Which is it ?....Force 'em to die or force them to live
1993 the state of California had a 63 day budget impasse. Typical for California back then was this annual hiccup in the state checks from MediCal.

1300 Cerebral Palsy infants and children were under the responsible care of my 27 full time speech pathologists. All of them...all of us were helping with feeding programs along with Oral motor skills for eating, drinking and phonations during communication.

The typical patient was a 13 year old girl velcro 'd into a wheel chair parked in a 99 bed intermediate care facility in Glendale.This typical child was struggling with learning a safe swallow of the cheapest mechanical chopped foods and syrup thickened liquids in addition to working on a communication device. Schools and health care facilities have an enormous responsibility...as any one... at any time can break their neck on the stairs or be an innocent victim in a rear ender by an SUV on HWY101. You can be going to the Mall and find yourself awakened without any motor skills....or just enough motor skills to phonate and bite/chew/swallow with help.

That year proposition 13 was really being felt...Sacramento was crowded with horse race track representatives, fire fighters reps, police union people....all the most powerful lobby groups were fighting it out protecting their turf....Willie Brown was a tap dancing referee in the assembly. His shoes were a tap'n and his eloquence was like a flame at 1500 degrees... The then Gov. Peter Wilson playing the counterbalance well..... because of a "at treeeemendous expenssssse" record 3.3 billion dollar pinch.

It is no surprise to me the paychecks for the therapy provided over 90 days ago will be late....as they have been for the past 3 years at budget time around June.

This year all my staff from office ladies to professionals in the field all agreed to continue working till the MediCal checks arrived from Sacramento. This is not unusual as therapists are driven to help...that is the way God made them. Do not expect a speech pathologist to turn their back on a child going down because of thirst.

We all had worked without pay over 5 weeks(because no checks for State of CA). Willie's shoes were smoking but power is power and then Gov. Wilson himself filed a law suit to stop home heath care workers from getting paid any longer... no matter what....till the budget was signed by him. No exceptions...sorry about that but no more help.

These are the health care people who go and get the Traumatic Injured Patient out of his apartment bed, dress, wash his face, toilet, prepare and place the food into his mouth and then leave till that evening when the reverse is played out.....something like that....Next time you drive past that bus stop and see that person in the electric wheel chair recognize what effort is involved and how blessed you now are. These people are not retarded. These people are not any different from you or I.....

What that means is... if you were a quadriplegic in an apartment now you did your B.M. in your wheel chair or on the floor if you could get out of your chair/ bed alone. Also any liquids to survive on probably would be obtained from the toilet if you can get your head in. At that time I had probably 150 good friends who after living in state institutions had clawed their way out of the darkest part of the system and now had their own "independent living" apartments.

Is not pretty to see the end results when the elected leader acts as if you can dry up and become eliminated from the equation....the typical scene I would find would be a nice clean retirement type building with a few units designated for non ambulatory with special needs...in those limited "independent apartments" I would enter and find my patients and good friends face down on a giant sausage and pineapple pizza. With no one to feed them they would call Round Table, get a delivery and then eat the top off, as best they could, in the middle of the floor. You can get food delivered but the hydration is the big problem....many patients cannot drink in the regular fashion but require special skilled help. The sceens into which I entered were very sad.

My patients were dying right and left.....I was a basket case......I did not take the injuring of helpless innocent Americans lightly....I went to the F.B.I. in Westwood ...made a report that my patients are dying every day while the state attempts to correct its financial problems. I told the passive looking F.B.I. gentleman it was a crime and that if something were not done right away I would start videoing what I was finding. When the local cable stations get the full visual image of what California Politics is doing.... something might happen. Then I went to Tom Haydens Local office in Santa Monica and worked almost daily with Henry Waxman's office in Washington.

Guess what....heads rolled alright...my head.....some days later an I.R.S. guy marched into my Santa Monica office....flashed his badge and said he could arrest me right now...on the spot....Why I asked? Well when the state of California does not pay its bills and you cannot pay your payroll you still owe the payroll taxes.....that is right...even if you do not pay payroll because the state does not mail the check, you still have to pay the payroll taxes on time, even if the state mandates that the care must be provided.....I had over 30 staff and almost 2 months in payroll and payroll taxes due. The first (of many) penalties is called the 100% penalty....whatever you own now it is doubled. The state of CA does not pay so I get whacked by the Fed's of the USA.... Ah America the beautiful.

They invited me to a big office by LAX. I felt like they were going to detain me from there....they said if I pay an additional 18 thousand bucks every month they will not arrest me right now for" stealing" from the Federal Government if I ....just continue to pay the extra 18k each month till it is all paid up.... O.K. 2nd on the house, eliminate all cash reserves, work double time, learn it cannot be done, no way in hell can it be done....well loved ones at $18 k/ month no one will ever, ever get out of that tax hole. The penalties heap much faster than you will ever be able earn with the MediCal reimbursement levels set at some of the lowest in the nation. I am in the system for billing and Iam in the system for taxes. The system desires to inhibit services. That was the end of the story for my corporation and any confidence I had in this type of American health care.

I was seated in the California assembly that evening the budget was passed....it was about midnight...I was seated in the upper audience in the capitol assembly building with two huge undercover guys sitting on my right and left. The monster on my right looked like Lurch from the Adams Family. Both their shoulders were squeezing me in the middle. Both of them walked in a gave me a looks I will never forget..... looks like we can make you disappear.

Needless to say I was and still am financially obliterated with no hope of ever, ever, ever getting this I.R.S. entity of my back.

Handling the budget as effectively as he did, California Gov. Wilson planned to run for President. He was the main man for the Republican Party. He was perfectly positioned to ease on in..... Seeking this higher political office.... on his own he decided to get a vocal cord surgery to change the tone of his voice from the squeaky "girlie boy" to a much more Arnold type manly man voice.

Gov. Wilsons voice procedure obtained less than desired results... as in the rehabilitation of any vocal cord surgery rule number one is 1)MUST KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT. . .Silence is an almost impossible request for a politician. I guess he also needed more rehab services. He failed in his bid to enter the White House. Loved ones visualize and enclose Pete and all his loved ones with the White Light of the Holy Spirit.
- posted by Samuel Bell @ 7:37 AM