Modern Day Jim Crow

12 red states have refused Medicaid expansion

2023-11-05T15:34:00.009-08:00

Phil McCausland

Updated March 28, 2021·7 min read

An uninsured patient visited Dr. Gregory McCue’s practice in Cody, Wyoming, this week and explained that she can’t afford insulin to treat her diabetes. McCue fears that the next time she returns to Cody Regional Health, it could be costly and life-threatening.

“That patient,” McCue said, ”will end up in the hospital and it will cost us $5,000 for a two-day stay instead of $200 to $300 a month it would have cost for her insulin. And because you can’t get blood out of a turnip, that’s uncompensated care that gets passed onto the hospital and the state.”

That’s a weekly occurrence for him in Wyoming, he said, because the state hasn’t expanded Medicaid, an option that could provide health care to thousands of working people in the state.

That could soon change, however.

On Wednesday, Republicans who long opposed the measure and Democrats who long supported it in the Wyoming House joined together to pass Medicaid expansion, potentially signaling the beginning of a change nationwide that could bring health care to those within the coverage gap.

Expanding Medicaid is an option available to states since 2014 through the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, yet Wyoming and 11 other states have refused to take up the federal government’s offer. About 2.2 million people, who earn too much for Medicaid and too little for Obamacare subsidies, fall in that coverage gap nationwide, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

In those that have refused to expand Medicaid, Republicans in power have maintained that their ideological over time. Their positions have ignored much evidence that states that have expanded did not take on additional cost burdens and increased coverage saved American lives.

The conversation around Medicaid expansion appears to be undergoing a new and dramatic shift in some of the holdout states, however. Central to that change is the Biden administration’s offer, via its Covid-19 relief bill, of increased federal dollars over two years to states that adopt expansion for the first time. It’s expected

“It’s the stimulus funds that are really the motivation,” said Sen. Chris Rothfuss, the Wyoming Senate minority leader who helped write the bill moving its way through the Legislature. “I think it has really changed some hearts and minds in the Legislature.”

The window is small for the bill to pass in Wyoming. The state Senate has a week to approve it before the session ends, and Republican leadership in the Senate quashed an effort in the chamber earlier this month. The fact it’s a conversation with Republican support is significant, and the aid to the state could be massive.

In Wyoming, Medicaid expansion combined with the boost from the American Rescue Plan means $120 million over the next two years and, according to the state's own estimate, it would provide more than 24,000 people health care coverage. The state has 67,900 uninsured residents, according to data released by the Department of Health and Human Services.

“I voted 'no' multiple times on this same issue,” Wyoming Republican House Speaker Eric Barlow said Wednesday on the floor of the Legislature, “and I’m going to vote 'yes' this time, because I haven’t seen any other solution. Nobody’s brought anything forward, and I’ve looked myself.”

Beyond Wyoming

It’s not just Wyoming where advocates and state leaders have begun to see the ground shift on health care. Many have noted Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s office said she is “open to the discussion” after she and state GOP leaders have long opposed expansion, but there is also fresh movement among some Republicans in North Carolina, Texas and in other states — something many once thought impossible.

On Friday, North Carolina Republican state Sen. Kevin Corbin announced on Facebook that he was working with Sen. Jim Burgin, the chairman of the state's Senate health care committee, "to introduce a bill in the next two weeks that looks at how to expand healthcare coverage for working families in North Carolina." It's one of the first public announcement by North Carolina Senate Republicans that signaled they are working on a form of health care expansion.

Corbin did not respond to a request for comment, but North Carolina Senate Republican leadership said his bill is unrelated to the federal Medicaid expansion incentives and could not be considered traditional Medicaid expansion.

According to two people close to recent negotiations, however, concrete conversations among North Carolina Senate Republicans about Medicaid expansion legislation have progressed further than ever before — just ahead of the April 6 bill filing deadline in the Senate. But the American Rescue Plan incentives have not been the only element to move the needle, they said.

North Carolina Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger's office denied that any such conversations were underway and said Senate leadership had no plans to support traditional Medicaid expansion.

“We have over 400 studies showing why Medicaid expansion is a good thing,” said Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families. “It has not busted the budgets of the states that have done it, it's supported their budgets, it's reduced mortality, it's improved health outcomes, it’s supported hospitals — the evidence is piling up. And so saying 'no' is getting harder and harder.”

Seven Republican House members in Texas, meanwhile, signed their names onto a bill, authored by Rep. Julie Johnson, a Democrat, that would expand Medicaid. The effort could bring billions of dollars to the state that has the highest uninsured rate in the country, according to the Department of Health and Human Services data, and provide health care coverage to as many as 1.5 million Texans.

“This is the first Republican co-sponsored bill we've had since 2013,” said Anne Dunkelberg, who oversees health care policy for the public policy think tank Every Texan. “So it is a very big deal.”

While Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, both conservative Republicans, are unlikely to support any Medicaid expansion bill — which would likely kill the measure — some expect it to set up a political battle within the state Republican party and balloon into a major issue in the 2022 race for the governorship.

PressTV - US, EU austerity cuts hurt health standards: Study

2013-04-30T12:37:00.001-07:00

Health standards have diminished due to controversial austerity measures adopted by the United States and European governments, researchers say.

In a book to be released this week, authors said on Monday that austerity measures have driven up suicide rates, depression and infectious diseases in the United States and Europe over a 10-year period of research during the “Great Recession”.

“The harms we have found include HIV and malaria outbreaks, shortages of essential medicines, lost healthcare access, and an avoidable epidemic of alcohol abuse, depression and suicide,” said David Stuckler, a senior researcher at Oxford University.

Patients also have reduced access to medicines and care, in which 10,000 suicides and up to a million cases of depression have been diagnosed, the study showed.

In Europe, HIV epidemics have spread in the course of cutbacks in services to vulnerable people, particularly with the Greeks experiencing a 200 percent rise in HIV rates since 2011 - in part due to increased drug abuse amid a 50 percent youth unemployment rate.

In the United States, over five million people have lost healthcare access during the latest recession. More than 40 percent of US residents went without health insurance or had coverage that didn't protect them against high medical costs last year.

The authors criticized Western governments for their failed economic and political policies, with politicians failing “to take into account the serious - and in some cases profound - health consequences of economic choices.”

Diminishing health standards amid austerity cuts may have been avoided as “worsening health is not an inevitable consequence of economic recessions - it's a political choice,” said Sanjay Basu, professor and epidemiologist at Stanford University.

PressTV - US, EU austerity cuts hurt health standards: Study

Bloomberg to Launch $12 Million National Gun Control Ad Campaign: ‘It’s Time for Another Voice’ | Video | TheBlaze.com

2013-03-24T10:30:00.001-07:00

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is set to launch a $12 million national ad campaign designed to pressure “swing senators” into voting for stricter gun control laws, the New York Timesreports.

Since the assault weapons ban has, for now, taken a back seat, Bloomberg apparently plans to focus on pushing universal background checks in 13 states during an upcoming Easter Congressional recess.

The New York Times continues:

“You don’t want to lose everything in the interest of getting the perfect,” Mr. Bloomberg said in an interview, acknowledging his disappointment over the apparent unlikelihood of an assault weapons ban, but insisting he is resolved to push the legislation through at a time when its prospects are uncertain.
The mayor’s advertising blitz, which will saturate television screens in states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Arizona, represents by far the biggest escalation of Mr. Bloomberg’s attempts to become a one-man counterweight to the National Rifle Association in the political clash over guns.
“The N.R.A. has just had this field to itself,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “It’s the only one that’s been speaking out. It’s time for another voice.”
After months of wrangling, the current package of Senate legislation would expand background checks for gun buyers, increase penalties for people who buy firearms for those barred from owning them and would give law enforcement new tools to combat illegal gun trafficking, a longtime goal of Mr. Bloomberg’s. [Emphasis added]

''Bloomberg to Launch $12 Million National Gun Control Ad Campaign: ‘It’s Time for Another Voice’ | Video | TheBlaze.com

Chicago Says It Will Close 54 Public Schools - NYTimes.com

2013-03-22T09:56:00.001-07:00

CHICAGO — After weeks of uncertainty, principals at 54 public schools here officially learned from city officials on Thursday that their schools would close, with 11 more to share space with other schools. The closings represent the largest group of campuses to be shut down at one time by a city in recent memory.

Enlarge This Image

M. Spencer Green/Associated Press

The Rev. Brian Henderson spoke out Thursday at a news conference against the closings, which officials say would help close a $1 billion deficit.

Throughout the day, principals, teachers and parents were notified that their schools were on the closing list, their frustration and anger growing. But until late afternoon, neither the mayor’s office nor Chicago Public Schools officials would confirm the numbers.

Just before 5 p.m., the district released details. “For too long children in certain parts of Chicago have been cheated out of the resources they need to succeed because they are in underutilized, under-resourced schools,” said Barbara Byrd-Bennett, chief executive of the Chicago Public Schools, in a statement.

The district said that it would save $560 million over 10 years by reducing investment in the closed buildings and cut annual operating costs by $43 million.

The closings represent about 8 percent of the 681 public schools in Chicago, the third-largest school district in the country. More than 400,000 students are enrolled in public schools, a large majority black or Hispanic and from low-income families.

After an extensive review, the district said that it had taken 276 schools out of consideration for closing. The final decision came just two weeks after a state commission in Pennsylvania announced a decision to close 23 schools in Philadelphia. Districts in Detroit, Newark and Washington have also closed schools in recent years.

In Chicago, where about 100 schools have already been closed since 2001, Ms. Byrd-Bennett has said that the district needs to reduce a $1 billion deficit. “By consolidating these schools, we can focus on safely getting every child into a better performing school close to their home,” she said Thursday.

Chicago Says It Will Close 54 Public Schools - NYTimes.com

Grover Norquist: U.S. Senate Will Soon Vote on Bill to Impose State Taxation of Internet Sales

2013-03-21T12:41:00.001-07:00

Politicians have fantasies. Not Woody Allen "normal" fantasies about handcuffs and Swedish stewardesses.

No. Politicians fantasize about being able to raise taxes on people who cannot vote against them in future elections. Ancient Rome funded itself by looting the provinces. This worked for a while. Well, it worked for Roman citizens anyway.

Here in the good old USA politicians think they have finally found this Holy Grail, this alchemist's secret... how to tax those who cannot defend themselves.

This wonder-tax is the Internet sales tax.

Today cities and state governments can only tax people who work and live in their jurisdictions. They have income taxes. Property taxes. Sales taxes... even "use" taxes. And abusive levels of taxation tend to lead to bad things like losing elections or becoming Detroit. If only New York City and California could figure out a way to tax businesses in other states they could avoid annoying voter blow-back.

Grover Norquist: U.S. Senate Will Soon Vote on Bill to Impose State Taxation of Internet Sales

Bachmann: Repeal Obamacare Before It ‘Literally Kills’ People | TPMDC

2013-03-21T12:04:00.001-07:00

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) marked the third anniversary of health care reform’s passage in the House of Representatives Thursday by warning that the law will soon begin to kill American citizens.

Bachmann, who has kept a low profile since her unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination, came out swinging against President Obama and health care reform in a speech that lasted more than 10 minutes.

“Let’s repeal this failure before it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens,” Bachmann said on the House floor. “Let’s not do that. Let’s love people. Let’s care about people. Let’s repeal it now while we can.”

Three years after its passage and many months after the Supreme Court upheld it, many Republicans continue to call for repealing the health care law. Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) newest budget assumes repeal of the law. A number of Republican governors have refused to implement health insurance exchanges and expand Medicaid under the law. However, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) last week refused to include defunding ‘Obamcare’ as part of legislation to fund the government, saying it would risk “shutting down the government.”

In her speech, Bachmann accused Obama of insisting on a complete government take-over of health care. “What he demanded and insisted upon is that the government have 100 percent control over health care,” Bachmann said. “100 percent control? The American people lose control? What did they get? They get health care — health insurance, I should say — that is more expensive than anything they’ve ever paid for before. And they get less for it. Well what a deal, Mr. President, Mr. Speaker. What a deal.”

John Boehner, Michele Bachmann, Obamacare

PEMA LEVY

Pema Levy is a News Writer at TPM covering the 2012 election. Before coming to TPM, Pema was an assistant editor at The American Prospect where she wrote about politics and the economy.

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Bachmann: Repeal Obamacare Before It ‘Literally Kills’ People | TPMDC

Republican Senators Won’t Say Whether Voting Rights Law Constitutional

2013-03-05T12:13:00.001-08:00

As the Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of a key provision in the Voting Rights Act, many onboth sides of the aisle are speaking out in defense of the law. But just seven years after joining in the Senate’s 98-0 vote to reauthorize the law, two Senate Republicans are refusing to say whether they think the law they voted for passes constitutional muster.

On Tuesday, Talking Points Memo’s Sahil Kapur asked Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Jim Inhofe (R-OK) whether they think the Supreme Court should uphold the Voting Rights Act — which both voted to reauthorize in July 2006. Graham reportedly responded, “Uhh.. [long pause] I haven’t even thought about it.” Inhofe, according to Kapur, responded: “Oh, I don’t know. I’ll let someone else answer that.”

There are many reasons why 48 years after its original passage, the Voting Rights Act is still needed. But the case was perhaps best made by Graham himself in a 2006 press release:

South Carolina has come a long way in the past few decades and we have a lot

Republican Senators Won’t Say Whether Voting Rights Law Constitutional

Missouri Dept. of Revenue Allegedly Compiling Data on Concealed Carry Holders, Forwarding It to Company With Ties to Gov’t | TheBlaze.com

2013-03-05T12:08:00.001-08:00

Missouri Dept. of Revenue Allegedly Compiling Data on Concealed Carry Holders, Forwarding It to Company With Ties to Gov’t | TheBlaze.com

A Southeast Missouri man has sued after being told by a license office that it would make digital copies of documents needed for a permit to carry a concealed weapon. The Missouri Department of Revenue has allegedly been compiling data on Missouri residents seeking concealed carry permits and then forwarding it to a third party with ties to the federal government.

Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder held a press conference on Monday and revealed the lawsuit had been filed to fight the action and prevent any violation of Americans’ privacy.

The lawsuit was filed Monday by Stoddard County prosecuting attorney Russ Oliver on behalf of Missouri resident Eric Griffin. Oliver filed the lawsuit as a private attorney.

“I fully support Mr. Oliver in this important legal action in Stoddard County Circuit Court,” Kindersaid in a press release. “The case has issues of statewide importance implicating serious privacy concerns for law-abiding citizens. These folks have followed the letter of the law and have been approved for concealed carry by the proper authorities. They must not be required to share that information with any third parties or the federal government.”

Hostage to His Caucus, John Boehner Can’t Keep His Message Straight - The Daily Beast

2013-03-05T11:56:00.001-08:00

It’s official. Washington has no idea how to get out of the mess it created with the sequester. That’s the message Speaker John Boehner sent with his Meet the Pressinterview that aired Sunday.

“I don't think anyone quite understands how it gets resolved,” he said with trace of hangdog sadness.

Hostage to His Caucus, John Boehner Can’t Keep His Message Straight - The Daily Beast

The Unintended Consequences of the Voting Rights Act - Businessweek

2013-03-05T08:26:00.001-08:00

At a sensitive and historic moment in racial relations in the U.S., late-night comedian Bill Maher has offered some of the most provocative commentary on the future of civil rights.

I will explain.

On Sunday, March 3, black leaders marking the anniversary of a famous Alabama freedom march passionately decried the challenge to the 1965 Voting Rights Act pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Just four days earlier, the justices heard oral arguments in an attempt by mostly white Shelby County, Ala., to strike down a key portion of the act.

The five politically conservative members of the high court are thought likely to side with the county on the part of the law that requires (mostly Southern) states with a history of racial discrimination to get approval from the U.S. Department of Justice before making changes in election laws.

The Unintended Consequences of the Voting Rights Act - Businessweek

Sec. Kathleen Sebelius: America's Middle Class Promise Starts Early

2013-03-04T11:24:00.001-08:00

spoke forcefully about America's basic bargain that people who work hard and shoulder their responsibilities should be able to climb into a thriving middle class. Restoring that bargain, he said, is the unfinished work of our generation.

But for millions of young children in this country, the first rung on that ladder is missing because they are cut off from the kind of early learning that would set them up for success in school -- with consequences that could last the rest of their lives. Our Administration is committed to closing that costly, unfair opportunity gap through a new plan that will deliver high-quality preschool for every American child, and enhance early learning services for children from birth through age three.

Sec. Kathleen Sebelius: America's Middle Class Promise Starts Early

Former GOP Senator: Voting Rights Act 'Does Not Raise Constitutional Issues' | ThinkProgress

2013-03-04T10:54:00.001-08:00

iser on Mar 4, 2013 at 10:30 am

The Supreme Court’s five conservatives appeared openly hostile to a key provision of the Voting Rights Act last week, with Justice Scalia referring to the law that ended Jim Crow voter disenfranchisement as a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.” Outside of the Supreme Court’s conservative wing and a handful of state elected officials, however, there does not appear to be much of a constituency for striking down this landmark law. Indeed, in an email to MSNBC’s Up w/ Chris Hayes, former Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) took a very different position that the conservative justices: “I do believe this is a legislative matter where the action of the congress should take priority and does not raise constitutional issues that justify judicial action superseding the legislative branch’s role.”

Reauthorization of the act received overwhelming bipartisan support in 2006, with the House voting 390-33 in favor and the Senate voting 98-0. In his now-infamous “racial entitlement” statement, Scalia suggested that this lopsided vote actually makes the law more suspect than if there had been significant opposition, because he thinks this means legislators were to scared to vote against it. In reality, however, there is no evidence that elected officials who oppose voting rights are afraid to take action against the law — six state attorneys general filed a brief in the Supreme Court arguing that the law should be struck down in order to make it easier for their states to enact voter suppression laws. The more likely explanation for the lopsided vote is that few people who don’t sit on the Supreme Court believe the law’s longstanding protections for minority voting rights are a bad idea.

Former GOP Senator: Voting Rights Act 'Does Not Raise Constitutional Issues' | ThinkProgress

Justices poised to query voting rights focus on South - Yahoo! News

2013-02-25T09:10:00.001-08:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When the Supreme Court last scrutinized the 1965 Voting Rights Act in 2009, Justice Anthony Kennedy peered down from the bench and asked why federal rules were tougher for Alabama and Georgia than for Michigan and Ohio.

Chief Justice John Roberts pointedly added that it seemed lawyers defending the rules, which were created to protect black voters, believed that even in modern times "southerners are more likely to discriminate than northerners."

Now four years later, as the landmark law faces another challenge, the skepticism of Roberts and of Kennedy, often the decisive vote on racial dilemmas, is likely to emerge with even greater force.

In the dispute to be heard on Wednesday, the crucial issue is whether Congress may continue to require certain states, mainly in the South, to show that any proposed election-law change would not discriminate against African-American, Latino or other minority voters.

The screening provision known as Section 5 is one of the pillars of the law passed after the notorious "Bloody Sunday" on March 7, 1965, in Selma, Alabama, when state troopers attacked civil rightsmarchers with clubs and tear gas. The act broadly prohibited poll taxes, literacy tests and other rules depriving blacks of the franchise. In the 1960s, such measures existed throughout the nation but were especially common in the South with its legacy of slavery.

The modern relevance of the issues was underscored in the 2012 presidential election campaign when courts nationwide heard civil-rights challenges to newly adopted state voting-districts, voter identification laws, and polling-place limits, for example on hours of early voting. The most restrictive laws ended up being blocked before the November elections.

ustices poised to query voting rights focus on South - Yahoo! News

U.S. spending ax set to fall, but then what? - Yahoo! News

2013-02-25T08:42:00.001-08:00

View Photo

The spending reductions are called "automatic," as if no one can stop them. But the same people who enacted them into law in August 2011 - lawmakers from both parties in Congress and Obama - could have ended them at any time and still can.

But they have never agreed on an alternative way to achieve the savings they all say they desire, with Obama insisting on a mix of spending cuts and tax increases on the wealthiest Americans andRepublicans demanding only cuts in spending.

The risks are high for Republicans and Democrats alike but, at the moment, hard to calculate because the public may not feel the impact of the cuts for weeks or months.

With time running out before the $85 billion "sequestration" is triggered, here are some ways the next few weeks could play out.

PRE-MARCH 1 MANEUVERING

In the days leading up to the March 1 deadline for sequestration, the Senate is likely to make futile attempts to avoid these harsh spending cuts. Two alternatives are likely to be offered, with the expectation that both are too partisan to get enough votes to pass.

Democrats will demand a vote on their plan to kill the across-the-board spending cuts by instead eliminating some agriculture subsidy payments, making minor defense cuts in later years and raising taxes on the richest Americans, a particular non-starter for Republicans.

Senate Republicans have not yet unveiled their proposal. One idea is to keep the cuts but give the Obama administration more flexibility in implementing them. Another Republican suggestion is to cut the federal workforce by 10 percent through attrition as an alternative to sequestration.

A third idea circulating is to stage a vote on a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced U.S. budget, a perennial part of the Republican agenda. Even if it were to pass Congress, which is highly unlikely, it could take years, if ever, for enough states to go along with amending the Constitution.

In the run-up to the March 1 deadline, the Republican-led House of Representatives will mostly sit on the sidelines, arguing that it passed an alternative to sequestration last year, which had no hope of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate.

U.S. spending ax set to fall, but then what? - Yahoo! News

How Mexico Got Back in the Game - NYTimes.com

2013-02-24T15:13:00.001-08:00

IN India, people ask you about China, and, in China, people ask you about India: Which country will become the more dominant economic power in the 21st century? I now have the answer: Mexico.

Impossible, you say? Well, yes, Mexico with only about 110 million people could never rival China or India in total economic clout. But here’s what I’ve learned from this visit to Mexico’s industrial/innovation center in Monterrey. Everything you’ve read about Mexico is true: drug cartels, crime syndicates, government corruption and weak rule of law hobble the nation. But that’s half the story. The reality is that Mexico today is more like a crazy blend of the movies “No Country for Old Men” and “The Social Network.”

Something happened here. It’s as if Mexicans subconsciously decided that their drug-related violence is a condition to be lived with and combated but not something to define them any longer. Mexico has signed 44 free trade agreements — more than any country in the world — which, according to The Financial Times, is more than twice as many as China and four times more than Brazil. Mexico has also greatly increased the number of engineers and skilled laborers graduating from its schools. Put all that together with massive cheap natural gas finds, and rising wage and transportation costs in China, and it is no surprise that Mexico now is taking manufacturing market share back from Asia and attracting more global investment than ever in autos, aerospace and household goods.

“Today, Mexico exports more manufactured products than the rest of Latin America put together,” The Financial Times reported on Sept. 19, 2012. “Chrysler, for example, is usingMexico as a base to supply some of its Fiat 500s to the Chinese market.” What struck me most here in Monterrey, though, is the number of tech start-ups that are emerging from Mexico’s young population — 50 percent of the country is under 29 — thanks to cheap, open source innovation tools and cloud computing.

How Mexico Got Back in the Game - NYTimes.com

Governors Issue Warning on Impact of Cuts - NYTimes.com

2013-02-24T11:17:00.001-08:00

Governors in both parties warned on Sunday of the potentially damaging consequences across the country if President Obama and Congress do not agree on a plan to avoid across-the-board spending cuts that are scheduled to take effect beginning on Friday.

With the prospect of a last-minute agreement in Washington increasingly unlikely, the governors said the scheduled cuts would have a grave impact in a wide range of areas, including the military, Border Patrol and the overall economy.

“The effects will be significant, and people will feel them,” Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado said on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.”

“There’s been so much uncertainty,” said Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona, who also appeared on the program. “It’s really going to hurt our economy.”

On Friday, $85 billion in cuts will automatically begin taking effect, with many domestic programs facing reductions of as much as 9 percent and military programs being reduced by 13 percent over the rest of the federal fiscal year.

Governors Issue Warning on Impact of Cuts - NYTimes.com

Latest Simpson-Bowles health plan stirs worry but lacks detail - Yahoo! News

2013-02-24T11:09:00.001-08:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new bipartisan deficit-reduction plan to slash a massive $600 billion from U.S. healthcare spending over two decades has policy experts scratching their heads over how such an ambitious target can be reached.

Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson have yet to declare what they would do to wring savings from Medicare, Medicaid and other programs, according to analysts who provide the two deficit hawks with their facts and figures.

Those ideas will be laid out in a detailed plan due to be issued at some point over the coming weeks.

But policy experts say the latest Simpson-Bowles plan may call for politically unpalatable steps, such as an increase in the Medicare eligibility age and a phasing out of the tax protection for employer-sponsored health insurance plans.

The $600 billion savings target is one-quarter of a $2.4 trillion deficit reduction plan that Simpson and Bowles released on Tuesday, as pressure mounted on Congress and the White House to find a way to avoid a package of automatic cuts known as the "sequester," due to take effect on March 1.

The plan also includes $600 billion in revenue from tax reform, $1.2 trillion from cuts in defense and non-defense spending and a shift to a slower inflation gauge for federal programs including Social Security.

"It might help Congress do something right for a change. Slim hope, but it's all we have," said Joseph Antos of the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

The approach to winnowing back the $2.8 trillion U.S. healthcare system appears at some level to split the difference between Democrats and Republicans. The spending reduction target is closer to larger Republican demands than to the $400 billion in savings offered by President Barack Obama.

However, much of the content appears to reflect Obama's priorities, from reining in the underlying healthcare cost curve to encouraging new payment structures that reward improvements in quality and efficiency rather than volume of treatments.

For now, experts said the plan provided too few details to know who would be on the hook for the biggest sacrifices.

"They have not made final decisions about the exact numbers or specific policies they will include in the plan they release in the coming weeks," said Ed Lorenzen, executive director of the Moment of Truth Project, a Simpson-Bowles led initiative that released the deficit reduction plan on Tuesday.

Latest Simpson-Bowles health plan stirs worry but lacks detail - Yahoo! News

Justices poised to query voting rights focus on South - Yahoo! News

2013-02-24T09:36:00.001-08:00

Now four years later, as the landmark law faces another challenge, the skepticism of Roberts and of Kennedy, often the decisive vote on racial dilemmas, is likely to emerge with even greater force.

As the 2009 remarks of Kennedy, Roberts and other justices signaled, the conservative Supreme Court majority is skeptical that today's South still needs special oversight. The new case from Shelby County, Ala., is likely to come down to whether Congress documented sufficient evidence in its 2006 renewal of the law to justify treating different locales differently.

The Obama administration is defending the provision, asserting that the South still needs tough supervision. The court's ruling in one of the most closely watched cases this term could affect federal oversight of a swath of states through 2031 as well as the extent of minority participation in elections in crucial jurisdictions.

Nine designated states (and parts of seven others) must obtain federal approval before making any election-law changes, such as for voter-identification rules or in district boundaries. The nine fully covered states are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

Justices poised to query voting rights focus on South - Yahoo! News

A "Sequester" Is Not the Same Thing as a "Substitute for the Sequester"

2013-02-24T09:32:00.001-08:00

Whose idea was the sequester? Bob Woodward wrote an op-ed yesterday that says it came from the White House. Apparently, in return for raising the debt ceiling, Republicans wanted some kind of automatic trigger that would force everyone to negotiate a future reduction in the deficit, and the only thing Obama's budget wonks could come up with was the sequester. So they suggested that, and both parties then overwhelmingly voted for it.

Fine. But then there's this:

The final deal reached between Vice President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in 2011 included an agreement that there would be no tax increasesin the sequester....So when the president asks that a substitute for the sequesterinclude not just spending cuts but also new revenue, he is moving the goal posts. His call for a balanced approach is reasonable, and he makes a strong case that those in the top income brackets could and should pay more. But that was not the deal he made.

This is just damn peculiar. Even phrased the way Woodward did, it's obvious that these aren't the same things. The fact that there were no tax increases in the sequester—i.e., in the mechanism used to goad both sides into a future deal—has nothing to do with what the two sides agreed would be in the substitute for the sequester. The details of the substitute were obviously a subject for future negotiation. For chapter and verse on the fact that both sides knew perfectly well that Democrats would propose tax increases as part of the substitute, seeEzra Klein, Brian Beutler, and Dave Weigel.

I'm perplexed by Woodward these days. He really seems to have some kind of weird jones against the Obama White House. I can't quite figure out where it comes from.

Good Trade Policy: Three 'Thought Experiments'

2013-02-24T09:16:00.001-08:00

The U.S. and 10 other countries are negotiating our next big trade agreement, called Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. It's time to re-examine what works and what doesn't work.

Imagine a thought experiment, where we put environmentalists in each country in charge of negotiating the next trade agreement. Preposterous! I know. Stick with me. This is a thought experiment.

So, in this thought experiment our environmental negotiators would prioritize their interests—CO₂ in the atmosphere, deforestation, endangered species, renewable energy, safe food, clean air and clean water.

As negotiators, each side would "trade" something it has for what it wants. In a trade deal, the other countries want access to our markets. At a TPP meeting last summer, a negotiator from New Zealand made this very clear to me. She was adamant that New Zealand absolutely must have access to U.S. consumers for her country to prosper.

So, in my thought experiment, our environmental negotiators will grant New Zealand and other countries favorable access to our economy, on the condition that they endorse sustainable environmental practices and agree to abide by international standards for fishing, access to fresh water and carbon reduction and whatever other green provisions we can negotiate.

Good Trade Policy: Three 'Thought Experiments'

13 GOP Pennsylvania Senators Introduce New Plan To Rig The Electoral College For Republicans | ThinkProgress

2013-02-24T09:10:00.001-08:00

hiser on Feb 23, 2013 at 10:30 am

Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Domini Pileggi (R)

Earlier this year, Republican National Committee Chair urged Republican lawmakers in states “that have been consistently blue that are fully controlled red” — i.e. blue states with Republican legislatures and governors — to enact a plan rigging the Electoral College so that it would be almost impossible for a Democrat to win the White House. Under these plans, a large chunk of blue state electoral votes would be allocated to the Republican candidate even if the Democratic presidential candidate won the state as a whole. Although some state lawmakers in key blue states such as Wisconsin or Michigan endorsed versions of this plan, the election rigging plans were widely derided as exactly what they are — cheating — and soon, even top Republicans like Rep. Paul Ryan(R-WI) or Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell wanted nothing to do with election rigging. The plans to rig the Electoral College appeared dead.

13 GOP Pennsylvania Senators Introduce New Plan To Rig The Electoral College For Republicans | ThinkProgress

Top House Democrat To Introduce Bill Authorizing Arms To Syrian Rebels | ThinkProgress

2013-02-24T09:03:00.001-08:00

bruster on Feb 24, 2013 at 10:51 am

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY)

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on Sunday that he plans to introduce legislation to allow the Obama administration to transfer weapons to Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Reporting from the region, ABC’s Terry Moran said on the network’s Sunday program “This Week” that the U.S. faces a choice, either arm the rebels or work with Russia, and perhaps Assad himself, on a potential peace deal between the two warring factions. When asked about that choice, Engel said he thinks “it’s time” to allow President Obama to provide the rebels with direct military assistance:

TERRY MORAN: The United States has a choice: arm the rebels, engage even more deeply in what is becoming a chaotic and dangerous war to this region or broker a peace, probably with Russia, give the Syrian people an opportunity to determine their future and at least in the first stages, Bashar Assad is likely to be part of that process.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Congressman Engel is that the choice?
ENGEL: I think it’s the choice and I will be introducing legislation to allow the President to arm the rebels. I think it’s time to do that. I think the Free Syria Army needs help. We know who they are and I think it’s time we make that move.

Watch the clip:

Top House Democrat To Introduce Bill Authorizing Arms To Syrian Rebels | ThinkProgress

Failed States Refuse the Cure | SlowFacts

2013-02-23T08:47:00.001-08:00

What do Detroit, Michigan and Greece have in common? Both are failed governments. Both persist as empty shells because their political special interests continue to be fed by the dying political machine. These dead governments can only fund themselves by massive debt. They feed off of the next generation. Private lenders know these government debts can’t be repaid or will be repaid in inflated currency in the case of Greece. Now, near the end of their political lives, much of their debt is funded by fraudulent self-funding schemes. They have the state pension fund buy state debt so the state has money to pay state pensions. Only a politician could stomach that fraud, and they do.

A few hundred years ago, these failed governments would have been invaded and replaced. Their culture of corruption would have served as another smoldering reminder of failure on the ash heap of history. That was then. Now, in our era of peaceful self governance (sarcasm), our failed governments have found a way to linger and feed their dying political apparatus. Only the well being of their political donors is important to these politicians. That is, after all, the nuts and bolts business of government. It is more important that the political contributions continue than that the citizens prosper. Winning elections is a politician’s bottom line. The business of governance is a side job.

Read here where Detroit failed to limit its debts and must be taken over by the state of Michigan.

Read here where Greek labor unions go on strike to protest government “austerity” programs. (The Greek budget continues to run a massive deficit.)

Detroit and Greece are only the most prominent examples. Add Chicago, Illinois to the list. If we know one thing about public assistance to the poor, we know that basic public health pays enormous dividends. We know it is better to immunize than to treat the ill. We know it is better to provide dental care than to treat the malnutrition that follows loosing your teeth. The problem is that government is really about profiting government, not about helping the public. Chicago can pay the powerful teacher’s lobby so that each teacher is paid almost as much as a dentist, but that means Chicago no longer has money for dental care for the poor. Sooner or later you run out of other people’s money, and the teachers’ union makes larger political donation than the Illinois Dental Association.

I agree there are worse examples of corruption. I chose these examples because they are clear, not because they are severe. Please remember these examples the next time you hear that government is the answer. Government is a toothless tiger with bad breath.

All this came to mind when a headhunter asked me if I’d apply for a job in Southern Illinois. I was able to resist the temptation.. easily.

~_~_

Rob, please give me some feedback.

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Failed States Refuse the Cure | SlowFacts

Harris-Perry: Schools targeted for closure have ‘predominantly minority kids’

2013-01-27T20:59:00.001-08:00

On Melissa Harris-Perry on Sunday, she and a panel of journalists and advocates discussed the closure of underperforming schools in the country.

Harris-Perry said that there were discussions of closing “17 in NYC, 37 in Philadelphia, 15 in Washington, D.C., and possibly as many as 15 or more in Chicago.”

“The catch?” she asked. “The vast majority of them are filled with children who are predominantly minority kids and from low-income families.”

Harris-Perry is referring to the movement to close

On Tuesday, “students, parents, and advocacy representatives from 18 major cities are taking their case to the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C. Their argument: those who decide which schools to close are unfairly targeting poor and mostly African American schools. And that constitutes a civil rights violation.”

Zakiyah Ansari, advocacy director for Alliance for Quality Education, called it an “epidemic.”

The coalition wants a national moratorium on school closings and colocations, to meet with President Obama to discuss the issue, and to develop a solution for a “sustainable success model” that goes “against the grain of everything that’s happening in education reform.”

Harris-Perry said she felt there was a “narrow definition of what constitutes success” in schools, as well as a “narrow understanding of what schools do in a community.”

Harris-Perry: Schools targeted for closure have ‘predominantly minority kids’

Will States Compete for Prosperity or Charity? JANUARY 27, 2013

2013-01-27T20:41:00.000-08:00

How do we help failing states? Efficient states are growing. Heavily regulated states are shrinking as young people leave to find better jobs and a better life. That out-migration is beyond the control of these failed and fading political institutions. Will they learn, or will the courts have to clean up the un-payable obligations these hollow states leave behind? Lenders can’t rely on taxpayers who leave. It is better to restructure these failed states now rather than ignore their problems while they make more un-payable political promises. I want you to appreciate the scope of the problem by comparing two numbers.

Compare the amount of money a company gets to keep with the amount of money the government gets to takes in taxes and fees. I think the relative size of those two numbers explain why there are now so few children in Chicago and New York. Let’s compare the relative size of those numbers and see what they explain. First, let’s look at what companies get to keep.

Profits- I’ve seen companies make an annual after tax profit of 50% of sales. (1) In contrast, grocery stores make only a few percent profit. Five to 10 percent is standard for large industrial firms. Look at an industrial park and remember that all that effort earns ten cents on the dollar each year. Some years it looses money.

Taxes- A company earns money, then pays corporate taxes (plural) on the profits. Shareholders then pay taxes (plural) on the dividends and capital gains. Individuals then pay taxes (again plural) when they finally buy something with the money they earned. Include fees, and governments spend 41 percent of every dollar earned.

STATE CREDIT RATING RELATES TO DEBT AND GROWTH

That means governments take much more than companies get to keep. Government takes five times more in taxes than people and companies earn in profits. Companies disappear when profits disappear. That simple fact explains why companies and individuals leave high tax states. They have to. They really don’t have a choice. Companies move to survive, and working people move with them. Very few working people move to a state because they think it would be a great place to be unemployed.

It wasn’t always true that people would leave their homes for a better life. People used to stay where they were born. Times change, and now it isn’t unusual to cross the country several times in your career. Many political institutions are living in the past and still assume people and businesses are captive. They are wrong as this is a picture of Detroit shows.

DEAD DETROIT CAN’T PAY ITS BILLS

So how do we help these failing states and cities? It is a government problem and one our representatives desperately want to ignore. State and federal legislators have every reason to hide the solution. The ultimate solution is for lenders to stop lending when they know they won’t be repaid. For many cities, with hundreds of thousands of abandoned homes and businesses, there is simply no one left to pay the bills.

Edit- Chicago reports bond downgrade

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Harris-Perry: Schools targeted for closure have ‘predominantly minority kids’

Will States Compete for Prosperity or Charity? JANUARY 27, 2013

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