Author: Marc Stier

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Larry Krasner for DA

  By 2017 DA Race, Elections, Philadelphia, Politics

I generally don’t get involved in electoral politics now. But I’m going to make one exception this year and tell you that I plan to vote for Larry Krasner for DA. And the reason I’m making the exception is that I’m not just a little with him. I feel the same way about him that I did about Helen Gym two years ago and a really special candidate for city council at large in 2007. He is the only candidate I see who can look at the DA’s office with fresh eyes and stop and think about how it can contribute to the well being of the city as opposed to tinkering around the edges of an on-going operation. He’s the only candidate who understands the rot in the PPD and who is willing to do the hard work (and absorb the punishment he will receive for doing it) in… Continue reading

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Facts, Not Hysteria, About the Soda Tax

  By Budget analysis, PA Budget and Policy Center, Philadelphia, Sugary Drink Tax

Originally published by the Philadelphia Business Journal on April 20, 2017. Also at Third and State.  Co-authored by Diana Polson. The reaction of the beverage industry to the Philadelphia soda tax continues to be self-centered, hysterical, and dubious. Before looking at their claims, let’s keep in mind something very important: every tax has some negative consequences for some businesses. And, yes, it is a shame if some business absorbs some costs and a few people lose jobs as a result. But public policy has to be driven by the consequences for all of us. So, the question is not whether an individual business is hurt by the Philadelphia soda tax, but whether the city and its citizens benefit on the whole. We think the answer is clearly yes, not just because of the investment in Pre-K education and community recreation centers made possible by this tax, but because of the… Continue reading

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The House Republican Budget Proposal

  By Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Budget, Politics

The House Republican Budget proposal for 2017-2017 is deeply problematic in six respects. First, the proposal does not close the state’s budget deficit, but leaves a gap of close to $800 million. Most of the revenue ideas presented by the House Republican Caucus to fill that gap are similar to the one-time revenues and fund transfers that have failed to fix our structural deficit in the past. The Republicans do not seem to be considering any proposal to increase recurring revenues by fixing our upside-down tax system. Second, the House Republican budget widens, rather than closes, the state’s investment deficit, especially in education, environmental protection, human services, and community and economic development: Education: It proposes $50 million less for Pre-K education and Head Start than the Governor’s budget, as well as eliminates the $8.5 million safe school initiative. Environmental Protection: It proposes $9 million less than the Governor’s budget for… Continue reading

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Chuck Berry and the Invention of Rock and Roll

  By Music

In the mid-90s, when I was in my forties, a friend of mine, the late political theorist Jean Elshtain, came to deliver a talk at the university at which I was teaching and hung out for a few days at my house. We talked  gossiped, talked about politics and, as we frequently about music. At that time I was well into jazz and didn’t much listen to contemporary pop or what had become of rock music. But Jean was a still a rocker who loved Bruce, whose music I knew, and a bunch of others whose music was new to me. She asked me if I had been into jazz when I was a teenager. I said, “yes, but rock was what really moved me, then.” She seemed a little surprised. “Rock is the music of angry teenagers and I was an angry teenager,” I replied. I was thinking about… Continue reading

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Essential Benefits Are… Essential

  By Health Care, PBPC Blog posts

The ACA repeal effort failed in the House on Thursday. But it will be voted on today. And the bill keeps getting worse and worse — and that one particular way in which it got worse today may ultimately kill it, even if it passes the House today. A recent report by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, points to some of the ways the bill that emerged on Thursday morning deepens cuts to health care: “The updated version makes additional changes to Medicaid that are even more damaging overall, including giving states the options to: convert their Medicaid programs into block grants; impose onerous work requirements on adult beneficiaries who are not elderly, disabled, or pregnant; and freeze enrollment in the ACA’s Medicaid expansion starting in 2020. These provisions would likely add to the millions of people who would have Medicaid coverage under the ACA but would become uninsured under… Continue reading

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Viruses, Health Care, and Communal Provision

  By COVID-19, Health Care, PBPC Blog posts

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. A few years ago, I wrote a piece that explained why health care has to be provided communally. I showed that without extensive communal provision through both direct investment and the subsidy of insurance that pays for medical care, we would have far fewer well-trained doctors, far fewer major medical centers, far less knowledge about and treatment for all but the most common illnesses, and most people with pre-existing conditions—that is pretty much all of us sixty years or older and many of us far younger—would not have affordable insurance for those conditions. We are now seeing one more reason why health care must be provided communally and why everyone must have not only health insurance but protection against the economic ravages of unemployment and underemployment. When we are fighting an infectious disease like COVID-19, one that spreads rapidly and is acutely dangerous, it is absolutely critical… Continue reading

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The Russian Connection? It’s Not a Distraction.

  By Uncategorized

I see a lot of folks saying don’t get distracted by the Trump’s “craziness” and / or the investigations of his connection to Russia when the Republicans in Congress are about to pass a series of horrible pieces of legislation. It’s certainly important to keep fighting against all that legislation, especially, the attacks on the ACA and Medicaid which will lead to to thousands of premature deaths and enormous  suffering if they are successful. But… 1. That the President of the United State might have conspired with a foreign power to take power is not a distraction from more important issue. If Trump did what many suspect, he betrayed the core of political life, our republican form of government. Everything else we care about, including our freedom, the future of the earth, and economic justice depends on protecting that form of government. The mere possibility that Trump conspired with Russia… Continue reading

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Health care must be provided communally

  By Health Care, Published Op-Eds

This piece originally ran in Newsworks on January 26, 2017. You can find the original here.  Every once in a while, when I write something in defense of the Affordable Care Act, or point out, as the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center recent reported, that repealing it will lead 1.1 million Pennsylvanians to lose their insurance and 3,425 to die each year as a result, someone comments, “I pay for my own health insurance. Why should I pay taxes for anyone else’s?” I often ignore those comments for two reasons. First, unless the writer has an individual income over $200,000, or a family income over $250,000, he or she is not paying taxes for the ACA. And, second, if someone doesn’t share the notion that we all have a moral responsibility to guarantee that everyone has access to high-quality, affordable health care, I’m not sure what I can say to change their… Continue reading

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About the DNC

  By Elections, Politics

People who are new to working in US politics often assume, wrongly, that US political parties are, like, some European parties, highly centralized, top-down entities. They are the exact opposite.  First, there is no one national party organization. In addition to the DNC, the House Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (D-trip) and the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee play a role in Senate and House elections.  Second the national Democratic Party is a federation of fifty state parties that are largely independent of the national party. The members of the DNC are elected by those state parties. Those state parties are run by a committee that in most states are elected by the voters. But in a some cases—fewer than in the past—local party organizations influence those elections. In any case, local party organizations are usually independent of the state parties and vary a great deal in type, strength, and efficacy. In… Continue reading

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Is This the Year PA Resolves its Perennial Budget Crisis?

  By Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Budget

Originally published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, December 28, 2016. Many of us who write about budget politics have a keyboard shortcut to enter “Pennsylvanian Budget Crisis” into a document. Year after year, we write in December about the upcoming crisis and again in July (or sometimes far later) about how the crisis has been temporarily averted. It is crisis time again. But perhaps this is the year we can change the script. There are new ways to do something that has eluded us in the past – solve the crisis on a long-term basis without imposing harsher new taxes on working people and the middle class. Before coming to our long-term solution to the crisis, first a word about its dimension and cause. The Independent Fiscal Office has projected that the deficit for the current fiscal year, ending June 30, will be $500 million while the deficit for the next… Continue reading