Sunday, July 10, 2011
Arkansas Politics State surplus: What to do with it?
Posted by Max Brantley on Sun, Jul 10, 2011 at 6:51 AM
Naturally, legislators have ideas about making use of it. In keeping with Tea Party thinking everywhere, Republican leaders, such as House Republican leader Rep. John Burris, want to cut taxes despite a proven pile of important needs. Gov. Mike Beebe, for example, wants to devote money to a looming Medicaid financial crisis. Note Burris, please:
Asked about Beebe’s preference for making the money available for Medicaid, Burris said the answer to the Medicaid shortfall is reform.“The rolls continue to grow, and if we’re going to actually fix the problem we’ve got to get people off the system, not keep adding them to it,” he said. “Throwing more money at a system that’s growing and broken isn’t the answer.”
Yes. Let's solve our money problem by cutting taxes and depriving still more people of medical care. And punish those most in need — they are voiceless, powerless and don't contribute to political campaigns. This is Republican national budgeting strategy brought home to Arkansas and exactly the sort of approach that will become routine in Arkansas should the GOP take control of the legislature in 2012.
There's a tendency to think of Medicaid, the federal health program for poor people, as another handout to welfare deadbeats. It's much more, of course. It is: Innocent sick children at Children's Hospital. Tens of thousands of working poor people whose low-wage jobs don't come with health insurance and, even if they did, the workers couldn't afford the co-pays. Thousands and thousands of people in nursing homes. Disabled workers stripped of savings by debilitating conditions.
Credit to Republican Sen. Gilbert Baker for counseling that a one-year surplus is one-time money. Tax cuts go on forever and, as long as there are doctors and hospitals, medical costs will continue to rise, no matter what the state and federal government can come up with by way of reforms.
PS — Brummett today examines causes for the surplus (I like the idea that it's earnings on investments amassing on the sidelines thanks to low tax rates) and endorses Beebe's view on handling the surplus.
Speaking of...
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Beebe names Bunny Adcock to UCA Board of Trustees
May 16, 2012Gov. Mike Beebe has named Robert "Bunny" Adcock, a Conway banker, to the University of Central Arkanas Board of Trustees. /more/
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Rise in revenues means state spending increase
May 9, 2012An unexpected rise in state revenue will enable an increase in state spending in the final two months of this fiscal year, which ends June 30, Gov. Mike Beebe has announced. /more/
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The Republican third way — magic?
May 3, 2012I've made a little fun of the obviousness of news stories quoting Gov. Mike Beebe as saying there are two options to meet the expected huge increase in Medicaid costs — cut services or raise money (either by taxes or taking it from somewhere else, growth in existing revenue streams to begin with). /more/
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Tuesday night line
May 1, 2012The open line includes items on a stranded bear with a Twitter feed and the state's Medicaid money problem. /more/
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Obamacare saves seniors billions in drug costs
May 1, 2012Another inconvenient fact about Obamacare: In the first two years after “Obamacare” was signed, Medicare reforms in the law saved seniors a total of $3.4 billion in prescription drug costs by bridging a coverage gap, according to official figures. /more/
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Slowing the rise in health care spending
April 29, 2012Nobody's declaring victory yet, but there are enormous implications in the finding reported today that something may be finally arresting the rise in health care spending. /more/
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Resolved: Scott Roussel should resign from UCA Board
April 27, 2012The faculty Senate of the University of Central Arkansas yesterday adopted a resolution urging Scott Roussel to resign from the UCA Board of Trustees. /more/
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The line is open
April 19, 2012May Thursday talk commence. But, at the top, by popular demand, a video many of you have already referenced. /more/
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Sheffield Nelson schools Beebe on severance tax
April 6, 2012I never really expected Gov. Mike Beebe, who cut his teeth golfing with the lobby in the Senate, to be a supporter of the Sheffield Nelson-backed initiative to raise the pitifully low severance tax on natural gas. /more/
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Arkansas teacher in D.C. to advocate for Medicaid
March 28, 2012Little Rock teacher speaks at a D.C. rally in support of Medicaid. /more/
- More »
Comments (28)
Showing 1-28 of 28
Here's a few of my biggest problems with Republicans' way of thinking: They hate the poor and women.
1. They think everyone who is poor is so because they are lazy. They don't think about the working poor--the ones who work 40-60 hours a week in minimum wage jobs stocking their grocery shelves, cutting their meet, preparing their food, driving their kids' school bus, cleaning their offices, and the other important yet thankless jobs. Most of these people work 2 and sometimes three jobs to put food on their families' tables.
It's all these peoples fault they can't afford a working car so they must rely on public transit. It's all their fault they can't afford adequate health care on their own because their employer doesn't offer coverage or charges premiums they can't afford. It's all their fault they are working 2-3 jobs so they can't attend parent-teacher conferences or be around the dinner table to help their kids with homework. It's all their fault they can't afford after school activities or summer camps so their kids are often home without adequate supervision. It's all their fault they rely on the health department or places like Planned Parenthood for basic medical coverage like mammograms.
2. Women who need an abortion are big ole whores who just hop from man to man looking for the next orgasm. They don't think about the fact that medically trained doctors have actually consulted with these woman and do in fact discuss that woman's particular circumstances with her. They think women are too stupid to know and understand the particulars on ending a pregnancy. They think women consider an abortion an unimportant decision like choosing where they want to each lunch.
3. People who need welfare are a bunch drug addicts who have nothing better to do than sit around and spend their welfare checks on dope. So, they want to make these already destitute people spend what few coins they can scrape up on a drug test just to apply for benefits.
I could go on and on, but these are just a few examples. But all the while they are busy waging wars on the poor and women, they are out getting their own handouts by cheating the system through loopholes.
And they call themselves Christians and think they are morally superior.
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As to the working poor, here is the question I want answered. I've asked it of economists, legislators, businessmen, and I can't seem to get a good answer, so I'll throw it up on here and see what the enlightened ones have to say:
My ex wife's grandfather was an auto mechanic at the Ford Dealer in Greenville, SC from the 30's to the 60's. In addition to working as a mechanic he pulled night and weekend duty with the dealer's wrecker for extra cash. He was a hard working, good and decent man. On this salary and small wrecker stipend he reared three children, afforded a tidy brick home on a tree lined street, and had a wife that was a stay at home mother for his children. My question is this: Why today, in our present situation, can a mechanic at the local Ford dealer not afford the same things? What has changed? Everything we purchase, as a percentage of our income, is way cheaper than it was in his day. Our "stuff" is made and sold for pennies on the dollar thanks to Guandong province. Our food costs as a percentage, are paltry as compared to what our grandparents paid, same for clothing. What has changed? What would we have to do to make it so that a working man could afford a simple home and transportation?
I am an uneducated man having only a high school diploma to my name. I am unable to comprehend what has happened, but I'd like to know what the learned ones here have to offer. It really bothers me, and if we could answer that question, then we would no longer have any "working poor."
Towerdog, our money is not worth as much as it was back in your grandfather's- or my own father's day. My dad managed to do pretty much the same thing as a mechanic in the USAF (with the tiny salaries they paid- he also moonlighted)- with three kids and a stay-at-home wife.
Deregulation started chipping away at the real value of our salaries in the early 80s- when I started working. And our real wages have actually gone down since then. If the salary I make today was retooled in '60s and '70s dollars, I'd be considered upper middle class, instead of dangling on the edge of middle class.
The last 30 years have seen a steady erosion of worker's rights, and salaries, and regulatory changes that favor giant corporations and the top 1% over the rest of us. That 'trickle down' economy has trickled into the pockets of the rich- and we now have the biggest disparity between the rich and the poor since the 1920s- shortly before the collapse that created the Great Depression. Hard rules were put into place back then- rules that created and maintained the middle class- rules that have been removed like blocks from a teetering tower. The result was the collapse, and now near-extinction of the middle class, which is the engine of this country. Sadly, I do not see this getting any better unless we totally clean House (and Senate) of the people who pander to the big corporations at the expense of the rest of us.
Any Revenue Surplus is the peoples money. We went through this in Oklahoma several years ago and I don't think it ever was satisfactorily solved. It is my money, I want it back. If there are project that are needed budget for them next year, but give us our money back this year.
The Dollar today is worth at most sixty-five cents compared to the 50's. My dad worked 60 hours a week for $60 that brought home about $52. We lived on a farm, grew our vegetables, raised cows, chickens, and hogs for our meat, eggs, and Milk. There also was more bartering then. Half a hog for hind quarter of beef, or whatever. We also sold cattle as well. I thought we were rich until LBJ declared War on Poverty and found out that my family was a casualty. We were living well, my clothes were always clean and no holes and we always had a good car and a telephone after 1957. I know how hard it is today but the Government sets the bar for assistance so high that a lot of people are getting help that would, on their own, make it ok. They would not eat steak for dinner three days a week but they would always have healthy food. Now they get food stamps and a lot of the problem I have with the program is they have got it so you are using a debit card and they will work in some ATM to give you cash. I am disturbed when I see someone paying with the EBT card and they have nice Steak and roast, better cuts than I can afford and I do not qualify for anything. I would not use it anyway. I am 63 and never have.
I am a conservative Libertarian who registers as a Republican because that is as close as I can get to my beliefs. The Government has made a class of citizens who are totally dependent on them for everything so they vote for the people that are most likely not going to make them go to work or contribute to their own support in any way. There are some who are getting abortions as a birth control and drug use is huge in the welfare community. That is not to say there are not people who need help, but it is supposed to be help, not a career.
You don't say what kind of medical care/insurance your family had in those days, Nam. My dad worked 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week, all through WWII as his industry---oil---was critical to the war effort. They saved a considerable amount of money in those years which was wiped out by two major surgeries for my Mom in short order. They survived but never fully recovered. I don't know what they would have done without SS and Medicare. Skelly's pension was very meager, made more so by my Dad accepting a reduced amount so my Mom could continue to receive it after he died.
Oregon has (or had) a system of putting half the surplus in a rainy day fund and half went to a rebate to tax payers. Would come to to something around $15 per person if we did that here. I would rather see them repair a bridge.
What to do with the surplus? What about the large unemployment debt owed to the Federal government for financing Ark's ability to pay extended unemployment benefits?
Wow, Here's a logical idea. Put all of it in a high-yield savings account (Yeah, I know 1% is outstanding interest now-a-days). Next year, the ledge can spend 50% of the INTEREST and the other 50% goes back into the account to earn more interest (repeat). At least it keeps their grubby hands off most MY tax dollars and maybe, just maybe Arkansas voters will elect honest and reasonable pols. [insert sarcasm font here] Naw- it's too good to be true.
towerdog,
To partially answer you question easily half the good paying jobs have been shifted to low wage nations. Much of our manufacturing base has been exported and along with it the jobs. You can attribute that to greed. Investors demand more and more and it matters not to them how the bottom line is increased so long as it is increased. They try to blame it on labor unions but that's a big myth. We've never had more than 20% of the labor force unionized.
Next consider that in 1950s-60s the top dog at a firm earned approximately 60 times what the average worker earned. Today the top dog earns 350x what an average worker earns. That's a big story in its self.
Next, cybernetics are gonna keep the payroll down. And it has. Thanks to cybernetics and technology we are much more productive than used to be. Fewer workers are needed to get the same amount of work accomplished. However, as noted previously increased productivity has not been reflected in increased worker pay, only in corporate profits.
About that home your parents had. Today's homes are larger. Larger size costs. We have and demand more goodies in our homes. Today's homes use more energy than homes of the 1950s. You may not think that matters but it does. So does maintenance on larger homes and on all the extras we have in them. My dad would be rolling over in his grave if he knew how much money I've spent on improving a yard. Millions of us have. It adds up.
We've let the tail start wagging the dog. The role bankers and financiers once played was to extend credit. The U.S. and it's people have always operated from credit from the Revolutionary War forward. However now the credit/money folks run the show. They create money from nothing and make markets selling it to one another. It accounts for a large part of our GDP or GNP. I have no idea of how long it will last but such schemes never last long in terms of a nation's history. We had a preview of what can and will happen in 2006-2008.
Financiers created $56 trillion in now worthless CDOs. One dummy on these pages said that those CDOs were nothing but "insurance policies." Little did our resident dummy realize those "insurance policies" are on the books of major businesses as investments.
The U.S. economy is roughly worth $15 trillion a year. The dog's tail created a worthless mess that is FOUR times larger than the economy. Someday there must be an accounting, a balancing the books so to speak. What Bush, BHO, Big Finance, Geithner and Paulson have done is managed to postpone the date of reckoning. It will probably take 10 years of bleeding it out of the system so don't expect any meaningful recovery till 2018. We could have just let them go down the tube. The fact that we didn't tells you who is control of this economy and it ain't the workers or the Social Security people who created $56 trillion in worthless assets and caused a near collapse of the world financial system.
I think there was some truth in what Ron Paul said. Let the banks fail and pick up the pieces. We'll never lack for money, it would simply be a re-arrangement of how the money is played. They plan to simply bleed us slowly and keep everyone confused and blaming each other.
If you don't see any other movie this year see INSIDE JOB. Worth every dime of the $2.98 rental fee. It explains the mess we're in better than anything I've seen.
Max agrees.
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eLwood, Who do you think will blink 1st over raising the debt ceiling? Is is a given it will be raised, right?
Just who will give up what...it all makes my stomach hurt to hear all the "bantering".
eLwood, As of 2004, the financial services industry represented 20% of the market capitalization of the S&P 500 in the United States. I think the percentage is much higher now. While it is a needed industry, it would be wise to remember the twilight of the British Empire when they ceased to be a nation of shop keepers and manufacturers and became banker to the world.
towerdog, the best answer to your question comes from Elizabeth Warren who spoke at the Clinton School back in March. Here's a link to her talk:
http://www.clintonschoolspeakers.com/lectu…
Warren is one of the smartest people helping us understand what has been happening to the non rich in this country. Her talk is about 55 minutes long, and having been there to hear her speak in person I heartily recommend you and others invest the time to hear her entire talk. But if you can't, she answers your question beginning at about the 4 minute 30 second mark where there is a slide: "In one generation, the economics of the middle class shifted".
Elizabeth Warren is so smart and such a good communicator that the Anarchist Party (formerly Rethuglicons/Teabaggers) refuse to confirm her as director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Anarchists are opposed because Warren supports the middle class and can explain how the wealthy jack-booted thugs have had their boots on the necks of the middle-class for the last 40 years.
Yes, give the money back as soon as Walmart gives their employees full, free healthcare coverage, every fast sood place gives free healthcare coverage, and everyone is employed so they don't hit the emergency roomn as charity cases. Otherwise, the little you plan on getting back will be offset by much higher insurance rates to keep hospitals from going under or you may just find that you don't have a hospital and when a hospital closes, a lot of the local docs either retire or move elsewhere. This state can't afford to not beef up Medicaid and neither can I.
@towerdog: Since you posted this morning, you've gotten some good answers to the big issues.
Here are some answers related to the little things, mentioned in general in some of the posts above.
I grew up in a small three-bedroom, one bathroom house for a family of five. We raised a lot of our own food. We spent essentially nothing on "convenience" foods.
We did not have central air conditioning and heat.
We did not have a TV set.
We did not have any computers, electronic games, or other expensive digital equipment.
Eventually, we had an electric washing machine, but no clothes dryer.
Eventually, we had one party-line telephone in the house.
We had only one "car": the farm truck.
We didn't eat out.
We didn't take a summer vacation.
Each of us had about two pairs of shoes: one for work or school, the other for Sunday.
I don't remember the precise number of shirts and pants I had, and eventually one Sunday suit. During my working life I had more than seven suits in my closet at any one time, and an equal number of slacks-and-jackets outfits, and probably individual shirts for each outfit. My mother's wardrobe probably would have fit into our present hall closet; my wife's fills her half of our "off season" closet, her 2/3 of our primary closet, and all of our guest-room closet.
My father spent almost nothing on entertainment beyond a radio and nothing on recreation beyond occasionally taking us swimming on Sunday afternoons. He saw to it that we had the clothes, books, and supplies we needed for school, musical instruments to participate in band, and he footed the majority of the expense for my college education. My brother's service in WW-II qualified him for the GI Bill; beyond that, he was married, so our father wasn't involved in providing more education for him. Our oldest brother, also a veteran, was out on his own making his own way without benefit of higher education.
Without trying to make all the complicated adjustments for inflation, the buying-power of the dollar, and the relative prices of similar items (houses, cars, etc.), let me just observe that the difference between then and now is not ALL attributable to income; much of it is attributable to outgo.
In short, the mechanic at the Ford dealership today has a very different lifestyle from the mechanic at the Ford dealership during the 30s-60s. And that mechanic probably isn't working one or two additional jobs for extra income.
My wife's brother was a mechanic at a Chevrolet agency during approximately 1955-2000 and he had the economic power to accomplish about the same thing as the grandfather you cited, and even a little more in personal possessions, as only one of his four children wanted to go to college; one was/is a skilled laborer; one joined the Air Force; and one died shortly after high school.
Income is only one variable; outgo is another. Sometimes it's very difficult to compare apples to apples.
IMHO
What is the difference between "constant dollars" and "constant tax credits"? And how does the structural adjustment through policy impact the fiscal and monetary policy?
Rep. John Burris is right. It's time we quit pussyfooting around death, needed deaths, deaths that will allow us to cut many more taxes on the rich and expand to 10 or 12 more good wars which clear out the deadwood among the young and make the Fortune 500 even richer.
I go to the store and I see so many old people just barely clinging to life. I see them at the registers paying with our tax money, buying food for worn out old bodies unable to do a bit of useful work. Just hanging on to watch TV and dump into our already crowded sewer systems. Why don't you die old people?
Without the unhealthy aged, America would have money to burn! They've had their shot...get the FK out of the way so more tennis courts and horse farms can be built, why don't ya? These old people are ugly, they're slow in lines, they drive like crazy slugs behind the wheel of ridiculous old fat cars sucking gas like crazy, they spend our tax money on doll collections and tea cup sets....they've reverted to childhood not to mention they're sitting on a pile of money that could go to their younger relatives...so they can buy SUVs and Florida vacations.
And what about disabled people of all ages? They can't do a damn thing except clutter the landscape and suck up our tax money. If the damaged folks would just die lots of day and night sitters would be freed up to greet us at Walmart. How dare the imperfect try to live in OUR world! If I had some scissors I'd drive all around the country cutting feeding and oxygen tubes....a sort of Johnny Appleseed, planting death so that others might dive in and eat up the assets left behind by the old and imperfect!
We've got to quit coddling people who aren't up to muster! If you can't produce at least 5 days per week...get the hell off the planet! Please snuff yourself! You're depriving your kin of snorkeling vacations, Sea World, trips to Pango Pango! We're sick of you...die damn ya die!
On a personal note, mag and I have our eyes on a cutest house hidden in the gated woods on P-38 Hill between South Greenwood and Hendricks...a fantastic hidden retreat in the heart of Fort Baptist. The damn old people who live there refuse to die! Not only that they work daily to live healthier and live even longer. Year after year they look the same, damn them. If we're ever going to get that house, I may have to give the oldsters a little push. Antifreeze in their herbal tea perhaps........ it's just not fair they live in wonderland and we live in the Latin Quarter! Die old people!*
*This message was approved by the Republican Party of Arkansas
>>eLwood, Who do you think will blink 1st over raising the debt ceiling? Is is a given it will be raised, right?<<
You got the two issues right, Nanc. It is a game of chicken and both sides hope the other side will chicken out first.
Yes, our creditors are greater than god. Believe it. What most loudmouths and T'baggers who scream about the current deficits fail to realize is that most of it is owed domestically.
BHO is way past his pay scale on this one. Clinton would have framed them out of the game at this point. BHO's Harvard style speeches, which Hillary referred to several times in '08, do not equip him to deal with today's loudmouth Foxy, T'bag Republicans.
It's a matter of how much of a sell-out BHO will be. He has little spine.
There's a larger tragedy in the works and he's been set up nicely.
Seventy (70) per cent of Americans do not favor drastic changes to Medicare or decreasing the already decreased Social Security. That should be a strength he plays on.
However the tragedy will be if BHO-Demos sell out the Medicare/Social Security base then they won't be there to support him come 2012. The next election could have been a turning point but BHO has failed to get out in front of the issues.
So take your guess who may be in office come 2013. We're fucked.
He's not good at the game of politics. He's let them paint him into a corner and looks like he hasn't the glands to get out of it.
This is what happens when millions of 19-26 yr olds enter the electorate for the first time. They are swayed by symbols and not substance. We're fucked. They are no longer interested in their rock star, no longer interested in showing up for phone banks or neighborhood canvassing.
Don't doubt for one minute that IF BHO concedes to Rightwing mania and agrees to major reductions in Medicare/Soc Security and the elderly will begin to feel the sting come election 2012 your friendly Rep Womack or Tim the Cager Griffin will be blaming the Medicare/soc security losses on Obama. Count on it. Don't doubt it a minute and FAUX News will right in their leading the choir of "it's BHO's fault that Medicare recipients are suffering." You will read about Womack and Griffin's blaming on these pages first. The Cager has already tried to blame Clinton for the Cager's vote to destroy Medicare.
BHO has allowed them to set him up this way and that is how it's going to play out. They will get a lot of their dirty deeds done and then be able to blame them on Obama. He should have known better but that's the way with symbols. They don't know better.
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...and the kicker here eLwood, the Dems won't have the balls to mount a defense, just roll over and play dead. It's amazing. Who is running the show? Mark Martin?
Your exactly right....Bill would have never allowed it to come to this point!
I'll agree with the logical common sense idea of 50% rainy day fund and 50% refund to those who actually paid taxes... but WAIT! I'm sure most of y'all know that Oregon is known as liberal stronghold so isn't that a contradiction? I mean if a 50/50 rule was used then only the rich people would get a refund because statistically THEY ARE THE ONLY ONES WHO PAID in the first place! Amusing don't you think?!
FYI Government_Cheese a drug test for welfare doesn't cost the person taking the test ONE DIME and it only costs the government about $3 per test and can be done right on the spot, you can't justify drug use! Also, FYI, conservatives love women, they just don't like abortion and... Until you liberals to to the back room of a 2nd term abortion clinic I don't think you have any right to say the conservatives are wrong about that. I also say to the conservatives, until you step up and play the same roll as Michelle Bachman, i.e. become a Foster Parent to 23 kids, then you shouldn't judge anyone who does walk into a clinic for ANY REASON.
From the oldest recorded history until now there have been kings and beggars, you liberals can't "level the playing field" it's never happened in over 2000 years!
There was no income tax for the first 135 years of America's existence yet cities, railroads, factories, schools, colleges, libraries, hospitals got built and functioned very well. Americans should take a history lesson on how and why this worked.
Welfare never existed until sometime in the 1930's... you aren't supposed to be "entitled by birth" to have the Federal Government pay your rent, the system is out of control, that's been proven multiple times.
Instead of giving the "rich" only 35% credit for charity donations the Federal Government should implement a dollar for dollar tax break down to 15% level. If this was the case the "rich" would donate enough money via charity to build all the free hospitals, schools, etc that America ever needed, just look at St Jude's as proof.
The problem is that the Obama's, Harry Reid's, Al Gore's, Barbara Boxer's, etc don't want that to happen because they are too busy giving foreign aid to every Africa Country, Pakistan, Haiti, etc. Meanwhile they are building their massive personal fortunes while blaming the conservatives for cutting Federal Bloat! The liberal hypocrisy is stunning!
I posted the following on another thread.
In regard to Obama calling the Republicans' bluff, I think he will get the best of them in this standoff, and that they will lose the PR battle with the American public. If you are a student of modern American history, you will learn that when people are hurting, they turn to Democrats, such as they did in 2008 with the election of Obama. Granted,they let themselves get distracted last fall in the Congressional elections, but I think the Greedy Old Pricks are pushing too hard on the "no new taxes, cut spending theme." People who are hurting want their government to help. That's why the Democrats controlled American politics for 20 years after the FDR revolution in 1932.
It could be that the same thing is getting ready to happen now.
Yes, that 1% of the budget that goes to "foreign aid" including military aid to a whole lot of countries who have to spend it buying American-made armaments will save the budget. Cutting it actually will hurt some businesses and put more people out of work. But, heh, what's a few jobs if we can piss off a bunch of countries who can get the money and armaments from China instead.
Don't give the "rich" all the credit for building St Jude's. A lot of ordinary people donate to that cause. You cut off the percentage credit for donations and the rich will do what they always do, sit on the money. The estate tax cuts proved that because the rich used to make charitable donations part of their estate plan to keep the taxes down for their Lucky Sperm family members. Congress cut the tax and donations dropped! The Bill Gates and George Soros' of the world donate because they actually care about people. People like the Koch's, and some of their kind in this state, don't give a damn about anybody not in "their ccrowd" and they will enjoy their money.
If you want to help the economy, institute a tariff on Chinese-made goods equivalent to their disparency to the dollar and let's see if WM will decide to buy here. Use the tariff to pay down the natiopnal debt. That's for the Republican trolls who are so concerned about the debt now but it wasn't an issue when Bush added $4.5 trillion to it with tax cuts and 2 wars. Only an idiot goes to war with no plans to pay for his "great adventure" with other people's bodies.
Skypilot, your essay fit me to a T. That was just a way of life then. I tell people today who garden that I've not had a garden since I left home. My brother and I worked that danged garden while the other kids were out playing. And Dad always put the garden in the rockiest part of the land!
You may look at the premium amount and think that there is no way that you can afford it. You cannot afford to be without health insurance! shop around you may find it easy to find an affordable premium, I always find health insurance through "Penny Health" network.
Here's a big example of why we are poorer.
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/cen… Notice that the rents have already been adjusted for year 2000 dollars.
That means that for some of us, what our grandpas paid to raise our parents in back in the day would have cost him twice as much.
Medicaid covers 64% of Arkansas's children. That's a lot of fricking kids. 26% of Arkansans are on Medicaid. If they are voting against their best interests, why not just ask to be removed from coverage? Or do they even know what's going on with their Republican leaders?
Someone should tell Rep. Burris there are 9,412 enrollees and 1,508 ARKids B enrollees in Boone County. That's close to 30% of the population in Boone County.
https://www.medicaid.state.ar.us/Download/…
powerless people pay sale tax too.... Do you pay sale tax John Burris? if not shut up. I'll speak up, Matthew 12:11 for ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. Psalm 82:4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. Poor just doesn't mean, somebody without money or food or cars it means, that when people in high positions like the Rep John Burris make poor evil decision's on God people. you do know what Love mean? it means don't rob, don't steal, when evil people make poor decisions, things being to happen in the land, what did God tell Pharaoh (let my people go). if you didn't let God people go ( you see what will happen. Rep. John you need to be deliver because you need of the anointing of the holy ghost
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