Heartless Rick Scott

[FayeforCure]

This is the first time I have ever made this comment but anyone who voted for this guy, and I mean anyone, should hide in shame. There is a moral issue with anyone who voted for him. There are no excuses. There is no way you can justify voting for him. And if your excuse is you didn't know about his criminal behavior, you are still a political deviate.

Thank you avonjax.

Rick Scott has made it so workers at McDonalds get paid more than state reimbursed caregivers for the disabled.

Who wants to change diapers for $8 per hour? With no job benefits?

Gov. Scott's cuts drop the torch for the disabledBy Frank Cerabino Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Updated: 7:15 p.m. Thursday, April 7, 2011

Posted: 6:20 p.m. Thursday, April 7, 2011


This week, Gov. Rick Scott took time out from his busy schedule to look at Palm Beach County's ocean beaches and voice his support for sand renourishment.

Uh, oh. This is usually a bad sign. Somebody needs to check and see if the sand's still there.

I mention this because last week Scott took time out from his busy schedule to appear at a Special Olympics event.

And then later that day, he unilaterally decided to slash state funds by as much as 40 percent to community organizations that serve the developmentally disabled.

Gov. Voldemort's bad news surprise, justified as an emergency order that goes into effect immediately and runs through June and possibly beyond, was delivered by e-mail.

"It would be comical, if people's lives weren't in the balance," said Michael Morgenstein, the office manager for A Home Health Care Service in Lake Worth.

Short-changing caregivers

Morgenstein manages about 80 home health care workers employed as independent contractors. These are the people who change diapers, bathe, care for and support developmentally disabled people who are unable to take care of themselves in their own homes.

The state pays for these services through a Medicaid waiver program that's administered by social workers such as Amy Bokelman of Boynton Beach, who also woke up to the bad news last Friday morning.

"I got a monthly cut in pay of $750, which is tough for somebody who lives paycheck to paycheck," she said. "But what really bothers me is that now I don't know if I can take care of my families."

Bokelman's families are the Medicaid recipients who are lucky enough to get beyond the 19,000 others on the waiting list for state-supported services. She has to match the needs of these clients with the service providers in the area.

Here's an example. One of Bokelman's clients is a 65-year-old woman who is mentally disabled and uses wheelchair due to cerebral palsy. She lives alone and needs someone to be constantly with her at home, except for the nine hours each day she spends in a day-care program.

The state rate for round-the-clock in-home support for this woman had been set at $126.20 per day. Scott's emergency order reduced that to $82.81.

So when Bokelman tries to find her client a caregiver and goes to Morgenstein's service, she now has 34 percent less money to offer. That means Morgenstein will end up with less money to offer his independent contractor caregivers.

"I used to be able to pay them $10 an hour," Morgenstein said. "This week, I had to tell them I could only pay them $8 an hour."

These are workers who get no benefits and have to pay for their own transportation. And they care for clients who would otherwise cost the state a fortune if they had to be housed in nursing or institutional facilities.

"I don't blame them if they quit," Morgenstein said. "They can make more money working at McDonald's."

Gretel Lewis employs licensed practical nurses for her business, GEL Home Care, in West Palm Beach. Until last week, the state reimbursement rate for these professionals was $26 an hour, which meant that after Lewis took her management cut, the nurses actually got paid about $19 an hour. But Scott's order reduced the licensed practical nurses rate to $16.28 an hour.

"That means I now have to pay them $12 an hour," Lewis said. "What LPN is going to work for $12 an hour? They're not going to work for it, and I can't make them. I'm just going to have to turn back the cases to the state."

No. 5 for biz and No. 49 for disabled

Scott justified the cuts to the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities by saying he needed to control the $170 million deficit the agency was running.

"That's not taking into account the human factor," Morgenstein said. "These are people who can't take care of themselves. Who is going to take care of them?"

Not Scott. He's got to create some budget daylight for his $458 million corporate tax cut plan. Apparently, we need more corporate tax breaks, because Florida only ranks as the fifth best state according to the Tax Foundation's Business Tax Climate Index.

And the way to improve that is by taking money from the physically and mentally disabled, who are luxuriating in the kind of lavish state spending that puts Florida as 49th in state per-capita spending for the disabled.

Certainly, we can get to 50th with this move.  

In the meantime, I'm guessing the governor's days of carrying the torch at Special Olympics events are over.

By the way, has the beach been privatized yet?

~frank_cerabino@pbpost.com

Find this article at:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/cerabino-gov-scotts-cuts-drop-the-torch-for-1384039.html

[Jaxson]

How do you pronounce 'Rick Scott?'  It's easy.  Always remember that the 'P' is silent.

[Timkin]

SO ...are we 'ronouncing it .. or is it silent P  Rick Scott?

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Who wants to change diapers for $8 per hour? With no job benefits?

The same people that harvest our fields, build our houses, rent our apartments, pay for everything in cash, send money to the FICA in the sky without ever expecting to reclaim it, mow our yards, clean our pools, cook our food....   Should I keep going?  

Guess what?  If I wasn't currently employed, I'd have no problems changing someone else's diapers for $8/hr rather than wait on my 40% Unemployment.  I guess I'd have 2 or three jobs changing diapers so I didn't have to suckle on the teat of welfare.  

But that's just me.  

[Timkin]

Agree NRW

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Hey Tim, Tony.

Sorry I didn't reply, but have this alcoholic dependency issue regarding MJ. 

Don't partake on school-nights! 

[Timkin]

LOL ...ahh

[FayeforCure]

Who wants to change diapers for $8 per hour? With no job benefits?

The same people that harvest our fields, build our houses, rent our apartments, pay for everything in cash, send money to the FICA in the sky without ever expecting to reclaim it, mow our yards, clean our pools, cook our food....   Should I keep going?  

Guess what?  If I wasn't currently employed, I'd have no problems changing someone else's diapers for $8/hr rather than wait on my 40% Unemployment.  I guess I'd have 2 or three jobs changing diapers so I didn't have to suckle on the teat of welfare.  

But that's just me.  

Funny you say that Non-RedNeck Westsider............ I guess you've never even done it...............change adult diapers that is.

Pretty tough on the senses let me tell you.

This 20 year old kid working at Food Lion thought he'd become a CNA ( 4 week training) to get paid $1-2 an hour more than he was being paid at Food Lion.

So he worked at a nursing home for about a year and came back to Food Lion, and was VERY happy to be back.

I generally have to entice people with $15 per hour before they even consider wiping my son's butt ( he is quadriplegic from a soccer injury)

And no, they are not all lazy, but at $4 a gallon, they woul pretty much be working for free for the two morning hours that I need them.

So please, if you've not been in the situation, you do not know of which you speak.

Now as the economist, I have to tell you that the buzz words "teat of welfare" is a very demeaning way to describe state run unemployment insurance that companies pay into during good times, so that they can provid a modicum of comfort fo those who unexpectedly get laid off.

In other words it's a job benefit that you never hope you need, just like medical insurance is a job benefit you never hope you need.

In North Carolina, the General Assembly cut the unemployment insurance tax rate a number of times in the mid-1990s, going so far as to exempt companies without a history of laying off workers. Today about 12 percent of all N.C. employers don't pay into the insurance fund.

North Carolina's businesses that did pay the unemployment insurance tax last year paid $281 per employee, far below the national average of $360 per worker, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor.



Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/28/1086902/shortfall-spurs-rush-to-raise.html#ixzz1JayiKnnX

But you've heard the saying "death by a thousand cuts"?

That's what happens when Republicans see a surplus in an INSURANCE fund during good times..............they decide to cuts those taxes forgetting that it is a INSURANCE fund, that is supposed to show a surplus in good times, so that there is sufficient monies in there for the bad times.

THEN, these states have to be bailed out by the Federal government for their INSURANCE funds to stay aflaot because not enough monies were accumulated during th good  years to INSURE ( through an insurance pool) ourselves for the bad years.

So what it is, is really Republican mismanagement that is aided and abetted by Democrats who buy into reckless cutting of the INSURANCE revenues during good times.

Capice?

[wsansewjs]

Moderator, please don't delete this, but I want to bring a little humor into this thread.

I am going to leave this here...



-Josh

[jcjohnpaint]

Oh I so want the shirt!

[Dog Walker]

I have some T-Shirt transfer sheets and have just copied the image.  Will let you know if the shirt turns out OK.  If so, you've got a deal!

[Timkin]

I have some T-Shirt transfer sheets and have just copied the image.  Will let you know if the shirt turns out OK.  If so, you've got a deal!

Add me 2 to that list DW.    I love it !

[Timkin]

Moderator, please don't delete this, but I want to bring a little humor into this thread.

I am going to leave this here...



-Josh

Looks like someone goosed him in the behind with a cattle prod and he liked it

[Todd_Parker]

More fuel for the anti-Rick Scott fire....

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/457554/abel-harding/2011-04-15/florida-morning-rick-scotts-lawyer-admits-he-misled-high

[Timkin]

amazing... We could not get lucky enough for his string ball to come unraveled though.. :/