Health care for kids, grandparents on Medicaid is not a “runaway entitlement” or “parasitic disease”

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May 20, 2013 at 11:10 amCategory:Uncategorized

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Phil BergerNC Senate Leader Phil Berger yesterday called our health program for low-income people, Medicaid, ”a runaway federal entitlement program that is diverting funds away from priorities like education, transportation and our judicial system.”  NC’s far right John Locke Foundation calls Medicaid paying for health care “a parasitic disease to taxpayers and beneficiaries.”

With all the hyperbole, it’s worth noting who the actual low-income people are on NC’s Medicaid program the right wing hates so much:

One Million Children:  960,827 of the people on NC Medicaid are low-income children ages 0-18.

Half a Million Aged and/or Seriously Disabled:  491,619 of the people on NC Medicaid are either over 65 and poor or have a very serious disability and are poor, or both.

Parents and pregnant women:  The smallest and last group of people on NC Medicaid, 360,852 of the total, are extremely poor parents of the poor kids already covered and pregnant women.

We don’t cover adults ages 18-64 on our Medicaid program no matter how poor they are, unless they have a very serious disability.

So these are the parasites, the kids and moms and grandparents who are the cause of this “runaway entitlement.” A million kids in our state who have the gall to think they should be able to see the doctor if they are sick. The aged and disabled who, by the way, reach out their aging hands to demand the vast majority – 63% of Medicaid spending in NC - just because they need so many health services. The million children on Medicaid are cheap in comparison, “only” asking for 24% of the spending.

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Last call for tomorrow’s Crucial Conversation lunch with Judge James Wynn

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May 20, 2013 at 8:31 amCategory:Uncategorized

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Judge WynnA few seats remain for tomorrrow’s luncheon: Why courts matter (and why North Carolinians should be paying a lot more attention to them): Featuring the Honorable James A. Wynn, Jr., Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

Please join us as one of North Carolina’s most distinguished jurists shares his thoughts on this and other related questions.

When: Tuesday May 21, 2013 at 12 noon – (Box lunches will be available at 11:45 a.m.)

Where: Center for Community Leadership Training Room at the Junior League of Raleigh Building, 711 Hillsborough St. at the corner of Hillsborough and St. Mary’s Streets).

Cost: $10 – includes a box lunch (lunches will be available at 11:45).
Space is limited – pre-registration required.

Click here to register.

Questions?? Contact Rob Schofield at 919-861-2065 or rob@ncpolicywatch.com.

Statement on Senate Budget Release

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May 19, 2013 at 10:52 pmCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center

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The Senate budget fails to fully invest recovering revenues into the foundations of economic growth—our schools, courts, parks and public health systems.  Instead, the Senate will immediately reduce available revenues by $217 million ($770 million total over the next two years) through an ill-advised series of tax cuts that primarily benefit the richest North Carolinians and profitable corporations.  These tax cuts are not reform nor will they deliver the jobs or economic growth that have been promised.

And over time, if the Senate’s flawed tax proposals are adopted, there will be far greater cuts to public investment.  That is because the tax plan fully phased in will reduce revenues by an estimated $1 billion or more, or the equivalent of the annual community college system budget, by 2016.  Since that won’t be accounted for in the current biennial budget, it is incumbent on us all to ask where the Senate will find the cuts in the future before the tax plan is adopted and the budget too.

Why April’s unemployment report is worse than it looks

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May 18, 2013 at 9:00 amCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center

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Yesterday’s announcement that North Carolina’s unemployment rate had dropped to 8.9 percent last month was met with considerable acclamation in a number of media reports today. Unfortunately, much of this positive commentary was misplaced—despite demonstrating some superficial improvement, the new jobs report is far worse than it first looks.

In fact, the dip in the state’s unemployment rate is due almost entirely to a contracting workforce, rather than genuine new job creation. Specifically, almost 20,000 workers dropped out of the labor force the pool of prime age workers who either have a job or want one—last month, including 15,000 jobless workers who were unable to find employment and gave up searching.

Given that the labor force contracted by 20,000 and the total number of employed workers also dropped by 4,000 at the same time, it appears that the 14,000 drop in the number of unemployed workers is largely the result of jobless workers becoming discouraged—giving up on looking for work and dropping out of the labor force altogether.

As a result of these changes, the labor force—is now at the lowest level since July 2012, erasing almost 9 months worth of gains. Even more troubling, the total number of employed people in North Carolina also dropped to the lowest levels since October 2012, suggesting that North Carolina’s economy is continuing to struggle in generating long-term sustainable job creation.

In other words, unemployed workers moved out of the labor force altogether, rather than moving into new jobs.

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Preliminary Analysis of House Tax Plan

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May 17, 2013 at 4:08 pmCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center

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In response to yesterday’s release by the House of their plan to cut taxes, we noted that the plan represented a cut for the richest taxpayers and that the shift to an expanded sales tax on goods and services would hit middle and low income families hardest.

With more details on the plan available, we are able to provide a clearer estimate of the impact of the House tax shift plan on taxpayers.  The results show that the combined effect of increasing reliance on the sales tax while cutting income taxes will mean 80 percent of the taxpayers will carry an increased tax load compared to the state’s current system.  Moreover, 35 percent of the income tax cuts go to taxpayers earning on average $940,000.

It is clear that the richest taxpayers benefit under this plan while the low- and middle-income taxpayers will experience a greater tax load.   In particular, older North Carolinians with income below  $19,500 or those with medical expenses, middle class households with dependents older than 16, and heads of households with no children will be among the hardest hit.

The House tax plan is a tax shift not tax reform.