COVID-19 & Healthcare

The “Managerial Republican” is mostly a fantasy

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I will say that Ronald Brownstein’s recent column in the National Journal is a bit better than what we’ve been getting lately from the hordes of DC pundits attempting to analyze Arizona. In particular, I liked this bit at the end:

After Arizona’s tax revenues plummeted with the housing market collapse, Brewer backed a temporary 1-cent sales-tax increase to limit spending cuts. But even so, since 2008, the GOP majority’s commitment to squeezing government has produced the nation’s third-largest reduction in per-student K-12 spending; the largest percentage reduction in per-student support for public higher education; and the biggest public tuition hikes. No other choices capture as starkly the contrasting priorities of a ruling GOP coalition that still receives almost all of its votes from whites (many older, rural, and exurban) and a minority population that now represents the clear majority of students in Arizona’s public schools.

It’s refreshing to see a conservative admit outright that Arizona Republicans have slashed public education funding (instead of doing the Goldwater Institute song and dance about how the schools are really funded quite generously if you look at all these charts and squint) and that the cuts are ideological and not fiscal in purpose.

Brownstein’s main thesis is that Arizona’s politics operate along fault lines of age and race, with the older whites voting overwhelmingly GOP and the Democratic base being younger and browner. I take no issue with that assessment. What I do dispute is this:

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AZ Speaker of the House doesn’t know the difference between emergency contraception and the abortion pill

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Crossposted at DemocraticDiva.com

ICYMI, the March 10 Legislative Update on Phoenix Channel 8’s Horizon featured Speaker of the House Andy Tobin (R) and Senate Majority Whip John McComish (R) pontificating on a number of timely topics, one of which was recent abortion legislation. The whole episode is below and at about 7:30 in you can listen to two men – well, three if you include host Ted Simons – opine on the proper restraining of the female chattel as we audaciously insist on making reproductive decisions for ourselves. Watch Senator McComish defend surprise abortion clinic inspections because he and his barber discussed the matter and his barber’s shop is subject to surprise inspections and, by gum, that’s good enough for abortion clinics and their patients too!

http://www.azpbs.org/arizonahorizon/play.php?vidId=6611

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The Plutocracy is spending millions to deny Americans health care

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Think Progress reports on the startling amount of money already spent this year by the Plutocracy to deny Americans health care. Outside Political Groups Are Spending Record Amounts Of Money To Deny Poor People Health Care:

Obamacare opponents have already run more than 30,000 television ads attacking the health law and Democratic candidates who support it, according to the media tracking group CMAG — a staggering 12-fold increase from four years ago. Many of the ads are being run in states with high uninsurance rates where hundreds of thousands of poor people could benefit from the Affordable Care Act, including Arkansas, Kentucky, and Louisiana.

Nearly half of all ads that have been run about the health law in House and Senate races through March 9 are critical of the ACA. And in a reflection of the post-Citizens United political landscape, spending by outside groups without any official connection to a particular organization or party accounts for almost three-fourths of all the commercials, compared to just 13 percent in 2010.

“We knew there would be heightened public awareness around the implementation of the law, and we thought it was important to go up early with a heavy effort,” said Tim Phillips, president of the Koch brother-funded group Americans for Prosperity (AFP), in an interview with Bloomberg.

Screenshot from 2014-03-16 15:02:38
DonkeyHotey: The Koch Brothers Campaign Carnaval | Flickr – Photo Sharing.

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(Update) Tea-Publican economic terrorists take Medicare ‘Doc fix’ hostage

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I warned you about this the other day. Tea-Publican economic terrorists plot to take Medicare hostage to delay ‘ObamaCare’.

REDOn Friday, Tea-Publicans took their fifty-second vote to repeal or to undermine “ObamaCare,” this time to delay the individual mandate for five years and to use the $138 billion resulting savings for the annual Medicare “Doc fix.”

For those of you keeping score at home, yes our Arizona “Blue Dogs” Ron Barber and Kirsten Sinema, once again, voted with the Tea-Publicans to delay the individual mandate. HR 4015.

They will argue that having once voted for the delay, they must continue to be consistent. There is nothing admirable in being consistently wrong. Admit your error and move on.

They will also argue that this was a “safety” vote, with no real consequences because the Senate will never take up the bill. So why enable Tea-Publicans with their manufactured crises designed for the conservative media entertainment complex and fundraising appeals to the GOP crazy base? Barber and Sinema just set themselves up to be used by Tea-Publicans as evidence of support for the GOP position.

Congress has less than three weeks to come up with a funding scheme for the Medicare “Doc fix” that the Senate will accept, and the House (likely Democrats and a handful of Tea-Publicans) will pass.

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Teapublican Legislative Update: Guns, Gays, God, & Greed

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It’s so stressful when the Arizona Legislature is in session. It’s like living with an abusive parents because you never know when or where they will strike next– so, we live under a veil of paranoia, waiting for the old grizzled old farts to leave Phoenix and go back to their bunkers.

My head is spinning from all of the crazy bills they considering this spring. One thing predictable is that they are sticking with their long-time playbook: Guns, Gays, God, and Greed. Reading the list below makes me wonder what they have against children, wolves, and the unemployed. Brace yourself.

Thanks to the Pima Dems for compiling this list of bills that are in play. (I have highlighted a few key words to make this easier to sort through.)

In the Senate–

SB 1100: would requiring that school districts lease or sell unused/underutilized buildings to charter schools or private schools. Had its first floor reading Monday.

SB 1227: inspired by the conspiracy theory that the United Nations will order the U.S. government to raze housing developments that don’t meet U.N. environmental standards, this bill would prohibit counties and municipalities statewide from implementing “green” building codes. Had a first reading on the Senate Floor last week, no second reading scheduled yet.

SB 1281: Sponsored by LD-3 Sen. Olivia Cajero Bedford and LD-10 Sen. David Bradley, this bill would provide a back-to-work program for unemployed people needing a career change, including internships while still getting unemployment checks. Passed by a 22-6 vote Tuesday in the Senate and transmitted to the House. 

SB 1351: would allow residents of Pima County who do not live within the Tucson city limits to serve on the Rio Nuevo Board. Also removes the requirement for construction of a hotel at the Tucson Convention Center. Approved by the Senate Monday by a 25-0 vote.

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