The experiment to dehumanize welfare in Indiana is over!
In a stunning, humbling announcement, Governor Mitch Daniels admitted defeat and cut IBM out of that $1.3 billion boondoggle that tried to treat welfare and human services as if you were buying an airline ticket.
Daniels’ welfare privatization scheme, foisted upon him by that master of privatization and Goldsmithism, former FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob, crashed and burned under a fusillade of bipartisan criticism.
The problem began three years ago, when Roob convinced Daniels on a radical overhaul of handling TANF, or welfare, food stamps and Medicaid intake and eligibility screening.
Recipients didn’t need to visit local FSSA offices, Roob reasoned; they could handle their business by phone or the internet.
But the problem with upper class folks like Roob is they believe everyone’s addicted to Blackberry PDA’s and iPhones like they are. They forget many Americans don’t share their technological values.
In Central Indiana, according to Scarborough Research, a non-political consumer research firm, the majority of Central Indiana adults earning less than $15,000 don’t have internet access.
Despite those facts, Roob hooked up his former business partners ACS and IBM into a radical welfare privatization scam.
From the start, the effort was doomed. Hundreds were illegally denied benefits, or cut off from benefits. Scores couldn’t reach a human being at FSSA to get their claims adjudicated. The federal government publicly admonished Roob’s failure to follow eligibility standards.
Then the Roob/Daniels plan couldn’t handle the soaring numbers needing assistance during the Great Recession.
Complaints rose from Democrats, whites, even Republicans who voted for Daniels.
It used to be Indiana’s BMV License Branches epitomized Indiana government at its worst. Today, the horrors of the old BMV have been replicated by FSSA’s insensitivity, callousness and brutishness. Overworked caseworkers treat clients like subhumans. Normal business etiquette isn’t observed.
I give credit to current FSSA Secretary Anne Murphy. She had the guts to see that the Roob plan was failing. She apparently made the recommendation, that Gov. Daniels’ accepted, to cut out a system that clearly wasn’t working.
Gov. Daniels says there’ll be a renewed focus on face-to-face contact between FSSA workers and recipients. What needs to be added is a renewed focus on customer service training and true, empathic customer service.
FSSA should hire a company like Disney to train FSSA employees in customer service. Disney (and others) have sterling reputations for teaching quality customer service to organizations; including government.
Those applying for TANF, food stamps and Medicaid shouldn’t be treated worse than criminals. They should be treated ala the Golden Rule.
I hope reforms of the reforms achieve that.
Finally, for our governor to admit his mistake and cut his losses and embarrassments only fuels speculation that he’s seriously thinking about running for president in 2012.
His botching of welfare privatization was a potential issue Democrats and others would bring up in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and other early primary states.
For a proud Mitch Daniels to admit error is just another sign that he’s seriously examining whether his next political move isn’t retirement, but a run for an executive mansion he really has to live in.
What I’m Hearing in the Streets
Kudos to Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay who stood up and called out radio bully and bigot Rush Limbaugh. Irsay openly said that Limbaugh didn’t deserve to be in the fraternity of NFL owners because of his less than charitable views.
Irsay could’ve made his views known privately to fellow owners, but he chose to speak out publicly. Bigots and know-nothings who think Limbaugh walks on water have dissed Irsay, but he deserves applause from our community for standing up to bigotry!
Back in the winter and spring, the folks running the Capitol Improvement Board (CIB) constantly told the legislature and the people of Indianapolis that they were broke and busted – with deficits running as high as $40 million. Now the CIB is telling us that they’ve cut their budget so much that they don’t need a $9 million loan they got from the state. They want us to believe that unlike earlier this year, the CIB’s fiscal house is in order now.
Frankly, I don’t believe it! And until the CIB really opens up their financial records for a true public audit and scrutiny, neither should our Black community.
Given the reams of scientific evidence that secondhand smoke harms and possibly kills. Despite the proof that strong smoking bans in public places doesn’t hurt restaurant, bar and entertainment businesses, it’s still in doubt whether the City-County Council will approve a stronger public smoking ban this Monday.
It’s inexplicable that there may be some Black City-County Council members who oppose toughening the ordinance.
Our African-American community needs to watch carefully who votes against making our workplaces, public spaces and entertainment venues smoke free. And remember those lawmakers in the 2011 Council elections!
Any Republican running next year against Congressman Andre Carson is fighting an uphill battle. Even more so when they disrespect African-American institutions, including Black media.
Black media were the only ones not informed by Dr. Marvin Scott, who breathlessly informed the city’s white media that he planned to run again for Congress next year. Even though this column has covered all of Scott’s campaigns for Congress, Scott cut Black media out of the loop.
Scott’s potential Republican opponent didn’t. Black media was included in press releases sent out by Carlos May, one of Mayor Greg Ballard’s neighborhood liaisons, who plans to also run next year.
If no other Republicans enter the uphill race, it promises to be a pirmary between a veteran campaigner who’s never won versus a newcomer. The winner faces a steadily improving lawmaker whose earning the respect of his peers in Congress and the voters back home.
See ‘ya next week!
