Delaware County citizens call for Tom Corbett to resign

Residents say that Corbett has compromised the integrity of the Office of Attorney General by politicizing the office Media, Pennsylvania—Outsidethe Delaware County Court House today, local health care activists called for Attorney General Tom Corbett to drop his participation in a lawsuit against the health care reform law recently enacted in Washington and then resign from office. Members of Health Care For America Now, the Pennsylvania Health Access Network, and Pennsylvania Communities Organizing for Change claimed that Corbett’s lawsuit against health care reform, and other actions he had taken, had so politicized the Attorney General’s office that the integrity of Mr. Corbett and his entire staff were now in question. “At a time when Pennsylvanians, including small businesses, people with serious pre-existing medical conditions, and young people under 26 are seeing immediate benefits from the health care reform legislation, it is deeply troubling that our Attorney General is using taxpayer funds… Continue reading

Delco and Montco citizens tell Tom Corbett to resign

Residents say that Corbett has compromised the integrity of the Office of Attorney General by politicizing the office Media, Pennsylvania—Outside the Delaware County and Montgomery County Court Houses today, local health care activists called for Attorney General Tom Corbett to drop his participation in a lawsuit against the health care reform law recently enacted in Washington and then resign from office. Members of Health Care For America Now, the Pennsylvania Health Access Network, and Pennsylvania Communities Organizing for Change claimed that Corbett’s lawsuit against health care reform, and other actions he had taken, had so politicized the Attorney General’s office that the integrity of Mr. Corbett and his entire staff were now in question. “At a time when Pennsylvanians, including small businesses, people with serious pre-existing medical conditions, and young people under 26 are seeing immediate benefits from the health care reform legislation, it is deeply troubling that our Attorney… Continue reading

Dreaming the city of our lives; finding the city of our dreams

Here is a problem for the 21st century: how do you live a life that is changing and flexible and that requires constantly reinventing oneself when there are things in life—family, bodies of knowledge and work, the soul of a person you love—that require long term commitments. Maybe forging a soul of any depth, or getting to know one, is like getting to know a city with broad avenues, narrow alleys, and everything in between; one that holds surprises around almost every corner. You can get to know it only if you can travel back and forth in it from every direction. Not systematically, not with a plan in mind but serendipitously. Eventually, you learn how to make your way through it almost instinctively, knowing at each corner how to get to where else you want to go. That’s Wittgenstein’s understanding of learning your way around a city–and of doing… Continue reading

Charlton Heston, Touch of Evil and "the method"

I’ve never been a fan of Charlton Heston. He was never a very good actor. And his macho gun-toting politics represents all that is worst inAmerica. But I do have a funny story about him. The Welles film, Touch of Evil, is one of my favorite films. I taught it for a number of years in my Politics and Film class at UNC Charlotte. Heston gave one of his best performances as Miguel “Mike” Sanchez, the presumed hero of the film. Sanchez, it turns, is a far more morally ambiguous character than one recognizes at first. Indeed, the one of the charms of the film is that one’ judgments of both Heston’s character and and the one played by Welles himself as well as one’s view of ethnic conflict itself are called into question in the film, One year, one of my best and favorite students in the class was… Continue reading

Health Care Reform and Job Creation in Pennsylvania, 2010-2019

Health Care Reform and Job Creation in Pennsylvania, 2010-2019  Marc Stier, Ph.D.[1] President Barack Obama has said that “health care reform is our jobs program.”[2]  But while economists largely agree with the President that health care reform will, in a number of different ways, lead to job growth, there have been only a few attempts to quantify the job creating benefits of health care reform. This paper draws on that research to quantify the number of jobs likely to be created in Pennsylvania in the ten years between 2010 and 2019. Our conclusion is that over this period, between 150,000 and 225,000 new jobs will be added to the Pennsylvania economy as a result of health care reform. Health care accounts for one-seventh of the national economy and health care reform will make dramatic changes in our health care system. It would be incredible if these changes did not have… Continue reading