Sixteen Zones

You create sixteen zones, what do you get

A county more divided and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don’t you call them ’cause they can’t go

They owe their souls to Luddy and Pope

Gulf oil rig explosion reportedly spreading sheen in Gulf of Mexico
Published: Thursday, September 02, 2010, 1:30 PM     Updated: Thursday, September 02, 2010, 1:46 PM

Gov. Bobby Jindal says company reports no oil is leaking
Published: Thursday, September 02, 2010, 1:32 PM     Updated: Thursday, September 02, 2010, 1:37 PM

The governor and legislature decided to cut as much as $625 million from the program. Slashing public programs is nothing new. But what is interesting is how the state achieved its savings.

Medicaid directed a 6-month process dubbed the Rate Reform Project where advocates, academics, providers and others met and hashed out how the program could be made more efficient. In theory this is an attractive idea, as we know there are ways to save money and improve care.

In the end Wisconsin not only cut costs, it expanded coverage. You can read the entire story at Stateline.

I’m not sure if a similar initiative could succeed in North Carolina. I’m not even sure it succeeded in Wisconsin, but I would be interested in hearing from people who may know. I could see how the process here could get hijacked by anti-government zealots or special interests that want more money to deliver less care.

Nevertheless, it’s an interesting project, and maybe something worth considering.

Wake up folks. Public Policy Polling on the latest generic NC poll numbers: “The Republican lead is coming not because folks who voted Democratic in 2008 are turning against the party, but because so many of them are planning to stay home.”

New issue brief from our friends at the Georgetown Center for Children and Families: How the new state health insurance exchanges will work for children and families.

Check out AZ Gov Jan Brewer’s debate meltdown.

And if you haven’t seen it, check out Chris Fitzsimon’s column yesterday about the “Real Jobs” 527 group and their unsavory NC attacks.

Yesterday, Bill’s show featured a Pope-Civitas summer intern who is part of the group’s dishonest and inaccurate character assassination attempt against new UNC president Tom Ross. According to the intern and – it seems, I fear – Bill, North Carolinians should be aghast that Tom was once the E.D. at the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. According to the intern, all of ZSR’s historic funding for causes like LGBT equality, reproductive freedom and, of course, everyone’s favorite whipping child, ACORN, evidence a radical, leftist bent.

Interestingly, what the intern and Bill failed to mention (aside from the fact that Tom Ross is a caring, committed, straight-shooting, hard-working man – a person of vision and integrity and one of the best leaders our state has produced in recent decades) was that the owner of WPTF, Don Curtis, highlights his own past affiliation with ZSR in his own biography!

Now, I want to say it publicly right here that I know Don Curtis. Don is a good guy with whom we sometimes agree and sometimes disagree. He’s had Chris and I both on his own shows on several occasions. But he sure ain’t no radical leftist. And I know he wouldn’t be trumpeting his own links to ZSR if he thought the group fit such a bill.

So, you have to admit – the folks at WPTF have chutzpah. Not only are they willing to invite uninformed interns on the air to trash great and accomplished people in the service of a right-wing agenda, they’re also willing to trash vitally important organizations with whom the man that signs their checks boasts of his affiliation!

Now that’s pretty gutsy.

The subsidized jobs supported by the TANF Emergency Fund have helped families get work and income and have helped employers maintain and even expand in tight times. That, in turn, has given a needed boost to communities trying to recover from the recession. Moreover, families that are stable, housed, and employed are better able to support the community — economically and otherwise — and are less likely to require local social services.

The current economic recovery is far too fragile to end these programs now. Rather than walk away, Congress should extend the TANF Emergency Fund for one more year so that states can continue subsidized jobs placements in local communities.

Although it’s doubtful that there were enough ’shovel-ready’ projects to make quick use of a major expansion in stimulus funding, cumulative state government shortfalls from fiscal year 2009 through the end of fiscal year 2012 will likely total over $450 billion, even after accounting for federal recovery dollars.  A substantial minority of states chose to close at least part of their budget shortfalls by raising additional revenue, but real cuts to state budgets will probably total over $350 billion through the end of next fiscal year.  The real effect of these cuts, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of public- and private-sector job losses, was to weaken the effect of the $787 billion included in the Recovery Act by almost half.  Expanding the stimulus through aid to states instead of additional projects or tax cuts could have made the stimulus much more effective at saving and creating jobs in a timely fashion.

But, as Larry Summers, Mr Obama’s chief economic adviser, had said: “When markets overshoot, policymakers must overshoot too”. Unfortunately, the administration failed to follow his excellent advice. This has allowed opponents to claim that policy has been ineffective when it has merely been inadequate.

The economic press has been touting Germany’s more robust recovery as evidence that the “fiscal austerity” route would have been a much more effective policy option than major federal stimulus.  Looking at total government expenditures, however, shows that Germany actually increased government spending more than the US since the beginning of the recession: over 7% for Germany versus just over 4% for the US.  The results?  Germany has an unemployment rate of 7.6%; the US unemployment rate is hovering at 9.5%.

While it’s unlikely that this Congress will support a second large-scale stimulus, there is certainly still a strong case for smaller targeted measures, such as extending some fiscal aid to states and long-term unemployment benefits beyond the middle of next year, that will support the economy and help prevent the possibility of a double-dip recession.

Since there is huge slack in the labour market, not the slightest threat of inflation – far more a risk of deflation – and no constraint from bond or foreign exchange markets on further monetary and fiscal stimulus, these are the policies that have to be pursued.

I often tell people that what we call “traditional” marriage in America is really only as old as 1967. This video makes the point in a humorous fashion:

Click here to view the embedded video.

On the specific issue of immigration reform, congressional Democrats have the edge among the Latinos surveyed when it comes to being seen as working for passage. More than 32% credit Democrats for that, compared to 15.5% who said they saw Republicans doing so.

Democrats also were seen by a smaller percentage — 14.3% — as opposing or trying to block immigration reform, compared to 34% who said Republicans were.

But slightly more than 38% of those surveyed said they believe Democrats in Congress are either ignoring or avoiding the issue. And that’s about the same percentage as those who said they believed Republicans are ignoring or stalling on the issue, nearly 36%.

A comprehensive immigration reform bill is fundamental to justice and economic opportunity. It’s sad to see politics being played on an issue that’s keeping families apart. The system is broken, and it’s long past time to create a real path to citizenship.

Jim Horn at Schools Matter is justifiably fired up about the latest move by the Gang of Five on the Wake County Board of Education to dismantle the system’s diversity policy. And he doesn’t mince any words.

Instead of following the advice of the consultant they hired to present a plan for “controlled choice,” the Tea Partiers on the panel have chosen the most divisive and unfair of the four options on the table.  Is anyone surprised?

It does make you wonder. Whatever happened to the apparent willingness to listen to Michael Alves, the creator of the Controlled Choice model?