This morning was one of those times, as a state legislator, when I had to try to be in three places at the same time. This is pretty common, but this morning's events struck me in that they touch on some very important values – like health care and education – the support for which is in real question in the difficult budget debate underway right now.
One event was a visit to the Cedarcrest Hospital in Newington, which is a state mental health facility that Gov. Rell's administration is trying to shut down. Many people have real concerns her decision to remove these important services will result in people with significant mental health needs falling through the cracks and into desperate situations without the help they need.
On top of this, Gov. Rell is proposing deep cuts to nursing homes and hospitals. Nursing homes have already been reeling – closing down and reducing staff because of years of funding that has not kept up with rising costs. Now, Gov. Rell proposes a devastating blow to them.
Meanwhile, hospitals, which are struggling because, in the bad economy, more people without health insurance need their services. Gov. Rell's cuts would seriously damage hospitals at just a time when we really need them.
Another important event was a meeting at New Britain General Hospital between local early childhood education advocates and the Graustein Memorial Fund. The Graustein Fund has made a very significant commitment of funds to the program that I wrote about earlier, directed at improving education, well-being and prospects in life for very young children.
The problem is that the funding from the Graustein Fund is matching funding and it depends on the state keeping its own funding commitment. That is why it is so unfortunate that Gov. Rell's plans call for cutting this important matching funds. Gov. Rell's plan would cut a good number of things that benefit children like the Children's Trust Fund, early childhood education services, pre-natal services, after school programming, libraries and more.
There is a lot of unfortunate rhetoric that has been thrown around in the budget debate. For example, Democrats in the state legislature have made billions of dollars of cuts in the state budget – many difficult cuts – but Gov. Rell and fellow Republicans keep falsely saying that there have not been budget cuts.
Just as bad is rhetoric that talks about budget frugality in pithy political terms in sound bites on the evening news, but ignores the importance of the services that, in the real world, that are being cut and the harm caused when they are gone or greatly reduced.
We need leadership in our state that rises above this and helps us to approve a budget that balances the budget, not just in dollars and cents, but in the values we all should share.
One event was a visit to the Cedarcrest Hospital in Newington, which is a state mental health facility that Gov. Rell's administration is trying to shut down. Many people have real concerns her decision to remove these important services will result in people with significant mental health needs falling through the cracks and into desperate situations without the help they need.
On top of this, Gov. Rell is proposing deep cuts to nursing homes and hospitals. Nursing homes have already been reeling – closing down and reducing staff because of years of funding that has not kept up with rising costs. Now, Gov. Rell proposes a devastating blow to them.
Meanwhile, hospitals, which are struggling because, in the bad economy, more people without health insurance need their services. Gov. Rell's cuts would seriously damage hospitals at just a time when we really need them.
Another important event was a meeting at New Britain General Hospital between local early childhood education advocates and the Graustein Memorial Fund. The Graustein Fund has made a very significant commitment of funds to the program that I wrote about earlier, directed at improving education, well-being and prospects in life for very young children.
The problem is that the funding from the Graustein Fund is matching funding and it depends on the state keeping its own funding commitment. That is why it is so unfortunate that Gov. Rell's plans call for cutting this important matching funds. Gov. Rell's plan would cut a good number of things that benefit children like the Children's Trust Fund, early childhood education services, pre-natal services, after school programming, libraries and more.
There is a lot of unfortunate rhetoric that has been thrown around in the budget debate. For example, Democrats in the state legislature have made billions of dollars of cuts in the state budget – many difficult cuts – but Gov. Rell and fellow Republicans keep falsely saying that there have not been budget cuts.
Just as bad is rhetoric that talks about budget frugality in pithy political terms in sound bites on the evening news, but ignores the importance of the services that, in the real world, that are being cut and the harm caused when they are gone or greatly reduced.
We need leadership in our state that rises above this and helps us to approve a budget that balances the budget, not just in dollars and cents, but in the values we all should share.
