Author: Marc Stier

The movement for health Care reform is moving forward now. And it has to because defeating the insurance companies is going to take a massive effort. . President-elect Obama has a mandate for reform having made the issue central to his campaign. Obama spent over $100 million in health care television advertising and, in October, 86 percent of his total ad budget was spent on advertisements that mentioned the issue. And in case anyone was wondering whether the financial and economic crises are going to delay health care reform, the answer is “no.” As President-elect Obama said time and time again, reforming health care is critical to fixing our economy. That’s why the Obama team and Health Care For America Now is moving forward to build our movement now. President-elect Obama is asking people to hold house parties to discuss health care reform in the next two weeks. I’m holding… Continue reading

Members of City Council were quick to point out last Wednesday that Mayor Nutter has the power to cut the city budget without their approval. That is true. But what they didn’t point out is that Council can mandate that the city provide certain services. And that decision constrains the Mayor’s budget authority. A few years ago Mayor Street announced that the city could not afford to pick up trash from condos and would stop doing so. He claimed that under his budget authority he could cut back this service. City Council passed an ordinance requiring the city to pick up trash at Condos. Here my memory gets a little hazy. But I believe the Mayor said he would ignore it, Council sued, and won. Trash pickup at condos continues to this day. So if Council wants to mandate that the Free Library have branches at, say 54 particular locations… Continue reading