🚀 go-pugleaf

 -=> Quoting Jerry West to All <=-

 JW> uy639@freenet.Victor ia.BC.CA (Casey W. Edge) says:
 >
 >Jerry, if your only argument against the Liberals and Reform is
 >their goal to cut back on spending through social programs like
 >health and education, you will have to apply the same argument
 >to the NDP. They have launched an attack on welfare recipients,
 >not because it's part of their philosophy, but because it's
 >good politics for Mike Harcourt.
 >
 JW> Welfare is a separate issue from health care & education.  Welfare is
 JW> a mess which will take a lot of thinking and innovation to cure, not
 JW> blanket spending.  Health care is on the right track and the NDP is
 JW> pledged to keep it there.  The NEW DIRECTIONS program which I have 
 JW> watched very closely from inside the health care field is moving the
 JW> control of care to the communities and the people.  

 Sure they are, Jerry......ask the board of Bulkley Valley (Smithers)
 hospital and their administrator, who were fired from Victoria. Your
 NDP government is sure doing a fine job of moving decisions into the
 regions, all right!!

 If you've been watching from inside the health care field, Jerry, I can
 only suggest that you've seen the Seaton Commission report bastardized
 and a whole lot of turf protection by health bureaucrats...if you're
 happy with New Directions you must have won your turf battle.

 Talk to local members of Community Health Councils (off the record,
 if you want the truth) who are not also on NDP constituency associations
 or working in the health field, and they'll tell you that they're
 frustrated, feeling used and abused. There are not a lot of happy
 campers as a result of New Directions, except maybe the few Victoria
 bureaucrats who were fearful they might have to move beyond Hope, and
 who now find they're safely entrenched till retirement...

 And how can you say that welfare is a separate issue from health or
 education? The funding of all our government programs are intricately
 inter-related, and none of them are separate from the rest. Every nickel 
 spent in one place, every policy decision made in one area, affects 
 funding or policy in another area.

 I'll leave it to some other bright light to explain how education could
 impact on welfare costs, and how living on welfare might affect one's
 health...




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