The proposed elimination of funding for drug and alcohol treatment is mind-boggling. These cuts will be catastrophic for over 15,000 Washington state residents who will be affected. Thousands of individuals, if left untreated, will have no other option but to drown in their own addiction. Addiction is not a choice, it is a disease!

Research has shown that approximately one out of 10 individuals are in need of some form of substance abuse treatment. This need will only continue to increase without the availability of drug and alcohol treatment options.

Unfortunately, because of these circumstances, individuals will instead seek assistance from …

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$83 million was eliminated last legislative session for services to people with developmental disabilities. On November 28, our legislators will reconvene to begin sorting out the governor’s proposed budget cuts to social service programs that directly support our state’s most vulnerable populations.

Eliminating dental and prescription medication services for the developmentally disabled on Medicaid will only cause an additional financial burden on our state. Without having dental care and prescription medication, people will suffer decreased overall health and will have more visits to the emergency room to get the care that they need.

Suspending the Individual and Family Services program …

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In the late 1960s, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey made the following observation: “The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life – the children; those who are in the twilight of life – the aged; and those who are in the shadows of life – the sick, the needy and the handicapped.” His words ring true today.

Enough said.

I attended the town hall meeting in Tacoma Tuesday given by Social and Health Services Secretary Susan Dreyfus regarding proposed cuts to the DSHS budget. The proposed cuts are even more alarming than what we’ve been through the past couple of years.

It is shameful that our state can’t take care of the most vulnerable and that our only option is to further diminish our most fragile citizens. Their caregivers and the private social services organizations who help are also facing financial disaster.

Cutting the DSHS monies paid for the difficult work they do means they’ll lose jobs, homes, money …

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As budgets are being reviewed around the country, there seems to be one theme: Balance the budget on the back of education.

Here is my concern. As a country we have decided that the deficit is bad and we don’t want to pass it on to our children because it will make America uncompetitive. Yet, undermining our children’s education will have the same effect.

Are we mortgaging our future to simply balance the budget?

The Obama administration and our wealthy members of Congress are vying to decimate the already meager domestic budget, primarily on the backs of the poor and disadvantaged and particularly on women in general. The middle class is dying before our eyes. It is euphemistically called austerity.

Meanwhile, all around the globe, the winds of freedom and true participatory democracy are starting to blow with hurricane force in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya with more to come. As usual, the ultra-conservative Obama team, like all presidents of either party, is far behind the curve, pursuing a failed and less and less relevant foreign …

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Please cut union workers’ benefits and salaries. Just don’t cut Wall Street bonuses.

Please eliminate opportunities for low income families to own homes. And cut Pell Grants for working-class college student loans. Just don’t ask corporations like Exxon-Mobil and General Electric to give up loopholes and credits that allowed them to pay zero in taxes last year.

Please shut off heat to the poor and defund Head Start programs for their children. Just don’t ask rich people, who enjoy their lowest tax rates since 1950, to contribute another penny.

By all means, cut Medicare and Social Security for Americans here …

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Public education in Washington state is on the edge of a cliff. Unprecedented retroactive state budget cuts coupled with additional unfunded mandates are crushing our ability to maintain, let alone continue to improve, the quality of K-12 education.

School districts are being told to do more with less in this economy, so school districts have become more resourceful and responsible than ever before. But we have no magic wands to wave.

Legislators are voting to reduce funding and the number of mandatory education days, while raising K-12 requirements. Very incongruous to say the least.

It is being said that the …

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