NASW Social Action/Social Justice Council

This Crisis Is Not News

Sam Coleman, PhD, MSW

It’s easy enough for California’s social workers to identify the immediate victims in the latest round of state budget cuts. The damage goes deeper than immediate loss of services and resources, too, because these cuts liquidate years of carefully accumulated talent and experience, along with organizational innovations for serving the public.

Current events are not a sudden train wreck, however.  The attack on government programs and resources came long before the present crisis.

The trend has several sources, but for now let’s focus on our Governor’s ideology and its connection to themes at the national level.  In 2005 Schwarzenegger proclaimed that spending controls were intended to “starve the public sector” because “we don’t want to feed the monster.”   The imagery came straight from the statements of prominent “starve the beast” advocates like David Stockman and Grover Norquist,  Schwarzenegger recently chose IHSS for claims of endemic thievery.  His mentor here could have been Ronald Reagan, who often repeated patently false anecdotes about “welfare queens,” an integral part of his war on “waste, fraud, and abuse.”  The public has been conditioned by these claims to believe that public support programs are uniquely vulnerable to cheating--unlike, say, securitized subprime mortgages, energy futures, or bond ratings. 

The umbrella message, endorsed by the media, reprised and rephrased like the opening theme of a long classical symphony, sings out:  “government can’t do anything right.” It provides a stalking horse for privatizers of services across the spectrum of government functions.  Curious, though, that the loudest proponents of this argument also place unquestioning faith in the largest arm of our federal government, the military, ignoring its bloat and cheering its ill-advised, costly invasions of other countries.

Back to our state. Politicians whom we have regarded as allies have also allowed this budgeting disaster.  If you’re looking for visuals, consider the acquiescing California State Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, who smiled in a photo-op over a budget agreement that brimmed with personal tragedies. Worse, she stated that the final budget represented “shared pain.”  True enough, every vulnerable, politically weak group in the state—quite a list--is wounded.  Overlooked were moneyed interests like big oil, cigarette manufacturers, and commercial real estate interests who enjoy inordinate clout in Sacramento.

It’s considered bad manners in social work circles to say that we have enemies, or that corporate agendas conflict with our goals.  Even today some of us feel queasy about pointing that out despite overwhelming supportive evidence.  But it should be clear by now that just describing our clients’ suffering, however stridently, won’t undo the damage.  Please be aware, colleagues, that there has long been a carefully conceived, multi-faceted movement enlisting the media, battle think tanks, and savvy political consultants.  Their goal is to put ever more power and wealth into fewer hands, and that’s bad news for us and the people we’ve pledged to serve.

The Social Action Social Justice Council cordially invites you to familiarize yourself with our efforts.