All three branches of South Carolina's government are now aligned in their heroic efforts to make sure that our citizens receive no benefit from federal Stimulus funds.
For those of you who missed out on Tuesday's rant, South Carolina Screws the Disabled (not just Argentines . . .), it appears that our Governor and Legislators have illegally misdirected up to $71 million in federal Stimulus funds intended to prevent Medicaid cuts into a "Rainy Day Fund". This is the latest iteration of Governor Sanford's determination to prevent South Carolina citizens from receiving any benefit from the Stimulus.
Yesterday, the SC Supreme Court (in the person of Justice Costa Pleicones) rejected a Petition for Emergency Relief in the case filed to recover these funds. Welcome to the Republican Health (Don't) Care nation.
If you'd like to catch up on the case (and read some Teabagger posts that would embarass Neanderthals and Nazis alike), here is the Post & Courier's coverage:
Suit Alleges Funds for the Disabled Transferred
Desperate Times for Families of Disabled Children
Action Could Come Today in Lawsuit Involving Services
Court Rejects Case for Disabled
The latest article notes:
"Pleicones did not cite any reasons in his two-paragraph order for the denial"
. . . because there were no reasons to cite. He just didn't feel like doing it.
He did not even address the crux of the issue, that this money was taken illegally. And I'm sure that our state government hopes to avoid addressing this as long as possible. Forever if they can manage it.
The Disabilities and Special Needs Department's assertion that they are "not aware of any person who is likely to be institutionalized as a result of the changes set to take effect" today is accurate - but only because they have closed all placement due to budget cuts.
And we, as parents, do not want to put our children in institutions, especially in South Carolina, where even the best of them are pretty bad.
So what will happen instead is that children will have to remain with families who will no longer have the resources to support them.
Those families who are not already in poverty will make their way there over time, just another part of the gradual Republican destruction of the middle class.
People will suffer and die so that the super-rich can continue to profit from the "little people". Our entire health care system is not based on providing services to help people, but on guaranteeing huge profits for the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
The "Hardship Exception" is a joke. We have already been assured by our care manager that almost all of them will be denied, regardless of how bad the situation is.
We are dealing with crooks and liars who will continue to show us on paper how nobody is suffering and they're just doing their jobs. We've heard that before.
You may note from some of the newspaper article posts that our Teabagger folk here in SC have all sorts of creative solutions, including Euthanasia. These are the same jackasses that were screaming about "Death Panels" all summer, but then consistency, logic and intelligence have never been their strong suits.