Category: US

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The Republicans Of My Youth Didn’t Encourage Vice

  By Politics, US

Marc Stier | 06/30/2017 Blog Note: This is the second of two pieces on the Republicans of my youth.. Part II: Encouraging Vice The Republicans of my youth were not only men of fiscal rectitude, they were men of moral rectitude. I can’t say what they did in private. I’m sure some of them drank from time to time and some drank too much. They probably also gambled from time to time either on a trip to Las Vegas or at the local trotter track, or maybe with a local bookie. But in public they frowned on these vices. They believed that people had a right to make their own choices, but they believed that government had a responsibility to direct people away from behavior that could be dangerous to themselves or others.   And they certainly didn’t think the government should be encouraging drinking or gambling. When the lottery… Continue reading

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The Republicans of My Youth Didn’t Borrow to Balance Budgets

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Politics, US

First of two pieces of why I miss the Republicans of my youth.  There are times when I miss the old-fashioned Republicans of my youth, in the small-town America in which I grew up, about 40 miles over the Pennsylvania border in rural New York. Those mostly Protestant Republicans were the bankers, the insurance agents, the ministers, as well as many of the doctors and lawyers. They were a little stiff and formal in their suits and ties, horn-rimmed glasses, grey suits and deep voices—and the hats they all wore in the early 60s. They were men (no women were among them) who carried themselves with an easy dignity and a concern for propriety. Some of them were no doubt louts or adulterers behind closed doors. Some drank too much in private—or sometimes even in public in the evening. Some may have cheated in business or on their taxes. But… Continue reading

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Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Taxation, US

Sam Brownback became governor of Kansas in 2010 just as Tom Corbett became governor of Pennsylvania. Brownback and Corbett, with the help of Republican majorities in their legislatures, embarked on an extremist Wizard of Oz economic agenda of cutting taxes, especially for large businesses, and reducing spending on education and human services. Spending as a share of the state’s economy dropped by 10% in our state. Faced with slow economic growth, stark budget deficits, and citizens who were demanding better public services, a bi-partisan majority in the legislature in Kansas this week stood up for common sense against Wizard of Oz extremism and, over Brownback’s veto, rolled back many of those tax cuts. Is this the year that state legislators in Pennsylvania also embrace common sense and reject extremism?   Continue reading

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It’s Not Just a Number but Lives–the CBO Score of the AHCA

  By Health Care, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Tump, US

Originally published at ThirdandState. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of the Republican health care plan, the ACHA, released today shows the danger of Congressional action in advance of a serious analysis of the impact of legislation. Though it was touted as a new and improved version of the bill that failed in March, the CBO analysis shows the bill that passed the House is no better, and in some ways, far worse. The CBO estimates that, at the end of ten years, 23 million fewer Americans will have health insurance because of the legislation, which is one million less than the estimate of their earlier bill. Most of the lost health insurance created by the AHCA is the result of the slow repeal of the Medicaid expansion and the replacement of the federal entitlement to traditional Medicaid by a per-capita cap on federal funding of the program. These devastating… Continue reading

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ACA Repeal Puts Pennsylvanians Who Work for Large Corporations At Risk

  By ACA, Health Care, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, US

The disastrous implications of the GOP health care bill are becoming ever more apparent, especially for those who get their insurance from large national corporations. Under the bill, even if Pennsylvania does not opt-out of the federal essential benefits regulation, large multi-state employers could choose to deny Pennsylvanians coverage for pre-existing medical conditions or particular conditions, such as pregnancy. Or they could impose annual or lifetime limits on coverage. Over 62% of Pennsylvanians have employer-based coverage, one of the highest rates in the country. Millions of Pennsylvanians get their insurance from large, multi-state corporations that also operate in states that are likely to opt-out of the federal essential benefit rule. So all of these scenarios could happen: Someone from Pittsburgh who works for Wal-Mart gets pregnant and discovers that pregnancy is not covered by Wal-Mart’s health insurance. When she leaves, she is responsible for the entire bill. A pregnancy with… Continue reading

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The New Version of the GOP Health Care Bill Is Even Worse Than the Last One

  By ACA, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania, US

Marc Stier | 04/26/2017 Blog Having failed to enact a plan that would lead 24 million Americans and 1.1 million in PA to lose health insurance, the House Republicans have returned with a new amendment, proposed by Representative Tom MacArthur (R-NJ), which would lead to larger losses.   Though this new proposal is being touted as a compromise between moderate and far-right Republicans, in reality, it is a surrender to the demands of those on the right who have repeatedly rejected the notion that the risks of illness should be shared by all of us, young and old, healthy and sick. The new proposal would place the burden of health care on those who, because of their age or medical condition, find that burden most difficult to bear: It allows states to opt-out of the rule that prohibits insurance companies from charging people with pre-existing medical conditions more. It allows states… Continue reading

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Limitations on the State and Local Tax Deduction Hurt Pennsylvania in Two Ways

  By Federal Taxes, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Resisting Trump, Taxation, US

A major issue in the debate over the Republican tax cut bill is whether the deduction for state and local taxes (the SALT deduction) should be eliminated or reduced. The conference committee bill released on Friday proposes a “compromise” that would allow individuals to deduct up to $10,000 in some combination of state and local property and income or sales taxes. That compromise is deeply problematic for Pennsylvania and many Pennsylvanians, in two different ways. First, substantial numbers of upper middle-class Pennsylvanians will see their taxes go up as a result of the limitation on state and local tax deductions in the conference committee bill. These taxpayers are likely to be concentrated in the suburbs of Philadelphia, where a high percentage of taxpayers take the state and local deduction. Second, the state as a whole will suffer because the limitation on the state and local tax deduction will make it… Continue reading

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New Data, Good News: Health Care

  By Health Care, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania, US

Most news is bad news. And political campaigns are more likely to flag what is wrong with our country than what is right with it. So, it’s not surprising that in the heat of a presidential election, we are more focused on what is wrong with our country than what is right with it. But as the federal government updates its statistics on income, poverty, and health care this week, we can take a moment to appreciate the good news—government at the federal and state level has been increasingly successful at encouraging prosperity. We start today with health care. The Affordable Care Act remains controversial and even those of us who support it recognize that further reforms are needed to guarantee that quality health care remains affordable to everyone. There can be little doubt that the ACA is working in Pennsylvania and beyond. Between those who bought health insurance on… Continue reading

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Campaign Contributions and the Gun Control Issue

  By Political Inequality, Politics, US

Here is a good exercise for those of you who think campaign contributions are the most important barrier to progressive legislation. How many of you would not vote for a candidate who agreed with you about everything else if they were wrong about gun control? How many of you would not vote for a candidate who agreed with you about everything else if they were wrong about abortion? I know there are a lot fewer of you in the second category than you think at first because Bob Casey is our Senator. We can’t get gun control through Congress because there are a lot of voters who would not vote for a candidate, especially in a Republican primary but also in a general election, if they support gun control. What the NRA does is not buy members of Congress but mislead those intense supporters of “gun rights” about the implications… Continue reading

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Bernie Bros and Groupthink

  By 2016 Presidential race, Elections, US

I have been on the Philadelphia for Bernie Sanders 2016 page a bit in the last couple of days and I have to say that what I’m reading there is pretty horrifying. It includes the following claims: 1. Projections about how Bernie is going to win that are utterly crazy. Did you know that the polls are biased against Bernie and that, rather than being down ten points in California he is poised to beat Hillary 60%-40%? 2. Given how well Bernie is going to do in the last primaries, no candidate is going to have a majority of all delegates without super-delegates voters (which is barely conceiveable) which means that the convention is an open one and thus a majority of supervoters will turn to him. 3. That they should turn to him because he is clearly more electable nationally despite the fact that no one has actually raised all… Continue reading