I had a nice little post tweaking Russ Pulliam for his column awarding Daniels a second term, but my blog keeps giving me an error when I try to post it. I’ve been getting a lot of blog errors lately when I try to post, so some kind of tweaking is probably in order.
The Governor’s Healthcare plan
Daniel Lee, writing for the Indianapolis Star, has an article entitled “Daniels’ Plan aims beyond uninsured.” His plan is to insure about 120,000 low income Hoosiers. Daniels argues that the plan could actually save Hoosiers money, reasoning that as it is now, folks generally get service, but they get it at the emergency room when their ailments become intolerable. This is an expensive, inefficient way to deliver treatment. The folks who get such treatment can’t pay for it, and the costs are passed along to others in ways that are themselves inefficient and expensive.
Testing time stamp
Now I’m messing around with the time stamp. Figured I’d set it to GMT. (I’ve been advised that UTC is the correct terminology, but I can’t figure out a dead simple way to get a display in that format.)
[tags]datestamp, WordPress[/tags]
Messing around
I just added a WordPress plug-in that theoretically allows me to append Technorati tags on my blog. We’ll give it a try.
[tags]Technorati, tags, Masson, blog[/tags]
Voter ID law disenfranchises
The American Values Alliance has an interesting post about how Indiana’s Photo ID law disenfranchises voters. And not in the obvious way. Voters who are unwilling or unable to present the state or federally issued ID can still vote by mail-in absentee ballot (which calls into question the effectiveness and fairness of the Photo ID law in the first place.)
But, as we’ve seen in the Mahern/Elrod race, even if the absentee voter does everything that’s required of him or her, that person’s vote may not be counted based on the incompetence or obstinancy of election officials who fail to deliver the ballot to the polls before they close at 6 p.m.
[tags]Indiana politics, Photo ID, voting, Mahern, Elrod, American Values Alliance[/tags]
Let’s Move On
I really hate the phrase “let’s move on” when used in the context of political debate. It almost always means, “my side won, now shut up.” The Lafayette Journal & Courier tells us to move on from the Daylight Saving Time debate because that debate “should be considered settled.” If there had been anything like a consensus supporting Daylight Saving Time bill in the House of Representatives in 2005, maybe I could agree. But the DST legislation died, by my count, 3 deaths during the course of that session only to be resurrected through various parliamentary tricks each time. And, even on its fourth chance, it only passed because the voting machine was held open while Troy “I’ll Never Vote For It” Woodruff’s arm could be twisted long enough for him to break his promise and cast the 51st and last vote in favor of passage.
Apparently the Journal & Courier thinks thats the sort of vote that settles a debate. Not likely.
[tags]Indiana, Daylight Saving Time, DST, politics[/tags]
Count the votes
The Indy Star has an editorial that ought to be a no brainer: Every legally cast vote should be counted. At issue for this particular editorial is the race between Ed Mahern and Jon Elrod for state representative. Currently Elrod leads by 5. There are four provisional ballots outstanding — they present their own issues which I won’t get into at the moment. But there are 3 absentee ballots cast before Election Day that won’t count because the Election Board was unable to deliver them to the polling place in time for counting.
That’s messed up. I suppose you don’t want folks at the election board waiting until they know the vote totals before “finding” enough absentee ballots to swing an election. But there are probably other mechanisms for thwarting that kind of thing. Simply put, if a citizen does what he or she is required to do to cast a vote, that vote should be counted. Period.
Mike Pence: The Party of “No”
Remember how the Republicans always used to beat up on the Democrats for being the party of “no”? Seems Mike Pence figures, “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”
Sylvia Smith has an article entitled Pence pushes GOP principles in quest to lead party in House in which Pence offers the following in his quest to become House Minority Leader:
He said that in addition to trying to thwart Democratic legislation, he would stand up to President Bush “when he pursues policies at odds with the principles of limited government and the rule of law.â€
First, so much for bipartisanship. Second, wtf took you so long? I don’t particularly mind one group thwarting the legislation of another. Not always, but gridlock tends to be good. Still, it doesn’t speak much for a bipartisanship intention when gridlock becomes a leading campaign plank. As for standing up to President Bush, he hasn’t done it for the past 5 years, permit me to doubt he’ll develop a meaningful spine implant in the next 2 years. I’d love to be proven wrong on this one. But I don’t see Pence leading the charge to stop warrantless wiretaps on U.S. citizens, adherence to the Geneva Conventions, and rolling back the rest of Bush’s executive power grabs.
On the other hand, he’s a Hoosier and he’d be better than Boehner. So, good luck to you Mike.
Mike Sylvester on healthcare crisis: Step One – admitting the problem
Fort Wayne Libertarian Mike Sylvester has a good post on the healthcare crisis. Some of his stats:
Healthcare costs are rising 8 – 10% per year and are projected to rise at that rate through 2010.
For 2005 the cost of a comprehensive healthcare plan was $11,480 for a family of 4 for one year.
. . .
The United States currently spends 16% of the entire National GDP on healthcare. This will grow to 20% by 2015. The United States spends the HIGHEST percentage of GDP in the world on healthcare. 2nd and 3rd are Germany and Switzerland at 11% of GDP. In relative terms, we spend 1.5 times as much as the next most expensive country per capita on healthcare. Also please remember that EVERYONE in Germany and Switzerland have free healthcare of some sort.
In the U.S. we spend more and get less than just about anyone in terms of healthcare. We have all the bureaucracy of a government system without the equity that usually comes along with it.
Some links to past healthcare entries in this blog:
FWJG compliments Daniels on initiatives for released convicts
The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has an editorial praising some of the initiatives the Daniels administration has taken with respect to re-integrating criminal offenders into society. The latest is apparently allowing offenders to apply for social service benefits, particularly medications, through FSSA before their release. For those offenders with mental illnesses a gap in medicine between their release and getting Medicaid to pay for their drugs is likely to have negative effects. This is significant because 80% of offenders have been diagnosed with either substance abuse or mental health problems – 40% have both. The Daniels administration also has initiatives designed to help these individuals find jobs and housing.
The editorial concludes:
This special government help for convicted criminals may seem galling to many taxpayers, who have already paid the costs of incarcerating prisoners. Why should returning offenders get anything more than a bus ticket home?
Consider that about 7,255 offenders are scheduled to be released from Indiana prisons in 2007 – 559 of them to Allen County. Left on their own, national statistics indicate, two-thirds of them will commit new crimes within three years, creating new victims, taxing citizens who pay the costs of the police, prosecutors, courts and prisons to handle them. Programs like those of the Daniels administration and Allen County’s innovative Re-Entry Court reduce recidivism.
The Daniels administration has shown welcome political courage in taking steps that, while bound to upset some Hoosiers, will ultimately best serve the state.
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