican.
Good job, Ted. I’m sure your refusal to tax the rich to pay for the problems the rich created will do wonders at election time. And then you can tax us anyway in 2011.
This was all part of the conservatives’ plan. Cut taxes on the wealthy, keep spending and starve gov’t. And Ted’s falling for it…
I agree. This has been the plan since the Reagan administration. Pretend we are for the average American citizen and the poor by strangling federal funds for the middle class and the poor. All the while giving tax breaks for the rich in the name of Christianity. Now many democrats like Stickland and Coleman are left with the mess. Colenem I believe has handled this crisis well, Strickland, not so much.
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