105 days to remember

Mistakes of the 2009 legislature won’t soon be forgotten



Can you believe it’s already over — except for threats of a special session, that is?

Can you believe the Washington State Legislature — Democrats in control and Republicans on the side — has finally called it quits, putting the wraps on a 105 day gauntlet?



(Except for threats of a special session, that is.)



It’s true. After plenty of scratching and clawing, and worming and wiggling, time is up in Olympia. Elected officials from all over the state can now return home and start the long and time-honored process of pretending they accomplished more than they actually did — which shouldn’t be difficult.



That’s not to say nothing was accomplished, mind you — plenty of things were. After sitting idle for the first month or so, waiting for Obama and Company to come through with federal stimulus funds, the Democrat led legislature finally did get to work on crafting a budget in line with our dire economic situation.



The good new is, I suppose, the khaki clad legislators emerged with a balanced budget. Well, kind of. It relies heavily on one-time money — mainly stimulus funds, but also deferred pension contributions, and dips into other state accounts — but that’s small beans compared to other glaring problems created this year in Olympia. Sure, those funds won’t be around to help soften the blow next biennium if things continue down this dreaded path, but let’s be honest — how much is that really going to matter when we’re all living in Hooverville?



All of that aside, the biggest screw-up in Olympia this legislative session was what our Democrat-controlled legislature did to Basic Health. Party lines can’t hide the facts. Shit deserves to be called out, especially when Democrats in power leave a big heaping pile of it on the chest of the down-and-out.



In case you’ve never ventured out of North Tacoma (and why would you, really, if you didn’t have to), Basic Health is a safety net for thousands upon thousands of our state’s low income, working poor residents. If a person or family makes under a certain amount of money, and doesn’t have health insurance, Basic Health is supposed to be there to help them get the health care every human deserves. These folks are you and I — the healthy, the sick, diabetics, cancer patients, the young and the old. Bluntly, Basic Health’s sole purpose is simply doing the right thing.



What was the wrong thing to do? That’s simple. The Democrats in Olympia decided — in the name of savings — to trim the Basic Health roster by 40,000 people.



(Cue gag reflex).



Even more disturbing, they chose this route over other viable options — one of them being to simply ask state employees — who currently pay much less than the average person for healthcare — to pay more out of pocket for the insurance they receive through the state.



Forty thousand people will no longer have the health insurance they depend on. Forty thousand people will now be uninsured and forced to visit the ER for sicknesses and ailments they would have previously seen a doctor for.



And 40,000 people were — basically — told by Olympia they didn’t matter.



We all know times are tough. And we all knew the legislature was going to have to make some tough decisions. But the unnecessary cuts to Basic Health are enough to make a person sick.



Hopefully, that person has insurance.