08-09 Budget Travesty

Wednesday Florida legislature began talks on the new 08-09 budget. Just from reading several blogs and reports I have come to the conlcusion that in my opinion our state legislature is a large group of heartless people. A quote from http://flapolitics.blogspot.com/ lists some of the rediculous this the legislature will be meeting about: "Here's the plan (or some of it) from the "values" crowd: "the House will begin debating Wednesday: eliminate 703 jobs in the Department of Children and Families, including 71 child abuse investigator jobs; end hospice care for 7,700 Medicaid patients; stop hospital care for 19,500 uninsured patients with catastrophic illnesses; close the state's only tuberculosis hospital; and reduce $7-million in funding to help foster children adjust to life on their own." The department of Children and Families is already under budgeted and undermanned, cutting 703 jobs would be atrocious. It would be like cutting of a leg to be extreme...Finally, how can we take more money away the foster children in Florida? The majority people that help take care of those children are good people and the situations those kids are requires assistance. As a state we should be doing everything in our power to help those children and that includes raising taxes our whatever we need to do to help fund the programs that take care of them. How is it that American Idol can raise over $20 million to help children in Africa but we as Americans or more specifically Floridians cannot support our children in Florida...This is pretty sad in my opinion.