OpenGov - Open Government Brainstorm

To President Obama, lawmakers, and whoever else can help:

Governor Schwarzenegger, in an attempt to balance California's flagrant spending and massive deficit, is undermining the core fabric of social equality, a social right that Americans have been fighting for centuries to achieve.

In an attempt to compensate funds for the grossly misused budget, he has been taking away programs from among the state's poorest populace. He has decided to cut funding for "optional" services from the state Medi-Cal, a state funded program designed to act as supplemental health care for those that can not afford health coverage. These "optional" services include dental, audiological, speech therapy, optical, and psychological services. Anyone in their right mind would not consider hearing or vision to be "optional". No one that has a choice would consider seeing or hearing as unnecessary.

In our horribly misused economy, one would think that the best way to get people off of goverment funded supplimental programs would be to take care of their physical and mental needs so they can rejoin the workforce. How can one aptly return to work if they do not have access to glasses, hearing devices, mental health services and the like?

Furthermore, taking away these programs undermines the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25-1, which states that:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

These programs are not "optional". They are desperately needed and are a necessity. They are crucial to the health, well-being, and quality of living essential to the poorer populace for survival within society.

In addition to cutting medical programs, Governor Schwarzenegger is also trying to cut educational funding for needy individuals. These programs, which include Calworks and CalGrants. Barack Obama has been quoted as saying:

"We have an obligation and a responsibility to be investing in our students and our schools. We must make sure that people who have the grades, the desire and the will, but not the money, can still get the best education possible."

Many students are dependent on the Calworks and CalGrants programs to go to school in the first place. Taking away these programs will detrimentally effect them, their educational goals, careers, and the workforce, and society as a whole.

Lack of education as well as necessary medical services will promote the widening gap between lower and middle classes. Poor people will be condemned to an ever lessening quality of life. The cost of living has increased over the years, while people on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and SSI have received a four percent cut in payment.

I am writing this in an attempt to shed some light on the plight of poorer Americans. Why bail out large corporations, and have them go bankrupt anyways, when there are people here, in our own country, our own citizens, suffering? The cuts in funding for services, meant to help the poor get off of their knees and help them to their feet, are taking away from people that already have so little. I beg, implore you, to do the right thing, not only for California and it's residents, but for the country.

"If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost." - Barack Obama

With Heartfelt Sincerity,

the Undersigned