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A program in Bucks County that helps drug addicts is in danger of having its funding cut by President Bush’s new proposal. And why is Bucks County Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence having its funding cut specifically? Phantom manicures.
The Recovery Community Services Program is one of 13 Health and Human Services programs totaling $2.8 billion that would be cut or reduced if the budget plan passes. The program is unworthy of continued federal funding because “services provided, such as manicures and other non-traditional therapies, are not based on evidence-based practices for recovery and grantees have not consistently met all performance measures,” according to a statement from the White House.
Manicures help you stay off drugs? Sweet! Er… oh.
Executive director Beverly Haberle said she can’t understand where that information came from; not only are things like manicures not part of the council’s programming, she said, such an expenditure would never have gotten though the oversight process. “No one can back up that claim,” she said. “That would not have been an allowable expense in the first place.”
Turns out a few people were given services (say, a manicure and haircut before a job interview) donated by local businesses and other private funds. This is the first time the White House has gotten anything incorrect during Bush’s stellar years in office.
Cuts would hurt Bucks program [The Intelligencer]
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