Universal health care...or death

I have watched with varying levels of hope, fury, and plain old dismay as the Health Care Debate of '09 has raged on. I'm sure it comes as no surprise to readers of this blog that I am a major advocate for universal health care, so I tend to get pretty antsy any time there's even a glimmer of hope for making it happen.

And what can I say? Obama got my hopes up. Now that both Democrats and Republicans--along with all-too many thoroughly duped regular folk--have been doing their utmost to damn the current effort to get comprehensive health care reform passed, I must admit that I'm feeling pretty pissed off.

The absurd expenses associated with decent care in this country, as well as the absolutely criminal practices of certain insurance companies, have impacted my life many times. Honestly, I would be truly surprised to meet anyone in the US who hadn't had at least one negative health care related event--whether for themselves or a friend or loved one.

And while the pols in DC squabble over "death panels" and bend over for their Insurance Company Overlords, real people are getting sick, going bankrupt, and dying in the good ol' US of A.

Well done! Letting the health care status quo go on is certainly one way to solve the problem of an aging population. Perhaps not a very good one--I'd argue, in fact, that it's pretty horrifying--but a lot of people seem to be pretty gung-ho about the tactic. Which is odd, seeing as how those same individuals seem to be the ones getting all riled up about "death panels" (which don't even exist).

But I'm not the only one who's figured out the preferred Republican health care strategy. Rep. Alan Grayson recently did a marvelous job of summing up the GOP's position when he unveiled a simple chart on the House floor that said, "Die Quickly."

That's about it. Opponents of real reform can argue until they're blue in the face that that's not what they want, and they're likely telling the truth, but the fact remains that, regardless of their intentions, the result of their policies (or lack thereof) is just that: Don't get sick. If you do, die quickly.

I believe that every human being, as an inherent right, should have equal access to quality, affordable health care. No matter what. There's pretty much no argument that could convince me otherwise.

On a personal level, I'm especially invested as someone who intends to someday become self-employed as a writer and musician (because, let's be frank, no one's looking to hire me for that full-time these days). That means I'll need to either A) get married to someone with insurance benefits, B) scrounge together whatever public state coverage I can manage, or C) go without. Don't get sick, and if I do, die quickly.

Frankly, I'm not all that enthused about the latter option. For the second, I can take some small comfort in the fact that Wisconsin does boast a few very decent public options. The Family Planning Waiver provides free reproductive coverage to women between the ages of 15 and 44, so my lady bits would be well taken care of. And there's Badger Care Plus (Core), which is the general health care plan I, as an adult with no dependent children, could get.

Only, Gov. Doyle made the announcement today that they're freezing new applications to the program after overwhelming numbers of Wisconsinites jumped on it since the plan went into effect three months ago. Doyle said they'd been getting between 500 and 600 applications each day. If that's not an argument for the pressing need for universal health care....

As for option A, let's just say I resent feeling even remotely pressured to get hitched simply to maintain health benefits. Que romantico! Hell, there are people in this country who can't even do that if they wanted to, just because a few curmudgeons get tingly in their underoos whenever same-sex relationships are brought up.

No one should lose coverage simply because they leave a job or get laid off. Further, no one should have to worry about breaking the bank over medical bills. But that's exactly what happened to my family.

Fourteen years ago, my mother took ill. It wasn't a "pre-existing condition." It was a rare, recurring cyst that decided to wreak some havoc in and around her brain. And though she fought like the dickens for two years, countless surgeries and treatments for the resulting infections, etc., couldn't prevent her death. In addition to the incredible grief, my family was also left with nearly $100,000 in bills. This even though we were "fully" insured, mind you. My father did his best to keep up with payments, but his minister's salary simply wasn't enough. Eventually, he had to file for bankruptcy. Thankfully, this happened before the new, oppressively restrictive Bush-era bankruptcy laws were passed, so the process went about as well as it could--all things considered.

Still, why did my mom getting sick and dying mean that we also had to suffer the added indignity of financial collapse?

If we as a nation continue down the same, tired road of fear mongering and kowtowing to moneyed insurance interests, that's exactly what will happen to our country as well.


(photo by Steve Rhodes on Flickr)

A great mess at state treasurer's office

So far, no one's coming out of this story looking particularly good.

Serious questions have been raised about goings on in the state treasurer's office since at least last year, when the Wisconsin State Journal reported on possible politically motivating hiring going on there. Positions in the office are supposed to be nonpartisan, civil service, merit-based jobs.

More recently, many have been calling into question State Treasurer Dawn Marie Sass's ability to properly run the office. The allegations involve improper staffing levels, grossly mismanaging unclaimed property requests, hiring her 20-year-old niece, and not bothering to detail travel expenses on her ethics reports.

Today, the WSJ again lays out yet more drama at the office, wherein Sass has fired her deputy because, as she now says, he did in fact politicize the hiring process at the office. This reverses the claims she'd made initially when the issue was raised. So why the change of heart? Why the sudden willingness to stand up for what's right and good and non-partisan in this world?

Well, something tells me the motives aren't entirely altruistic. I mean, Sass has been under serious pressure to whip her department into shape lest she be removed from office. Major problems have been outlined with how she's handled her job. Suddenly deciding to grow a conscience and throw a few people under the bus to save one's own skin isn't exactly a new phenomenon.

Why else would she wait until everyone who she claims was hired for political reasons had already left those jobs? And why defend the hires so rigorously in the first place, only to wait a year (until you yourself had come under fire) to speak up?

The whole thing smacks of self-serving politics, and not just on the part of Sass. After all, there's a good chance her claims of politicization and meddling on the part of governor's office have merit despite her potentially less-than-noble reasons for spilling the beans.

What it all comes down to is that we clearly need a serious investigation into Sass, her office, and the Doyle administration. If anyone has been trying to influence hires and/or hiring based on political affiliations, then they need to be reprimanded and held responsible. This kind of shit shouldn't fly at any level of government - federal, state, or otherwise.

Doyle's out - who's stepping in?

It's official: Jim Doyle will not seek a 3rd term as governor of Wisconsin. He even promised not "to go Brett Farve" on us and change his mind at some point over the remaining year-and-a-half of his second term. Which is good of him. I'm not sure the state could take any more jerking around by major public figures. Doyle probably can't throw a touchdown pass to save his life, but still, the principal is the same.

This leaves several questions floating in the air, the most obvious of which is which Democrats will step in to run now that Doyle is out?

There's been a lot of speculation about current Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton jumping into the fray, especially since she's been making public moves to distance herself from Doyle's policies in recent weeks. Lawton has long been seen as more liberal, so those sorts of decisions would certainly play well to the left-leaning citizens tired of Doyle (I, for one, will be glad to not have him making speeches at various state events anymore--the man's oration skills are cringe-worthy).

Also proposed as a possible candidate is Rep. Ron Kind, who's a moderate-but-not-Blue-Dog Democrat from the western chunk of the state. He might be good, but some have (rightfully, I suspect) suggested that Kind may be looking instead to inhabit Sen. Herb Kohl's seat at some point in the future. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's name has also been thrown into the ring, especially after his very recent turn as public hero earned him some seriously good press.

Normally I'd say that mayors don't have the best chance of winning a governorship, solely because of a lack of statewide visibility, but the Barrett incident may well change things for him. Hard to say for sure.

Whoever ends up being the Dem's candidate, I just hope they'll give the Republican challengers a good run for their money. I am not a fan, to say the least, of either Milwaukee County Supervisor Scott "Can't Take Care of His Own County Let Alone A Whole State" Walker or Mark Neumann (currently the top two GOP contenders).

And then, what will Doyle do with the $2 million in campaign contribution's he's collected? It's not exactly chump change. One hopes he'd use it to support whoever runs in his stead, whether by returning it to donors so they can then give it to that person, or by making (within legal limits) donations of his own.

One thing that has the potential to be very interesting is what Doyle does in his final months as governor. Since he's not campaigning and trying to win more wide-ranging votes, will he step up and pass more contentious legislation? What will his focus be? He has the potential for becoming a lame duck, sure, but there's always a chance that Doyle will surprise us. Whether it's a good or bad shock, of course, remains to be seen.

UPDATE: And awaaaay we go! An aide to Lt. Gov. Lawton says she does intend to run.

Doyle beats both Republican candidates in magazine poll

I'm not exactly a huge Doyle cheerleader (I cringe every time the man speaks in public, for instance), but I do recognize that, of the current field of candidates for governor, he's still the best choice.

So it's interesting to see that he came out ahead in a recent poll conducted by The Business Journal of Milwaukee, besting both Republican candidates (current Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and Mark Neumann).

It wasn't a huge win in terms of numbers (Doyle took 48% of the votes, Walker 41%, Neumann a blistering 4%), but considering the electorate for this tally was, presumably, made up of mostly business owners and related interested parties, it is a notable result.

According to a memo released by the DPW regarding the poll:

The Republican Party of Wisconsin was out in full force, beginning with a push via Twitter at 9:20 AM on Wednesday - http://twitter.com/wisgop/status/2653364739 - and then a statewide email action alert (attached) Wednesday afternoon when Gov. Doyle was the clear leader. Their statewide communication prompted a response from the DPW, independent groups and those in the business community wanting their voices heard.

I'm not going to read a whole lot into this lone poll, but neither do I think it should be written off entirely. One of the most frequent accusations leveled against Democrats in general and Doyle in particular by Republicans is that they are not business friendly. Time and time again, charges that Wisconsin has become a hellish pit of high taxes and no rewards for companies come flying fast and furious from some folks on the right.

And yet, survey after survey has shown that taxes almost never rank near the top of a list of concerns for business owners in the state. Companies move here on a regular basis. It isn't to say that everything's hunky dory and there's no room for improvement, but the doom and gloom scenario so often painted by partisans doesn't quite pan out, either.

And can you blame the voters here? Neumann's still pretty unknown, and Walker, where he is known, is most notable for accomplishments like getting the state to strip the county of its role in providing public assistance because of gross negligence and incompetence. That'd be the county he's supposed to be running, by the way.

My only concern here is that Walker showed as well as he did. I attribute some of that to the fact that Doyle has never made for the most exciting candidate, but still. At least he's on track with the high-speed rail project. And frankly, I'd rather Wisconsin be goverened by a herd of spitting llamas than Scott Walker. At least the llamas would get things done. Namely spitting.

Don't leave tax incentives on the cutting room floor

No, no, and a thousand times no. Gov. Doyle has proposed eliminating the tax incentives for film productions in the state and offering a $500,000 grant in their stead.

And just when I was actually feeling mildly impressed by his new budget proposal, too. But hey, no one's perfect: that's why us uppity citizens are here to call Doyle and other elected officials out when they start spoutin' nonsense.

At first blush, it may seem like a good idea to limit tax breaks in the midst of a recession, but the film industry has already proved itself as something that creates jobs and brings millions of dollars in revenue to the state. It would be downright foolhardy to get rid of that now, just 13 months after first making the incentives available and after years of fighting to get them in place at all.

The upfront investment in film productions by the state leads to longer term benefits. It offers local industry professionals an opportunity to work near home instead of having to go to California. It creates jobs. And it brings cash to everything from hotels and restaurants to locations picked for filming and businesses that rent cars, do catering, etc.

So no, Gov. Doyle, now is not the time to cut out those tax incentives. It's tempting to start slashing and burning in the face of economic crisis, but that sort of tactic can often lead to the accidental chopping down of perfectly fruitful trees. Put down your axe.


(photo by gnecoffee on Flickr)

Doyle's budget plan remarkably sound

I'm reading over Doyle's budget plan and shaking my head - because, overall, it actually seems to make sense. Especially when compared to California's current budget gridlock, this is particularly refreshing.

Instead of the tired old (typically Republican) insistence on across the board tax cuts being the savior of us all, there's actually a proposal to raise taxes on those enjoying the top 1% income bracket. There are spending cuts which may result in some painful decisions for the affected organizations, but may well be necessary for the time being. He's also included funding for commuter rail (praise be that this is finally catching on nationwide). And the icing on this money cake? A cigarette tax hike and another proposed statewide smoking ban.

Two things in the budget likely to raise the most hackles are the income tax hike and the early release of certain "low risk" felons. The former strikes me as a non-issue - those people bringing in the most money should be taxed proportionally. Rep. Robin Vos, R-Caledonia, took umbrage at this proposal, however, saying that "the income tax increase would strike at small business owners who already have difficulty maintaining or creating jobs." Maybe I'm missing something, but how exactly would this hike for the top 1% of earners affect small businesses? I'm willing to bet that most of them don't make enough to qualify for this in the first place. If someone can better explain this to me, though, I'm all ears.

And as for the early release program, done with the appropriate amount of thoughtful consideration, I can see this as being the right (if most controversial) step. Our prisons are wildly overpopulated as it is, and letting so-called low risk inmates out early could help solve that problem and save the state money. The trick, of course, lies in making sure these people have proper support once on the outside, so that they aren't as likely to reoffend.

I'm hopeful that Wisconsin can get this budget into place and make the necessary choices and moves to see our state through the economic downturn with as little pain as possible. It helps that we don't have the ridiculous 2/3rds majority rule for passage as in California, but we do have bitter partisan battles, so who knows. One thing's for sure: We need smart, swift action to stay on track - not petty power struggles and old, tired ideas.

Doyle disses Reagan

I'm not a Gov. Doyle cheerleader. In fact, I'd put myself at lukewarm (at best) when it comes to the guy. But I have to give him major kudos for resisting the peer pressure on this one:

Friday marked the 98th anniversary of former President Ronald Reagan's birth, the fifth since his death in 2004.

Almost two-thirds of U.S. governors -- both Democrats and Republicans -- enacted a proclamation to delegate Feb. 6 as "Ronald Reagan Day."

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle was one of only a handful of governors to deny recognition of the late president, according to the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project based in Washington D.C.

I know a lot of people have this posthumous hard-on for the guy, but you know what? I feel nearly the same way about them as I do about those people still clinging to the idea that Richard Nixon was a great man.

Shall we take a quick look at some of the highlights of the Reagan administration?

• Reaganomics / trickle-down theory - "...income tax rates of the top personal tax bracket dropped from 70% to 28% in 7 years, while payroll taxes increased as well as the effective tax rates on the lower two income quintiles."
• Iran Contra Affair - "In October and November of 1986, it was discovered that for several years, agents of the United States government had been running an illegal operation to sell weapons to Iran and funnel the profits to the Contras, a military organization dedicated to overthrowing the leftist government of Nicaragua."
• Hollywood Snitch - "As Anthony Summers makes clear in his book Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, the “Gipper” had his own code name – “T-10” – and regularly provided the FBI with information on Communists, real, imagined and manufactured."
• Genocide in Guatemala - "In 1999 a report on the Guatemalan Civil War from the UN-sponsored Commission for Historical Clarification stated that 'the American training of the officer corps in counter-insurgency techniques' was a 'key factor' in the 'genocide…Entire Mayan villages were attacked and burned and their inhabitants were slaughtered in an effort to deny the guerrillas protection.' According to the commission, between 1981 and 1983 the Guatemalan government—financed and trained by the US—destroyed four hundred Mayan villages and butchered 200,000 peasants."

And the list goes on. I am dismayed by our country's ability to ignore the past in favor of mythologizing bad men who managed to have a decent public image, so it's damn refreshing to hear about at least a few public officials refusing to give in to that urge. Reagan probably wasn't the worst president ever, but the continued effort toward virtual canonization is ridiculous at best, offensive at worst. So Doyle? I've got your back on this one.


P.S. For what it's worth, yesterday was the 2 year anniversary of this blog. Hooray! Thanks for reading.

Show me the money: tobacco suit funds and the mollycoddle myth

Gov. Doyle today announced several vetoes and re-workings of the recently passed state budget repair bill. In it, he changed how the bill would be financed (instead of issuing a veto) in order to scale back the amount of money that could be found by securitizing bonds from tobacco company payments. Specifically, Doyle and his aids said they would "seek to borrow $150 million instead of the $209 million outlined in the bill."

In case you hadn't heard much about it lately, Wisconsin, like every other state, received a large sum of money ($5.9 billion) from the major tobacco companies as a result of the Master Settlement Agreement, the "largest civil settlement in US history." The agreement freed the companies from tort liability with the state governments (several of which had pending lawsuits against them) in exchange for these payments and additional restrictions on advertising.

Currently, the state collects just over $600 million a year in revenue from what is leftover of this tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes. It spends a paltry 2.5% of that on tobacco prevention programs It spends a paltry 2.5% of that on tobacco prevention programs. This is in stark contrast to the recommended amount as laid out by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which suggests states spend between $31.2 and $82.4 million a year.

To add insult to injury, these funds have been raided for other purposes several times now. In 2002, the Legislature and Gov. Scott McCallum securitized (sold to investors, for a smaller, up-front payment) the $5.9 billion into a $1.6 billion lump sum - most of which was used to address the state's one-time budget deficit. In this new budget repair bill, the original language called for securitizing another $209 million of that.

Doyle cutting that back to just $150 is progress, but still not great. In the end, this money should be going toward funding tobacco prevention services, and probably health care costs associated with tobacco use, too. Instead, our state legislators (and governors) seem content to raid that cookie jar for other purposes, as opposed to responsible budget balancing, and transferring the costs over to the taxpayers. I call shenanigans.

And speaking of shenanigans! Our good friends over at Ban the Ban Wisconsin have decided to change course and attack the people of the state instead of the "pro-ban activists." In a little something they cleverly call Operation Mollycoddle, the authors are calling on anti-ban types to convince regular folks that groups like Smoke Free Wisconsin think they're all "idiots" and "can't think for themselves." Here are a few choice tidbits from the site:

The underlying goal of Smoke Free Wisconsin is to convince the people of this state that they are nothing more than helpless idiots who cannot think for themselves or make their own choices.

...

Sometimes the best way to weaken an enemy is to avoid their strong points and attack a seemingly benign target. To accomplish this goal, we need to filter away the politically correct garbage and public health crap and expose the insulting and offensive nature of Smoke Free WI; namely that the people can't take care of themselves. Operation Mollycoddle is to be a tactical strike directed at the people of Wisconsin; not Smoke Free Wisconsin. Our goal is to piss off the common citizens so badly that they will turn against the ban advocates.

...

Just remember, people are easy to offend and bring to anger. A few simple insults is usually all it takes, especially if you're insulting their intelligence or their ability to think for themselves. A precision strike at people's "anger buttons" is a much more effective method than chasing the anti-tobacco zealots around.

So in order to bolster their cause, Ban the Ban seems to be advocating the use of mollycoddling to tell the people they're being mollycoddled by Smoke Free Wisconsin. Interesting. Instead of speaking plainly and sticking to the facts, both methods that seem to have failed them totally (understandably), they're now going to "avoid [the opposite sides'] strong points" and "filter away the politically correct garbage and public health crap."

That "public health crap" they're talking about are the inconvenient facts about second-and-first-hand smoking:

• EPA has concluded that exposure to secondhand smoke can cause lung cancer in adults who do not smoke. EPA estimates that exposure to secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths per year in nonsmokers.
• Exposure to secondhand smoke has also been shown in a number of studies to increase the risk of heart disease.
• ETS is a human lung carcinogen, responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually in U.S. nonsmokers. ETS has been classified as a Group A carcinogen under EPA's carcinogen assessment guidelines. This classification is reserved for those compounds or mixtures which have been shown to cause cancer in humans, based on studies in human populations.
• There are conclusive published studies that indicate increased risk of lung cancer in nonsmoking women living with smoking husbands or working with smoking co-workers.

It goes on and on. But still, some anti-ban activists don't seem to give a shit about their own health, let alone that of the people around them. This isn't a matter of Smoke Free Wisconsin (or any other pro-ban group) accusing the people of not being able to think for themselves. It's a matter of keeping those who have thought for themselves and still decided that they don't care about public health from hurting others. Y'know, like laws against assault.

Regardless, Ban the Ban seem hell-bent on mollycoddling the state, apparently thinking so little of their fellow citizens as to believe they can be duped into believing the crap that BtB is putting out there, in the air, for all to breathe.

(cross-posted from dane101.com)

The air up there

The governor of our fine state, Jim Doyle, is pulling some interesting tricks in regards to air quality standards. He sent a letter to the EPA asking them to declare all Wisconsin counties to be in compliance with federal clean air standards, despite the fact that several counties were found to be in violation of those laws.

We wouldn't have known about this bit of chicanery, however, were it not for the open records request put in by the Sierra Club. It was this same sort of request that forced the issue on the Charter Street coal power plant here in Madison. The lesson I'm taking away from all of this? Contrary to the claims of some laissez-faire adherents, it often takes government regulation to force industries and businesses into cleaning up their act, and that it takes a great deal of oversight by the public-at-large to keep the government in line.

I can see why folks might be put off by the process. It's a lot of work, but it's important for all of us to put in the time and the effort.

Doyle's latest maneuvers are especially irksome considering, among other things, the many air quality alerts issued so far this winter.

Dane County has been hit with numerous air quality alerts for particle pollution by the state Department of Natural Resources this winter. And the American Lung Association last year gave the county a "D " on its annual air quality report because of the increasing levels of particle pollution. Numbers from the association show the county is home to 33,264 adults with asthma, 8,731 youths with pediatric asthma, and 14,323 people with chronic bronchitis.

I don't know about you, but I'm not super psyched about all of that. Doyle's excuse is that federal guidelines create too much red tape and would take longer than laws either currently or soon-to-be on the books in the state. On the one hand, I absolutely applaud the efforts by the administration to implement stricter pollution controls (like reducing mercury emissions, etc.), but the level of secrecy involved in Doyle's letter and a conflicting recommendation from DNR staff certainly raises suspicions over whether or not they're working on behalf of the public good or for industry interests.

It's important to help foster development and growth for businesses in the state, but bypassing important and necessary environmental regulations to do so is downright shameful. All of the foot dragging and back room deal-making in the world won't amount to a hill of beans if no one can breathe the air outside without risking major health problems.

(h/t The Political Environment)

Yes, please

Gov. Jim Doyle asked lawmakers Monday to pass a statewide smoking ban before they adjourn for the year at the end of next week.

Yes, please.

I frequent bars and clubs (on account of playing in a band) and have only increased my patronage since the Madison ban went into effect. It has been a huge boon to me personally and to a number of people I know. An example: I sometimes sing for this group, and before the ban, it wasn't uncommon for my throat to close up and cause me to have a coughing fit in the middle of a song. That's not at all what an audience wants to hear (regardless of what they think of our music in general), nor is it something I enjoy doing.

Another bonus courtesy of the ban comes in the form of the weekly Bennett's ad in the Onion. I always look forward to discovering what crazy new illogical rant will accompany the plug for smut n' eggs.

But these are just small anecdotes. There are quite a few very good reasons to ban smoking in "public buildings, workplaces, restaurants and taverns."

I do understand the concerns of bar/club owners, and those expressed by the always vocal Tavern League. If the state were trying to ban something like, say, playing darts, then I'd be right behind them in their calls to block it. But we're talking about a proven poison, something that doesn't just harm the smoker, but wafts out and harms everyone around them, too. Hell, if you need your tobacco fix, take up the always charming "smokeless tobacco" (see: chew) habit. Just don't spit it onto my shoes.

The Tavern League's website has a list of bars that closed in 2007, supposedly as a result of the ban. Thing is, how does this compare to years' past? Where's the hard data linking their closures to loss of revenue due to the ban? How many of those places were headed for closure regardless of/before the ban went into effect? The Green Room, for instance, was a cavernous place filled with pool tables. Maybe they just couldn't afford the large space? And Bru's Anchor Inn, as far as I was aware, was having trouble staying open before the ban went into effect.

Like all things, businesses must learn to adapt or perish. It's harsh, but isn't that how we, the capitalists pigs, encourage innovation and improvement? Plus there's that whole cigarettes fucking kill thing, but I hate to sound so negative. Wait, no I don't....


(image credit: tobaccofree.org)