The GOP’s ‘new math’ on ‘Obamacare’
April 10, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
I happened to catch this AP report in the Arizona Republic Study: Obama's health-care law would raise deficit
[A] leading conservative economist estimates in a study to be released Tuesday that the overhaul will add at least $340 billion to the deficit, not reduce it.
Charles Blahous, who serves as public trustee overseeing Medicare and Social Security finances, also suggested that federal accounting practices have obscured the true fiscal impact of the controversial legislation, the fate of which is now in the hands of the Supreme Court.
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Blahous, in his 52-page analysis released by George Mason University's Mercatus Center, said, "Taken as a whole, the enactment of the (health-care law) has substantially worsened a dire federal fiscal outlook.
The AP disclosed that "Blahous served in the George W. Bush White House from 2001-2009, rising to deputy director of the National Economic Council. He currently is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center."
The Mercatus Center just happens to be one of the billionaire bastard Koch brother's think tanks. Koch-Funded GOP Economist Uses New Math To Find That Health Reform Increases The Deficit | ThinkProgress:
George W. Bush’s Social Security privatization guru Charles Blahous — who now works for the Koch-funded Mercatus Center — is out with a new report alleging that the Affordable Care Act adds $340 billion to the deficit. The new math relies on the old “double counting” meme — an argument advanced by Republicans in Congress in the final days of the health care reform debate alleging that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) appropriated the same revenue for extending the solvency of the Medicare trust fund as it did for paying out benefits.
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What Blahous calls “double counting” is actually the “unified budget process,” an accounting method that considers the spending and revenues of the entire federal budget over a 10 year period and the way Congress keeps track of its dollars. It’s the same math that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) relied on to conclude in 2010 that the law “would produce a net reduction in federal deficits of $143 billion over the 2010–2019 period as result of changes in direct spending and revenues.” Earlier this week, the CBO updated its estimate, reporting that the Affordable Care Act is expected to cost $50 billion less than they anticipated and Medicare actuaries reported that as a result of the savings in the law, the life of Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (HI) Fund is extended to 2024, instead of in 2016.
Santorum surrenders at Gettysburg, path to GOP nomination clear for Romney
April 10, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
I have predicted from the very beginning that Willard "Mittens" Romney will never be the Tea-Publican Party nominee for president in September. For more than a year Tea-Publicans have been in search of the "Not-the-Romney" candidate to fall in love with, and there have been many infatuations and flirtations along the way with possible suitors.
Morevoer, Mittens' negatives are higher than his positives in poll after poll among Tea-Publican voters. As I have said before, for Tea-Publicans this is like being told that they have to go to their prom with their creepy cousin. There is no way that the GOP is going to nominate someone so universally disliked by Tea-Publican voters to be their nominee. That's insane, isn't it?
Well, I am willing to concede that my prediction could possibly be wrong — it's still a long road to Tampa in September, and anything can happen — but the possibility that the GOP will do something so insane as to nominate someone universally disliked by Tea-Publican voters to be their nominee became more of a likelihood today.
The last "Not-the-Romney" candidate standing, Rick "man on dog" Santorum, suspended his campaign today, clearing the path to the GOP nomination for Willard "Mittens" Romney. The lack of any sense of excitement and enthusiasm among Tea-Publicans about this prospect speaks volumes.
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post has the best write-up of Santorum's withdrawal today. A surrender in Gettysburg:
Three weeks ago, Rick Santorum chose this Civil War town to give a defiant speech about his need to stay in the presidential race, linking his struggle against Mitt Romney to “the things that the people of this battlefield just down the road fought for.”
Recalling the blood shed at Gettysburg, he exhorted more than 1,000 supporters: “That’s why we must go out and fight this fight.”
But if Santorum thought he was George Meade rallying the Union forces, he turned out to be leading Pickett’s charge — the disastrous Confederate offensive here at which Gen. George Pickett lost half of his division and the war turned against the South.
Charters spend more on administration, less in the classroom
April 10, 2012
by
by David Safier This study confirms what I have found in my own research. Charters tend to spend more on administration than school districts, leaving less for the classroom. So much for the so-called "efficiency" of charter schools or the "bureaucratic nightmare" of school districts. This study comes out of the Teachers College at Columbia … Read more
The GOP war on women returns
April 10, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The GOP war on women returns today in the Arizona Tea-Publican legislature.
First, the bad news. The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports Bill banning abortions after 20 weeks sent to Brewer – Arizona Capitol Times. It is actually less than 20 weeks, based on how the bill calculates time from the menstruation cycle, making Arizona one of the most restrictive states for a safe, legal abortion.
The House’s vote of 37-22 on Tuesday sends the bill to Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican who has signed previous anti-abortion legislation.
Besides the 20-week ban, the bill’s other requirements include mandating the state establish a web site with images of fetuses at various stages of development for women to view.
The 20-week abortion ban would affect only a tiny percentage of abortions performed in Arizona.
The state would join six other states that have similar bans.
Now the good news, at least for today. It appears bill sponsors cannot convince two Tea-Publicans to switch their votes following the defeat of the "baby Blunt" bill last week that would allow any employer to object to a health insurance plan providing coverage for female contraception based on religious or moral objections.
House Ethics Committee reviewing Rep. Daniel Patterson’s response
April 10, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Rep. Daniel Patterson (Ind.-Tucson) had until this morning to file his response to the House Ethics Committee special investigators’ report. Patterson filed a lengthy response to the special investigators’ report claiming that the report is full of unsubstantiated claims and that rumors have been put forth as statements of fact. The Arizona … Read more
The long and winding road to justice: Andrew Thomas disbarred
April 10, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
It has been a long and winding road to justice, but today an Arizona Supreme Court disciplinary panel disbarred former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, and his former deputy Lisa Aubuchon. The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports Thomas disbarred by disciplinary panel – Arizona Capitol Times:
A disciplinary panel disbarred former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and his former deputy Lisa Aubuchon Tuesday. A third former deputy, Rachel Alexander, was suspended for six months and one day.
None of the sanctioned attorneys were in court when Presiding Disciplinary Judge William O’Neil read the decision of the three-member panel.
The panel followed the recommendations of John Gleason, an independent discipline attorney hired by the State Bar of Arizona.
Gleason had argued during an eight-week hearing and in writing that Thomas and Aubuchon deserved disbarment because they knowingly used their authority to retaliate against political enemies of Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
No Tea-Publican love for Sen. ‘Don’t make me angry’ Frank Antenori
April 10, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: FEC finance reports were due last week. Every candidate in the CD 8 Special Election filed their reports but one — Sen. "Don't make me angry" Frank Antenori. Isn't his campaign slogan "results for a change"? The Arizona Daily Star this morning reported that ol' Frank was full of lame excuses for … Read more
Grand Canyon Institute: Public employees are underpaid, Goldwater Institute is full-o’-crap
April 10, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Grand Canyon Institute is out with a new study titled "Are Arizona Public Employees Over Compensated?" by Jeffrey H. Keefe and Dave Wells. GCI Research Report Public Compensation Apr 2012 (pdf).
The two key findings: First, the data analysis presented indicates that Arizona public employees, both state and local government employees, are not overpaid. Second, GCI takes the Goldwater Institute, upon which our Tea-Publican legislature routinely relies for misinformation, to task for its "fuzzy math." The Goldwater Institute is full-o'-crap (I keep telling you that GI research is always scientifically flawed, it is intended to produce a pre-determined conclusion in suppot of its far-right political agenda).
From the Executive Summary (emphasis mine):
The research in this paper investigates whether Arizona public employees are overpaid at the expense of Arizona taxpayers. The Arizona legislature is considering four bills including one that would ban state and local governmental entities from recognizing public sector unions, prohibit collective bargaining, and meeting and conferring with union representatives. According to the bill’s proponents, taxpayers are unfairly burdened by public workers' contracts negotiated by unions. Senator Rick Murphy, R-Peoria, who introduced Senate Bill 1485 prohibiting meetings with union representatives, declares that it is inappropriate when employees "take on the mantle of a public servant, then group up together and use leverage on the people they claim to serve." He adds, “There needs to be a better balance." His statement suggests that state and local public employees in Arizona are excessively compensated.
Likewise, Governor Jan Brewer’s proposal (also moving through the legislature) to shift significant
numbers of state employees to at will status, while couched in the context of more flexible pay, will reduce the attractiveness of state employment, making market pay considerations increasingly important in hiring and retaining the best employees.
The data analysis presented in Figure 1 indicates that Arizona public employees, both state and local government employees, are not overpaid. Comparisons controlling for education, experience, hours of work, organizational size, gender, race, ethnicity, citizenship, and disability reveal that public employees in both state and local governments earn less than comparable private sector employees. On an annual basis, full-time Arizona state and local employees are under-compensated by 7.8 percent in comparison to otherwise similar private sector workers. When comparisons are made for difference in annual hours worked, full-time Arizona state and local employees are under-compensated by a smaller 6.0 percent.
These results sharply contrast with the analysis presented by the Goldwater Institute in their January 24 2012 policy report, which suggests that public unions caused Arizona state and local government worker compensation to be $560 million above market rate. Their analysis is inaccurate due to poor methodology.
