Wisconsin Medicaid Cost Reductions - A Little Bit Of Good News On Government Spending
It does not happen often but every once in a while we come across an instance of a government entity actually reducing its costs and inefficiency when it comes to spending taxpayer money. A short article by Ryan Tracy in the August 23, 2010 issue of Newsweek magazine reported on how the state of Wisconsin was able to make a significant cut in its Medicaid budget but still maintain quality and also keep the voters happy. Medicaid provides medical coverage and insurance for low income families and people across the country with both the Federal government and each state funding the program. Last year, Mr. Ryan's article stated that Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle needed to slash the state's Medicaid budget by $400 million.
Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back Inot The Water...Another White House Czar Shows Up
Just when you thought we had gone to the most outrageous extremes relative to assigning White House Czars, the administration does itself one better: it recently announced the appointment of a so-called "Fish Czar" to battle the bighead and silver carp that are threatening to enter and disrupt the Great Lakes. Yes, we now have an official government entity focused solely (get it, sole, a fish? ) on two invasive species of carp fish. Before we throw our line into this story, a few comments. This is a serious problem that should not be belittled or minimized. These carp species have been heading up the Mississippi for many, many years and have left a path of destruction in their wake.
When Did The Term Racist Turn Into A Political Tactic?
I had always thought that being a racist was a bad thing. The dictionary defines a racist as someone who expresses "hatred or intolerance of another race or races." In my understanding, a racist considered a certain set of people to ALL have the same negative or undesirable characteristics, without exception. Hate, intolerance, stereotyping some people as being all the same without considering, respecting, and celebrating the individual, all very nasty stuff. But now I am not so sure my understanding of what constitutes a racist is correct any more. These days, it seems you are a racist by simply disagreeing with someone, especially if you disagree with a politician.
Politicians Deficient Math Skills - Ignorance Or Arrogance?
I often wondered if politicians are really that ignorant and deficient when it comes to math skills or are they really good at math but arrogant enough to think that they can tell us anything, math wise, and we are too deficient to understand the math lies we are being told. Consider the following examples and then you decide, ignorant or arrogant: - It seems forever that politicians have been telling us what a great financial idea the Social Security program is and why it is stupid to allow mere mortal citizens to handle their retirement affairs by, gasp, investing their retirement funds in the stock market. Well, I did a little math work in this area and put together some elementary math models to determine if this myth was true.
Another Month, Another Doomed Economic Stimulus Program
According to an Associated Press article today, the political class is about to pass a $30 billion piece of legislation that is supposed to jump start the small business market and get the economy moving again. Components of the legislation include the following: - Establish a $30 billion fund to help community banks lend to small businesses. - Cut some taxes on both small and large businesses. - Boost Small Business Administration loan programs by cutting loan program fees, raising loan guarantee limits and spending limits. According to the article and common sense, this stimulus package will fail just as dramatically as the other ones that the political class has implemented: 1) According to the article, demand for credit and loans is down and many businesses are sitting on cash reserves, precluding them for needing to go out and get a loan.
In Presidential Politics, The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same
As we rapidly approach the end of the second year of the Obama administration, it is a good time take an in-depth look and see if the President delivered on the "change we can believe in" campaign promise. This analysis was prompted by an Associated Press article on September 27, 2010 which reviewed the comments the President made on a recent broadcast interview on the Today Show as it related to public education in this country. The President's thoughts included the following: - "The idea of a longer school year, I think, makes sense." - The President admitted that his daughters could not get the same quality education at a public school than what they are currently getting in a private school.
Ain't No Sunshine And Solar Power When The Political Class Is Involved
Singer Bill Withers once sang: "Ain't no sunshine when she's gone." Great song and the inspiration, along with a recent Associated Press analysis, for this article, indicating that there is no sunshine and no solar power when the Federal government and the political class that operates it get involved. According to an Associated Press report that was issued on September 1, 2010, the Federal government, through the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in the Interior Department, operates a first come, first served land leasing program that is supposed to foster the development of solar energy on Federal government lands. Under this program, companies could submit a plan and pay a fee to develop a solar energy production facility on the Federal land that they wanted to lease.
