The Strib covers Dayton’s proposed cuts to nursing homes and the shock that greeted those cuts among lobbyists for the nursing home industry. Disability advocates would likely be quick to point out that proposed cuts to home and community-based services are much deeper than those targeting facilities and that facilities have escaped previous cuts while HCBS providers have already suffered cuts in recent years. There’s no sign that the two groups are openly squabbling about which group is more deserving of public dollars, but the likelihood of such ugliness can only increase in the coming weeks. These groups would be smart to join forces and seek a fair and equitable solution to the deficit that does minimal harm to both of their interests. But given the sometimes rocky relationship between the two groups in past legislative sessions, any notion of a united front may be a faint hope.

The bigger problem, of course, is the continued institutional bias in Medicaid that is perpetuated by both Republican and Democratic leaders. The fact that nursing facilities employ lots of people and are often the sole drivers of economic prosperity in rural communities has given them political clout, which sometimes overshadows more fundamental questions about whether nursing facilities can provide the best care to people using limited public funds. Maybe they are are still a good investment, but I’m disappointed that the Dayton administration seems unwilling to examine the issue more closely.

It’s become en vogue to bash public workers as spoiled layabouts with overly generous benefits who are out of touch with the hardships facing workers in the private sector. Wisconsin’s newly elected governor, Scott Walker, made a point of loudly criticizing public workers during the election. He and his Republican allies in the state legislature are now on the verge of passing one of the most sweeping pieces of anti-union legislation in recent memory. The bill would, among other things, strip unions of the right to collectively bargain wages and benefits. Opposition to the bill has sparked massive protests in Madison.

Full disclosure: I’m a unionized state worker as well. And I have good friends who are state workers and teachers in Wisconsin. They are smart, hard-working people who are in their chosen professions because of a desire to serve. It’s certainly not because of the money. Public workers can and will make sacrifices to help states balance their budgets. We’ve already made sacrifices in the form of frozen or cut wages and furloughs. But those sacrifices were negotiated then and they should be negotiated now. Walker may claim that he’s trying to create parity between the public and private sectors, but I doubt he and his allies have any plans to make life better for all workers. To strip unions of the basic right to negotiate has little to do with balancing the budget and everything to do with a desire to realize a Randian fantasy where employers are no longer confronted with irksome regulations that protect workers.

If the protests continue, Walker may have to make good on his promise to have the National Guard do the work of state employees. I’m sure they’re well-prepared to process Medicaid applications, inspect housing, and teach geometry.

Budget week continues here at The 19th Floor. Governor Dayton released his proposed budget today and the news isn’t good for low-income families and people with disabilities. Approximately 7,200 people would lose subsidized health coverage through the MinnesotaCare program. Providers of home and community-based services, such as personal care attendants and home care nurses, would have their reimbursement rates cut by 4.5% (on top of another 2.5% cut passed in 2009). People with disabilities might have a more difficult time finding and keeping quality caregivers.

It’s important to remember that these cuts are made in conjunction with a significant tax increase on Minnesotans earning $100,000 or more. Republicans in the Legislature are already declaring the budget dead on arrival. But then Republicans must come up with a budget of their own that doesn’t rely on additional revenue. The depth of cuts such a budget will require may scare some legislators into compromising on taxes, which may be Dayton’s ultimate strategy. The problem is that much of the Republican leadership are Tea Party sympathizers who may be in no mood to negotiate. Both sides are claiming they don’t want a government shutdown, but it’s difficult to envision the road to a deal.

I’m far from qualified to make any intelligent comments on events in Egypt. The Egyptian revolution does seem to echo the largely peaceful street protests that led to the downfall of the Eastern European regimes in the late 1980s. I recently read (can’t remember exactly where) that the number of authoritarian regimes around the world has declined dramatically over the past few decades, so let’s hope that this is a continuation of that trend.

The Atlantic‘s new photography blog, In Focus, has some excellent pictures of the demonstrations.

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that I’m a Jeopardy! geek. My brother and I dutifully watched it every day after school when we were kids and I still try to catch it when I have the chance. When I heard that the show is conducting its annual contestant search, I promptly signed up for the on-line test. I’m not sure how well I’ll do. The test has 50 questions and 15 seconds are allotted to answer each question, which could be a challenge given my sluggish typing speed. But as long as the answers aren’t multi-word affairs like “The Gulf of Tonkin”, I might be okay.

The test begins in a little over an hour, so I’d better start warming up my neck muscles.