There are basically two parts. 1) cut budgets of a staggering number of programs 50% to 100% left and right. In practice, half of these cuts either can’t or shouldn’t be made (90% cut to the budget of administration of California Department of Forestry Fire Protection? No kidding?) And even if all these cuts do happen, they might save us one billion dollars a year. Out of needed 41.
And then there’s 2) a proposed 50% cut in Medi-Cal. This is not the kind of cut you can decide on up front. His position is that Medi-Cal shouldn’t pay for liver transplants for uninsured low-income individuals, which is by itself debatable. AFAIK you don’t get Medi-Cal if you’re completely unemployed – those get federal help thru Medicaid. Medi-Cal recipients make more than 10K/year but not enough to buy private insurance.
Then I’d question how much Medi-Cal money is really spent on liver transplants for uninsured.
[quote]Once all the unnecessary departments/employees have been cut, then you cram down the state budget across the board until it’s balanced. We should also hike property taxes as that’s what got us here in the first place. [/quote]
Again I’d like details on what you propose to cram down. Let’s remember that our public school spending (50% of the budget) is already one of the lowest in the nation, our prison system is at twice the design capacity, etc.
