California may have made a public statement about settling the budget, but the impacts of the decisions made are just starting to ripple through the state and it's obvious that the Governor and legislature took an ax to the "safety net".

We do foster care for some of the most innocent, vulnerable people in the state, the children displaced by family tragedy. The new state budget won't provide child care for these infants and kids, so working families who are willing to provide foster care are now asked to subsidize the state welfare system from their own pockets.

Many who provide foster care will not be able to continue to support this system, leaving many kids without good temporary homes when they are without their own families.

How can the Republicans justify this heartless attack on the most vulnerable? What political principals hold that our society should not care for our little kids who are homeless through no fault of their own. Some of these kids are traumatized, all are vulnerable. Some semblance of a system remains, but the guts are being cut out in the name of "no new taxes" or "tax cuts for the rich!".

There was rhetoric about how some people made money doing foster care, but in my experience knowing many foster care families, no one is getting rich off the system, most foster care families do so out of love for children, and most foster care providers were putting in more than they got out of the system. No doubt, as in any system, there may be some folks who game the system, but instead of addressing those few problems, the whole system was cut back. Our county also lost social workers, case loads increased, and expenses were shifted to private citizens and groups. It's the kids and the families who bear the immediate cost, but it is society that will ultimately feel the cost of kids who's needs were not met, kids who didn't get therapy, kids who grow up bitter and sad, kids who won't know compassion.

While this is the tiny area that I can see, it is clear that there are hundreds more examples of cuts that target the ill and infirm, the powerless.

Maybe it's a Republican value to change our society into the sort of third world place where the powerless are not even seen, where hopelessness and cruelty are taken for granted, where "justice for all" and basic human needs are available only for the rich and strong. For most of my life, it wasn't a party thing, we all believed that our society should provide basic human needs for the least amongst us.

Sad, but this is the reality here in California in August 2009.