Most days, there’s a fine line between politics and hypocrisy.
But two events this week really tested the bounds.
First came Gov. M. Jodi Rell handing governor-elect Dan Malloy a state budget with a $3-billion-plus gash in it and then offering advice on how to stop the bleeding.
It’s pretty silly on the face of it: If you know the answer, why do we still have a problem?
But when the advice is “get tough with the unions and cut social service programs,” it’s just ludicrous.
Rell, whose party doesn’t count on state employees or the state’s poor for many votes, was well positioned politically to play hardball over the past few years. But she didn’t, pointing to the Democratic majority in the legislature who might have resisted.
Yes, those were and still are among the few cogent strategies for lifting Connecticut out of this budget nightmare.
But passing the buck to Malloy, whose very election turned on union get-out-the-vote efforts, is the height of political gamesmanship, sort of a final middle-digit salute to the process that Rell clearly never enjoyed.
The hue and cry coming from Vernon is another matter.
Seems Rockville General Hospital had the audacity to make a business decision to close its maternity ward, invoking a new state law that allows hospitals to make such decisions without asking the state’s permission.
The reasoning by Eastern Connecticut Health Network (ECHN), Rockville’s parent, makes sense: Business is down; it’s an expensive specialty; the main doctor handling most of the deliveries is exiting. There likely was money to be saved by shifting the practice 10 miles down the road to ECHN’s Manchester Memorial Hospital.
But everyone, from the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women to the area’s legislators, seems convinced somebody pulled a fast one here. Now legislators, confronted by unhappy constituents, are fighting a rear guard action and pointing the finger at a backroom compromise pressed by Gov. Rell.
It’s likely there’s a shred of truth in there someplace but what’s the excuse for legislators not knowing what they’re voting on? What’s the excuse for not figuring it out for six months, even though there’s evidence the issue was raised in at least one legislative election campaign?
The whole tempest apparently got started this month when the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women questioned whether a hearing should have been held and discovered one was no longer required.
So who was not paying attention when Rockville General voted to close the ward in September and informed the state of its intent in a letter Oct. 1?
Now there’s a chorus of support for rethinking the policy because of “unintended consequences” like the closing of this maternity ward.
Get a grip. Better yet, get a backbone.
As reporter Greg Bordonaro has explained in a number of recent stories, hospitals are hemorrhaging red ink. The last thing they need is a state oversight agency telling them what services they must provide.
If there is a real and economically viable need to be filled in Vernon, somebody will open a maternity hospital. If not, don’t force Rockville to stay in an unprofitable business. Consolidating service at a sister hospital 10 miles down the road seems a no-brainer. More importantly, it seems like exactly the consequence those who advanced this change envisioned. And it would be honorable for those folks to step forward and say just that.
Revisionist history is a bad business. Connecticut would be a better place if our leaders actually led rather than checked the wind.
Our thoughts are with both Malloy and ECHN. You’ve been handed some broken eggs. Go forth and make a couple of delicious omelettes.
