January 3, 2005

• Topic: State budgets (man, are my topics getting nerdier by the day)

  
  

  So…i’m back in the office in front of a computer screen, but with a new direction of “research.”  What is the state of state budgets for 2005?

  
  

  I’ve been asked to look at Medicaid, which is the fastest growing item in the states.  Medicaid is America’s largest public health insurance program.  In the past few years, we’ve had an economic downturn, coupled with job losses, leading to increased poverty, leading to an increased population requiring Medicaid.  So, what we’ve seen is states have less revenue to use, and higher medicaid costs to deal with.  On average, states spend 17% of their budgets on Medicaid, second only to education, which comprises on average 47% of states’ budgets.

  
  

  So…with states facing financial pressures, they had to rely on the federal governemtn to provide some temporary fiscal relief, known as FMAP (Federal Medical Assistance Percentage).  In ’05, FMAP expires, and spending on Medicaid will continue to increase. (The federal gov’t actually gave a total of $20B to the states in ’03 in the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act passed by Congress, $10B of that was for Medicaid.)  This info is from the Kaisser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured’s:

  
  

   http://www.kff.org/medicaid/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=48004

  
  

  The political/economic question is, how to make everything wonderful?  How to improve the economy, so that we have more jobs, so that more people are off Medicaid, (so that more people are off Medicaid that can afford insurance actually…since one of the things states have been doing to cut Medicaid costs, is to reduce both eligibility and benefits).  Here’s where the rhetoric, “spending is good” comes in.  I always read that in the paper and hated it, being a minimalist and believing that part of our cultural struggles stem from our consumer culture.  But…consumption increases sales taxes which increases state budgets which allows increased state spending on Medicaid and education, to name two things.

  
  

  But…(and I’m sure thenarrator will have an answer to this) there are various ways in which we can tax to increase state budgets.  We could increase taxes on income through the stock market or other taxes that largely effect the wealthy, (is payroll tax the same as income tax? which specific taxes go to state vs. federal budgets, and what taxes go specifically to certain goods, such as payroll goes to Social Security?  what is income from the stock market called?) 

  
  

  I guess the real question is, how can we increase revenue for the state without relying purely on consumption of material goods (and I wonder about service goods.  For example, if our society was based more on tourism, we would gain revenue from tourism sales tax vs. the sales tax from buying a shirt from the Gap or an unecessarily expensive car.  I think i believe in general, tourism is a healthier industry to promote than “shopping,” if everything else is held constant economically, because tourism can be educational and I generally believe that experiences are more valuable than material possessions). 

  
  

  Anyways…assuming we remain a material shopping culture (i’m not picking on you dara, btw), how can we change the tax system to raise the funds we need, to drive the economy, and to not rely on the “buy more christmans presents” mantra.

  
  

  A second project I’ve been asked to look into is an “Academic Bill of Rights,” that has been proposed in some states.  This bill was created by a man named David Horowitz, and is intended to ensure a diversity of political views are represented on college campuses.  On the surface, this bill makes a good point.  They cite numerous instances where students have gotten poor grades for arguing conservative viewpoints (liberal professors outnumber conservative ones by about 9-to-1), as well as the open support of liberal ideologies in the classrooms. 

  
  

  It becomes more evident why this bill is being created when we learn about the man who came up with the bill, Horowitz.  His site immediately reveals Horowitz to be to the political right what Michael Moore is to the political left.  As a lefty and Moore supporter myself, I can only welcome Horowitz’ claims, not shut them out.  Reading some of his articles, however, make me further see the left-right divide.  It really is wider and deeper than I may have originally believed.  And, not surprisingly, it comes down to, at its core, a belief in socialism vs. captialism.  There doesn’t seem to be much middle ground with Horowitz, and his us vs. them, socialism vs. capitalism world view, clouds much of his logic, and turns many of his arguments into ideological rants.  Anyways…it’s another good source for learning about the other side, and in doing so, to learn more about my side. 

  
  

  For example, regarding the war in Iraq:

  
  

  “Yet this is a war whose aims and purposes make it very hard to understand how anyone who is a supporter of human rights, or who believes in freedom, could be against it. In four years, George Bush has liberated nearly 50 million people in two Islamic countries. He has stopped the filling of mass graves and closed down the torture chambers of an oppressive regime. He has encouraged the Iraqis and the people of Afghanistan to begin a political process that give them rights they have not enjoyed in 5,000 years. How can one not support this war?”

  
  

  a) the war was to protect America from a threat that didn’t exist.
  b) the intent of helping the Iraqis only came after the war
  c) there are means other than war to bring about human rights and freedom

  
  

  -dan

  
  

  Also, on the Kaiser Commission website, www.kff.org, there’s a link to South Africa, and on that main page a link to a program Lovelife, an AIDS education program, which I worked with while I was out there.  Kind of interesting to see how things come full circle like that, and good to see just how big this amazing program is.

  • 12:15 pm
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