How big of a policy geek am I? I’m such a geek that I’ve been browsing through the President’s 2006 budget. One of the last things we did before leaving Washington was to meet with White House Budget Director Josh Bolton and he mentioned that lots of people would be unhappy with the proposed cuts. Many in the disability community are not likely to be happy with reductions in programs like housing for people with disabilities (cut from $238 million to $128 million) and the Office of Disability Employment Policy (from $47 million to $28 million). Bolton did say that they tried to propose cuts in programs that were not living up to performance measures, but my concern is that those measures may not take into account the time needed for some of these programs to show results. The budget does propose some interesting demonstration projects, including:
Money Follows the Person
This demonstration would use federal grant funds to pay for home and community based waiver services for individuals who transition from institutions to at-home care. Costs would be funded at a federal matching rate of 100 percent for the first year with the condition that states would agree to continue care after the first year at the regular Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage and to reduce institutional long-term care. Over five years, $1.75 billion is authorized for this program.
Community Alternative to Children�s Residential Treatment Facilities
This demonstration would allow states to provide home- and community-based services to children who would otherwise receive care in psychiatric residential treatment facilities. This demonstration would permit the delivery of intensive mental health services for children in their homes and communities. This program would cost $5 million in FY 2006 and $99 million over five years.
Respite Program for Caregivers
Two of the demonstrations would provide respite care for caregivers of disabled children and adults. The respite program for caregivers of disabled adults would test whether respite care can lead to reductions in primary caregiver fatigue. The administration argues that such fatigue or �burn-out� can lead to institutionalization of persons with disabilities. This proposal would cost $7 million in FY 2006 and $134 million over five years. The program for caregivers of children with substantial disabilities would collect specific data about the cost and utilization of respite care services. This proposal would cost $1 million in FY 2006 and $23 million over five years.
Whether or not these initiatives go anywhere is up to Congress. I seem to remember these same proposals being offered up last year and then falling off the map. And let’s not forget that this budget doesn’t include the additional $70-80 billion to fund our presence in Iraq. Meanwhile, this Administration wants to make the recent tax cuts permanent, proving that everyone can have their cake and eat it too. Please note that “everyone” doesn’t include farmers, college students, inner-city residents, the rural poor, veterans, and people with disabilities.

My apologies to those of you who visited the site in the past couple days only to find a generic search page. Once again, my domain registration expired and once again, my hosting company failed to send me a renewal notice. I may need to consider a new hosting company because AffordableHost has never been particularly helpful.
I got back from DC late Saturday night. I had a really good time in Washington. This was kind of like the class field trip that I never went on when I was younger. I got to bond with the other fellows and I met some fascinating people; a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Here are a few pictures:

This, of course, is newly elected Senator Barack Obama. I was touring the Capitol with one of the Fellowship directors, former Minnesota Congressman Tim Penny, when we ran into him in the halls of the Senate. I didn’t get to talk to him very long, but he seemed every bit as charming as the media portrays him to be.

Some of us went out to dinner Wednesday night and we walked past the White House on the way back to the hotel. It was rather cold and we were all impressed that the fountain was running. Your tax dollars at work.

On Friday, we met with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Most of us later admitted that we were a little awed in her presence. She spoke at length about the arrogance she perceived in Bush’s foreign policy and how she believed that North Korea is the most dangerous nation on the planet.

On our last day, we had a tour of the West Wing of the White House. This is all of us milling about outside the gate as we waited for the guards to let us in. The White House is actually smaller than it looks on television. The Oval Office is not especially big, but it looks more like a museum display than an actual working space. I think they keep it immaculate for the benefit of the tourists, but the effect is a little unsettling.

Spent way too much at the iTunes store last night. But I should have plenty of stuff to keep me amused during the plane ride. If I don’t blog while I’m in DC, I’ll catch you again Saturday night with a brief recap.

I have some reading to do in preparation for my trip. In the meantime, fellow Minnesotans may be interested in the article in today’s NYT about the growing use of methamphetamine in this state. And if you need any more evidence of the sheer toxicity of meth, check out this gallery of before/after pictures of people addicted to meth. We’ll be meeting with one of the senators who is co-sponsoring a bill to get pseudoephedrine (commonly found in cold medication and a primary ingredient in meth) categorized as a controlled substance. Perhaps I’ll try to ask him whether he thinks the pharmaceuticals will go along with that kind of regulation.

A few thoughts on my new iPod, now that I’ve had the chance to play with it for a few days. The color display is surprisingly sharp, much more so than I thought it would be. I can make out details that I didn’t think would be visible on such a small screen. I’m also digging the recording function. The quality of the recordings is far superior to those that were done on my old digital recorder. And now that I have an iPod that is bigger than my music collection, I can simply place the iPod in its dock and let it automatically sync with my iTunes library. The extra capacity also has enabled me to download a bunch of podcasts that I listen to at work. One of my favorite shows is Coverville, which is dedicated to playing covers of various pop songs. A recent show featured Sarah McLachlan’s cover of XTC’s “Dear God.” It’s really good; one of her most forceful renditions of any song. Not sure why she can’t bring that kind of energy to some of her more recent albums. I used to be a big Sarah McLachlan fan; I was one of maybe half a dozen guys at the Lilith Fair concert when it came to Minnesota in 1997. But lately she’s gone kind of adult contemporary and, well, boring.
God, I’m rambling. Time to get off the computer.