Category: Public Policy

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Why Women Don’t Report Rape

  By Criminal Justice, Feminism, Love and Sex, Sexual and gender equality

Defending Cosby Many people have long loved Bill Cosby, for his abilities as an entertainer, his attractive persona or, in some cases, his penchant for blaming young black people for their difficulties. And many—although fewer each week—of these people have been so deeply troubled by the multiple accusations of sexual violence against Cosby that they have rushed to his defense. Their responses to the accusations have echoed two themes that are quite common when women accuse men of rape. First, many of the accusers have themselves been accused of lying, of making up stories about Cosby. The motives attributed to these women are varied—some have been said to be gold diggers who either hope for an out of court financial settlement of the kind Cosby gave to Andrea Constand or who hope to parlay their accusation into a magazine or book deal. (The statute of limitations for both criminal and… Continue reading

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Beyond Cameras and Training — Here are 5 More Ways to Improve Police Oversight

  By Criminal Justice

First published in NewsWorks December 8, 2014 Even if I were not a political scientist who understood both the importance of what police officers do every day and the dangers they face in their job, I would have a very personal reason for appreciating their work. Years ago, police officers put their bodies on the line to protect my father, when he was a justice of the peace in upstate New York. So like most Americans, I’m not inclined to criticize police officers who use force to protect themselves and others. At the same time, the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Eric Garner remind us that sometimes police officers use deadly force in questionable circumstances. And there is dramatic statistical evidence that institutional racism plays a role in who is killed by the police — black men die at disproportionate rates. But very rarely are police officers held… Continue reading

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Four Reasons Why Fans of Good Government Should Oppose PGW Sale

  By Energy, Legislative testimony, Philadelphia, Published Op-Eds

Originally published in Newsworks, November, 2014. Also published in PhillyLabor.Com and presented as testimony of Philadelphia City Council o November 14, 2014. A Those who support the principles of good government are up in arms because Philadelphia City Council decided not to hold hearings or vote on Mayor Nutter’s proposal to sell Philadelphia Gas Works. They have a point: We do need a broad discussion of the future of PGW in the city. Council President Darrell Clarke has called those hearings for this week. They give us an opportunity to evaluate the mayor’s proposal from the perspective of those same principles of good government. Seen in that light, rather than being a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to fix our long-term pension funding problem, the sale of PGW violates most of the principles of good government. Transparency One central principle, transparency, requires that, before a mayor or council acts on a proposal, we… Continue reading

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Allyson Schwartz and the Abortion Issue

  By Pennsylvania, Politics, Women and Health Care

I keep hearing from intelligent people who know something about politics that Allyson Schwartz can’t win statewide because she directed a women’s health center—the Elizabeth Blackwell Center—that along with providing a wide range of health services, also provided abortions. (BTW, my wife’s first job was working at the Blackwell Center. Yes, we go back with Allyson a long way.) Now, do I need to add that every one of those intelligent analysts are men? (And that a few of them appear to be working for other potential candidates for Governor who presumably support abortion but are raising questions about Allyson’s support of it?) The DGA poll that showed Allyson beating Corbett in every part of the state really pushed on that issue and it had no effect on the polls. Why not? Why are the (male) analysts wrong? The reason is that both the state and our nation as a… Continue reading

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The Progressive Moment

  By Politics, Progressive Politics, Public Policy

This is a progressive moment, when we have an opportunity to once again reinvent the government to meet our goals. We have to recognize our opportunities, and also recognize that our task is not to mimic the right and talk only to ourselves but capture the imagination of the public as a whole. We have to articulate new innovative public policies that articulate the progressive ideals that Americans broadly share. Continue reading

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Take the Money for Medicaid

  By Health Care, Pennsylvania, Public Policy

Originally published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, February 11, 2013 By Valerie Arkoosh and Marc Stier Imagine a new federal program guaranteed to provide Pennsylvania with $43.3 billion between 2013 and 2022 for repairs to roads and bridges. Imagine that the program is paid for entirely by the federal government for the first three years. After that, Pennsylvania will have to put in $4 billion. Imagine that despite the expenditure, Pennsylvania saves a greater amount because the new federal funding would replace almost $4 billion in state funding. And imagine that the new funding would create tens of thousands of jobs in the state and generate millions of dollars in state and local tax revenue. Can anyone imagine Gov. Corbett turning down this deal? Of course not. Yet in his budget address Tuesday, Corbett did just that, failing to embrace $43.3 billion from the federal government over 10 years to expand… Continue reading

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Lose Our Newspapers and We Lose Our City

  By Civic virtue, Media Justice, Politics

Originally published by Newsworks, January 31, 2013 It appears that Congressman Bob Brady has followed up on his promise to do “everything we can” to save the 2013 Manayunk Bike Race. I’m glad Brady has come through again. The Bike Race plays an important part in the life of the Northwest where I live. Losing it would hurt businesses here — and our civic spirit. But while a great deal of heated effort has gone into saving the bike race, the city and region may yet face a devastating blow: the loss of our two daily newspapers. The new owners of the Inquirer and Daily News, Interstate General Media (IGM), have threatened to “liquidate” the newspapers if the Newspaper Guild, which represents reporters, and nine other unions, doesn’t agree to substantial concessions. And not only are our leading politicians not raising a stink about that, outside of the City Paper… Continue reading

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Single Payer Advocates Can’t Make Up Their Minds About the Problem With the ACA

  By Health Care

Ever since the Affordable Care Act was passed, the left wing critics of it—especially the single payer advocates—have said, wrongly, that it was passed at the behest of the insurance companies and that subsidies in the exchanges are a handout to them. This was never true for few reasons, not least because the insurance companies spend at least a hundred and forty million or so opposing the ACA. Now, to my great surprise, one of the leaders of the single payer movement in PA, Chuck Pennacchio, has posted an article on Facebook in which he seems to entirely reverse direction without noticing it. Continue reading

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David Brooks Gets It Wrong About Education and Health Care

  By Education, Health Care, Taxation

David Books outdid himself today in writing post about education and health care that is completely misleading about improvements in both in the last fifty years and about the limits of productivity increases in both areas. It takes more than a FB status update to explain why. Read this blog post for details. The short story though, is that if you really think there haven’t been any improvements in either education or medical care in this country since 1960, you don’t deserve to have your opinions appear on the op-ed page of The New York Times. And if you think that huge productivity increases in labor intensive fields are possible, then maybe you should explain why NY Times columnists do only two columns a week instead of the three they did in the 1960s. Continue reading