This week in progressive state blogs focuses attention on the writing and analysis of people scrutinizing political doings on their home turf. Let me know in the comments or Kosmail if you have a favorite state- or city-based blog you think I should be watching.
Inclusion of a diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement or endorsement of its contents.
At Eclectablog of Michigan, LOLGOP writes—Republicans forget that they’re supposed to pretend they want Americans to have health insurance:
In anticipation of the Supreme Court hearing King v. Burwell — the case that could take health insurance from millions based on a garbage legal argument that Congress wanted to deny subsidies to people in states that didn’t build their own exchanges and didn’t tell anyone because conspiracy — Republicans have been pretending that they will have a plan to fix the massive hole they hope suddenly appears in the law. [...]
But it goes without saying that Republicans would love to see millions of Americans robbed of health insurance.
We know this because as millions lost health insurance under George W. Bush, Republicans did nothing. We know this because they’ve denied Medicaid expansion to millions and paid no political cost. And we know this because Republicans have never taken one vote on a plan that would replace the law, despite promising they would for years. [...]
Tuesday’s vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act in the House, the first full repeal vote since May of 2013, was different. For the first time Republicans were voting to take health insurance away from people who had gained it.
Check below the orange gerrymander for more excerpts.
At Ohio Daily, Anastasia Pantsios writes—Oh.My.God. $72.3 BILLION???????:
Taxin' John Kasich just submitted his proposed 2016-2017 budget for Ohio, which has to be passed by June 30. As people who know me or follow this blog may know (but people who get their news from the Cleveland Plain Dealer or the Columbus Dispatch would have no way of guessing), Kasich's endless self-congratulation about his budgetary genius is simply a lie.
His boasts about have done amazing feat of balancing the state budget is, of course, ridiculous. It's required by law and every governor has done it.
But in his last two budgets, this self-proclaimed thrifty money manager increased state spending radically, making his claims laughable. Ted Strickland left him with a budget for 2010-2011 of $50.5 billion, cut from an earlier $56 billion due to the Bush recession which hit Ohio so hard. Kasich's first budget called for restoring spending to $56 billion. But his 2014-2015 asked for a huge increase — to $62 billion.
Think that was extreme? You ain't seen nothing yet. Kasich is now proposing a monstrous, bloated elephant (how appropriate!) of a budget, racking in at $72.3 billion. Ohio has never seen spending on this reckless, bankruptcy-courting level. We should take up a collection to send Kasich to rehab for his spending addiction.
How's he going to pay for it, you ask? Ha! What do you think Taxin' John is going to do? While he's making a big public deal of his proposed 23 % income tax cut and some additional proposed deductions, you're not going to see much in your bank account, unless you are among Ohio's 1 percent.
At
Blue Jersey,
Bill Orr writes—
The Brave New World of Choice:
We are entering a whole new Republican wet dream world about "a measure of choice" and the "balancing" our government should follow regarding choices. Naturally whether women should be able to have a choice over reproductive rights and whether a healthcare worker returning from Africa must be quarantined are choices off the table.
Our governor has already spoken out about the necessity of choice regarding vaccines. Many other choices are well worth pursuing. Whether one must stop at a red light must be re-examined. It slows traffic down and makes one arrive late at important events.
Industrial dumping regulations for pollutants only serve to increase the price of products and reduce profits. Why can't we save money and choose not to pay the costs of seat air-bags? U. S. airlines have a good safety record so let's do away with FAA rules. Who cares about prohibiting lead paint or other potentially unsafe aspects of toys when a parent should have the right to choose what is safe?
It is clear that our governor should rethink these issues and provide the balance needed. Some of you may question the above suggestions. Don't even try it. As the master said so politely to a reporter in London, "Is there something you don't understand about, 'No questions'?"
At
Scrutiny Hooligans,
Tom Sullivan writes—
A zombie faith:
It was kind of stunning, actually, to see the Washington Post’s Michael Gerson invoke “the common good” in a national newspaper, as I mentioned yesterday. Speaking of that sort of thing (like “public trust”) being so gauche and all. Pitting people against each other? Now that’s how you get ahead in politics. At least, for a certain kind of politician.
Long ago, President Lyndon Johnson explained how this conservative schtick works:
If you can convince the lowest white man that he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll even empty his pockets for you. |
The Fox News business model, ladies and gentlemen. They’ve just expanded the palette a little. Regarding pitting people against each other, Michael Hiltzik yesterday looked at how the Republican Congress is dealing with Social Security disability funding—not by solving the problem, but by “intensifying the crisis.” Someone must be punished, and Republicans are pretty sure it’s the Poors, the aged, and the infirm.
At
Show Me Progress of Missouri,
Willy K writes—
Rex Sinquefield-financed gubernatorial candidate goes all Akin:
Rex Sinquefield's pet candidate for governor, Catherine Hanaway, fired off a volley in the GOP war on women Saturday. And PoliticMo's report of the incident tells us lots about how this war is going to be fought:
There are 644 days until Election Day, 2016, but already, Democrats in Missouri are hoping to define a Republican candidate for governor as the next Todd Akin, the former Republican U.S. Senate candidate who earned national infamy for his comments about "legitimate rape."
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What PoliticMO is talking about are Hanaway's remarks at a conservative Educational Policy Conference in St. Louis last Saturday. And no, Democrats aren't "hoping" to pass off innocent bon mots as Akinlike, as PoliticMO implies, since Hanaway's speech could have been given by the Todster himself. She donned the Akin crazy hat all by herself of her own free will and now she gets to wear it without any overt Democratic help - which doesn't mean that we can't laugh ourselves silly at the spectacle.
Hanaway's target: Female sexual liberation which she blames for out of wedlock-births, poverty and a host of problems such as pedophilia and pornography (which she unequivocally defines as a problem). Hanaway, like Todd Akin, condescends to women whose sexuality she implies must be officially controlled for the good of women themselves not to mention society as a whole.
At
The Seminole Democrat,
The Seminole Democrat writes—
Even GOP is calling for Scott investigation, but AG PamBo flatly refuses:
Everyone is starting to pile on Rick Scott regarding "Baileygate". He's a sinking ship and rats want off.
Quick recap: Gov. Rick Scott ousted Gerald Bailey, who was the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He is a 35-year veteran who worked closely with Rick Scott in his first term. But then, as he always does, Rick Scott asked Bailey for a few favors:
Scott's office asked Bailey to falsely claim that a local official was being criminally investigated in connection with an escape from a state prison — an escape Scott's staff didn't want to be blamed for. [...] |
Unlike Rick Scott, Bailey has ethics. He refused.
So he was given an ultimatum: "Retire or resign."
Bailey resigned. That probably would have been the end of it. However, in typical Rick Scott fashion, he took things too far. He took to a podium to express shock (shock I say!) that the popular leader of FDLE resigned "suddenly" and feigned ignorance about why he left so quickly. He even pretended to be upset about it. This was all a little too much for Gerald Bailey.
At
Colorado Pols,
Colorado Pols writes—
Sen. Vicki Marble: Craig, Colorado Has Been “Destroyed”:
As recorded today from the well of the Colorado Senate, here's the always-entertaining Republican Sen. Vicki Marble, stating her reasons for supporting Senate Bill 15-044–a measure to roll back the state's renewable energy standard. SB15-044 passed the GOP-controlled Colorado Senate on a party-line vote today but is expected to swiftly die in the Democratic-controlled House.
Sen. Marble of "ChickenGate" infamy demonstrates once again why it's better if she doesn't, you know, talk.
MARBLE: It wasn't a free market system, um, that said that we were ready for it, and people weren't clamoring for it. It was the government that made a moral decision that wind was cleaner than coal, and destroyed Craig Colorado, and decided to build a whole new community rallying around the fake maypole called a wind turbine.
I would say vote no on Amendment 1 …
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Now first of all, as Mitt Romney discovered when he visited back in 2012, the coalmining city of Craig in northwest Colorado has not been "destroyed." Coal mines in Colorado continue to produce coal for local electricity production and for export. Colorado coal is cleaner than what's found in many other parts of the world, making it a good choice for incrementally reducing pollution even as Colorado is switching over to natural gas production along the Front Range. This means that there will remain demand for Colorado coal into the foreseeable future.
At
Left in Alabama,
countrycat writes—
Judge Moore & GOP Leaders Conspire To Damage State's Industrial Recruitment Efforts:
State Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, indicted House Speaker Mike Hubbard, AG Luther Strange, & other GOP leaders truly need to shut up about marriage equality and stop this stupid talk about defying federal court orders. Once again, their mean-spiritedness is hurting the state's image - which will directly affect their favorite leisure activity: luring wealthy corporations to the state by handing out millions in corporate welfare. At some point, bribery won't take the stink away. After all, just about every state is eager to join the bidding war, but only Alabama has political leaders still willing to stand in the schoolhouse - er - courthouse door to deprive citizens of basic human rights and dignity.
We've seen how this will play out and it always ends badly for Alabama.
Certainly, part of our state's revenue problem is our outdated, regressive taxation system. Another part of the problem is unemployment and under-employment of the state's workforce. Alabama's budget is way too dependent on sales tax revenue that rises and falls with the economic situation. People barely scraping by on minimum wage jobs or who are receiving long-term unemployment benefits don't have a lot of cash to spend. So businesses suffer and lay off workers; tax revenue falls and state services have to be cut back for lack of funds; and the quality of life in the state goes down accordingly. Pretty soon, we're circling the drain, well on our way to looking more like an third world county than a proud member of the United States.
At
Louisiana Voices,
tomaswell writes—
Generous corporate tax incentives bleed revenue from state treasury, provide little other than political bragging rights:
The theory in Baton Rouge is that such tax breaks create jobs which in turn produce taxes for the state coffers through consumer spending and state income taxes, thus making the exemptions and credits a win-win for everyone concerned.
Take the five-year tax credit awarded in 2013 to Lakeview Regional Medical Center in St. Tammany Parish for an upgrade to its hospital facilities, for example. In exchange for the creation of five new jobs with a new five-year payroll of $1 million, Lakeview was awarded $330,000 in Enterprise Zone tax credits. (A tax credit is a dollar for dollar reduction of a tax liability meaning a $1 tax credit reduces one’s taxes by a full dollar.)
Broken down, that comes to $200,000 per year in new payroll, or an average of $40,000 per new employee per year against a tax credit of $66,000 per year.
At Louisiana’s 4 percent tax rate for that income bracket for a family of three, that means the state will rake in $4,000 per year total for all five employees ($800 each).
For a single employee, the state income tax revenue increases to $5,650 for all five employees ($1,130 each), still a far cry from the $66,000 per year in tax credits awarded to the hospital.
At
Mississippi Economic Policy Center Blog,
Jessica Shapley writes—
Much work to be done to help lift Mississippi families out of poverty:
Many families across the state lack the resources necessary to survive in the event that a job loss or medical emergency leaves them without their primary source of income. These families, considered to be "liquid asset poor," go to work each day but struggle make ends meet.
Mississippi’s high liquid asset poverty rate is perhaps unsurprising given emerging patterns from recent data. Among those patterns
Control over day-to-day and month-to-month finances. One reason households struggle to control their day-to-day finances is because even as unemployment rates move downward, wages have actually declined since 2012. In Mississippi, almost one-third of all jobs are low-wage jobs.
Capacity to absorb financial shock. Not having emergency savings means that liquid asset poor families can’t overcome otherwise minor setbacks such as a broken down car. The median net worth of Mississippi households is $35,302, while the median net worth of U.S. households is $70,359.
At
Miscellany Blue of New Hampshire,
William Tucker writes—
Bill to prohibit enforcement of federal firearms laws written by outsider group of ‘nullifier kooks’:
A bill sponsored by state Rep. JR Hoell that would prohibit the state from enforcing federal firearms legislation was written by an outside group that advocates “nullification” of federal laws it considers unconstitutional.
House Bill 685 would prohibit the state, counties, cities and towns, school districts and special districts from enforcing any federal law related to a firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition. Violators would be fined up to $3000 for the first offense and would be guilty of a class A misdemeanor for subsequent offenses.
The proposed legislation is virtually identical to model legislation from ShallNot.org, a project of Tenth Amendment Center (see comparison below). The model legislation, titled “the 2nd Amendment Preservation Act,” is a key component of the group’s State-Level Plan to Nullify Federal Gun Control:
At
Raging Chicken Press of Pennsylvania,
Sean Kitchen writes—
Is Pennsylvania’s 5 Percent Drillers Tax Starting to Fizzle:
During the Democratic Primary, Former State Treasurer Rob McCord proposed a 10 percent drillers tax to fund public education, public higher education and restore funds to the Department of Environmental Protection, and when talking about Tom Wolf’s and Allyson Schwartz’s 5 percent severance tax proposal, McCord explained that “if you start at ten and you have to go down to eight, that’s ok. If you start at five, it’s very hard to climb to eight if you’re a democrat.” Months after McCord explained this logical pearl of wisdom, we’re starting to watch what is going to happen to the five percent drillers tax, and it probably won’t make it to five percent because proposed legislation starts out at or below Governor Wolf’s campaign benchmark. [...]
Moving ahead to today’s press conference, State Representative Gene DiGirolamo was joined by Republican Thomas Murt and Democrats Pam DeLissio and Harry Readshaw to talk about their very lowly 3.2 percent drillers tax they have proposed. At the press conference, DiGirolamo called his legislation “middle of road, if not below the middle of the road,” and even though he did not run this by House Leadership, he believes that this bill would have the support of at least 125 House members. [...]
By supporting this bill, other low ball bills that includes the impact fee or bills that start at the figure that Tom Wolf advocated for during the campaign, Democrats are starting the negotiations from a losing standpoint before the negotiations have begun. Because of that, Governor Wolf’s five percent tax is not going to happen and the state is going to lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars of potential revenue that could roll back Governor Corbett’s education cuts or cut the $2 billion deficit that Corbett left office with.