The national health reform rammed through Congress is giving state officials headaches. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels outlines several problems states will have to deal with as a result of Obamacare. For example, Daniels now faces the prospect of terminating a popular insurance program for low-income Indiana residents. The “Healthy Indiana Plan” includes health savings accounts that have been widely popular with the program’s participants. Due to new health care law, however, Indiana will most likely have to dump the “Healthy Indiana” enrollees into Medicaid. …
$1,100 for Hawaiian party props and luaus? $78,066 to promote quail? $6,500 for a 4,000-gallon live bass fish tank? $10,000 for a Batman party? $353,165 to fund car racing?
Congratulations, Illinoisans, you’re funding all this and more with your hard-earned taxpayer dollars, courtesy of your state government in Springfield.
According to the Associated Press, an increasing number of state legislatures have begun considering legislation that would prohibit the imposition of the individual mandate — a feature of both the current House and Senate bills. The individual mandate, an attempt to keep the costs of the reform package in line by forcing all citizens to purchase health insurance, has concerned many Americans and has led to a public backlash against the proposal.
The budget shortfalls, plunging revenue, and economic woes plaguing near-broke California could foretell the future of other cash-strapped states. A new study by The Pew Center on the States found that the economic pressures that pushed California to the brink of a total economic meltdown are also found in nine other states across the country, all of which could face a financial disaster just like the one in the Golden State. Those states with economic conditions most like California’s include Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Florida, New Jersey and …
Rep. Charlie Rangel of New York and other House Democrats propose to pay for their $1.3 trillion bill to create government-run health care with a 5.4 percent surtax on 2.04 million high-income Americans — about half of them small business owners. Americans would face European-style taxes, paying top rates that – combined with local and state taxes – exceed those of economic competitors such as Germany and Japan. Taxpayers in Italy, Spain, and even France pay lower rates. And that’s not all: President Obama would have the power to increase …
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin received an “A” from Cato. (Newscom) The Cato Institute released its ninth biennial fiscal report card on the nation’s governors yesterday, and topping the list with “A” grade were Charlie Crist of Florida, Mark Sanford of South Carolina, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Cato grades the governors based on data from their taxing and spending records. Republican governors, on average, received slightly higher grades than Democratic governors. More importantly, there has been a disappointing lack of major spending reforms among governors of both parties …
The Pew Charitable Trusts released a study yesterday surveying state action on the recent wave of increased foreclosures. Pew senior officer Tobi Walker told the Washington Post: “The states are experiencing this pain more directly than the federal government is.” This is partly true. A more accurate statement would be some states are feeling the pain more directly than the federal government is. As this map of Mortgage Bankers Associaiton data shows, subprime foreclosure rates exceed 10% in only 13 states, including California, Nevada, Florida, Ohio and Michigan. The Post …
