August 9, 2010 by Dick.

And why do we pay so much?

About a lifetime ago, I paid income taxes to both New York and Vermont. My job was with a manufacturer on the left side of the pond but New York had those baby-puke colored license plates at the time and I really didn’t want to live there; we moved to the home of the green plates instead.

I didn’t much like paying income taxes to New York.

I still wouldn’t.

The NY state legislature finally passed the 2004 budget. That’s not funny but it is nearly true. The NY state legislature finally passed the current 2010-2011 budget last week, 125 days late. The press spin department called it a “fiscally responsible budget” with higher spending and an additional $4 billion in new taxes. New York will spend $136 billion they collect from you and you and you. And me, since some of the counted revenues come from Federal coffers. It is the fourth latest budget in New York State history.

Read that again. It is one of the latest budgets in New York State history.

“It takes more than 20 months to repair more than 40 years worth of damage,” State senator John Simpson (D-somewhere-in-NY-but-not-for-long) said as he harped on how much worse things were under the former Republicans’ rule.

Horse puckey.

The pattern shows the legislature fritters when they aren’t afraid of the voters; they sort of buckle down when the voters are watching.

Everybody has an excuse. Whiners.

Legislators disagreed about capping property taxes. They disagreed about letting SUNY raise tuition. They disagreed about budget cuts if the hoped-for/planned-for/wished-for “FMAP” Medicaid supplements fall through. They disagreed about tens of millions of dollars of pork-barrel grants NY Gov. Paterson already vetoed (the legislature wanted to restore them in the final budget deal).

Incumbents called it the “most responsible budget” in a couple of decades.

Wow again.

Remember the veto? Gov. Paterson vetoed 6,709 line items of spending the Legislature tried to add, including $190 million in pork-barrel spending. Six thousand seven hundred items.

What are they, nuts?

We elect peeps for pretty much one reason: to spend our money on the things we want them to spend it on. We don’t elect them to fritter away their time or that money.

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch got it right about members of his Legislature: “The good ones aren’t good enough and the bad ones are evil,” he said.

Sounds like a national sentiment to me.

Posted in What? Are They Nuts?, Throw Da Bums Out, Politics & News, Random Access | 2 Comments »

May 17, 2010 by Dick.

Some time ago, the Vermont Tax Department notified the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts that it owes $190,000 for taxes on tickets from the past three years of ticket sales. That past due tax notice would be forgiven by a new bill just passed in Montpelier but the bill ensures collection going forward.

The Vermont House and Senate negotiating committee and the governor all signed off on “Challenges for Change” late last week. The bill includes a 6% sales tax on tickets to cultural institutions and performing arts events presented by non-profit cultural organizations like the All Arts Council or the Flynn. Organizations with admission revenue over $50,000 must collect this tax starting next year.

“The committee did it in the dark of the night at the end of the session,” State Senator Randy Brock (R-Franklin County) told me about the section of the bill meant to clarify the question of admissions taxes.

“The Senate took no testimony” on this, so it went forward unvetted. he said. That leaves the legislature with some unanswered questions.

The controversial efficiency bill has a lot to like. “Challenges for Change” is (relatively) small. It appears to save some money. It changes the way government does business. It is the first law ever passed that concentrates on outcomes.

Unfortunately, it is not the first time the legislature has snuck a new tax into an otherwise good bill.

Let the finger pointing begin.

“What we didn’t anticipate was that the bill would take away our ability to do things we could do before there was a Challenges bill,” Tom Evslin told the Times Argus. “That may be the largest problem.” Mr. Evslin is Vermont’s Chief Recovery Officer and the Douglas Administration’s Technology chief.

Gubernatorial candidate Peter Shumlin (D-Windham County) responded that the administration “might not understand the bill as well as they need to.”

Sorry, Mr. Shumlin. I think we understand the bill just fine.

The legislature took a pretty nice concept — the Challenges Bill specifies the broad areas for savings and identifies those outcomes state agencies and programs must achieve — and mucked it up with “oh my God, you can’t do that” restrictions. Then the legislature added new “revenue sources” like the tax on your concert tickets.

The downside to the new admission tax is two-fold. (1) Ticket prices at larger venues and events will rise which means ticket buyers will pay more. (2) Rather than cutting spending in times of reduced revenue, the House and Senate conference committee opted to create yet another new tax.

I live in the real world. I’ve had to tighten my belt, Mr. Shumlin. Part of the reason I had to tighten my belt is that you raised my taxes. Again.

Posted in Taxed Again, Throw Da Bums Out, Politics & News, Random Access | 5 Comments »

April 4, 2010 by Dick.

Dear Congress Critter:

Every piece of the ObamaCare you approved limits inputs (except the revenue sections which raise inputs).

No part of the ObamaCare you approved defines outcomes.

The President’s approval rating has dropped 25 points in the year you have argued over this bull, five of those points in the week since you passed his “crowning achievement.” Congress’ approval numbers are the lowest ever.

Take a lesson.

Here in the real world, we have to set a budget we can’t exceed and figure out how to get the outcome we want with what we have. You are on your way to rejoining the real world. I most humbly request that you repeal ObamaCare before you get there.

Sincerely, yr. humble servant,
We the OverTaxed People

Posted in ObamaCare, Throw Da Bums Out, Politics & News, Random Access | 1 Comment »

March 21, 2010 by Dick.

ObamaCare, due to be snuck back to the Senate hidden amongst 17 votes taken in the House today, will fix everything that’s wrong with health care in America.

Demorats would have you believe ObamaCare will not, as the President said yesterday, “solve every single problem in our health care system right away.” Of course, Demorats would also have you believe that solving 2 out 15,387 problems in our health care system is everything we need.

Demorats would have you believe ObamaCare will save you money! Of course, Demorats would also have you believe the $930 billion extra coming out of your paycheck is actually a bonus.

Demorats would have you believe ObamaCare will cure what ails you! Of course, Demorats would also have you believe an Emergency Room wait until 2014 is just fine.

Demorats would have you believe ObamaCare will save you money! Of course, Demorats would also have you believe twice as many people covered costs half as much. After all, Medicare provided health care coverage for 45 million Americans in 2008. Without any eligibility rules changes, enrollment is expected nearly to double to 78 million by 2030 although the number of workers paying in to Medicare each year from now until then will remain nearly the same. I guess it is the economy of scale.

Demorats would have you believe ObamaCare will cure what ails you right now! Of course, Demorats would also have you believe that their rush to passage has nothing to do with 65% of their constituents who want real reform rather than ObamaCare.

Demorats would have you believe ObamaCare will save you money! Of course, Demorats would also have you believe 12,000 new IRS employees will work for free. Medicare will spend $452 billion or 12.5% of the federal budget on care this year. Medicare is expected to cost $6.4 trillion from now until 2019 or 14.8% of the federal budget for the period.

Demorats would have you believe ObamaCare will be free of all special interest deals like the Cornhusker Kickback to states and insurance companies. Of course, Demorats would also have you believe Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) is the Good Fairy.

Demorats would have you believe ObamaCare can take $522 billion out of Medicare by cutting waste and fraud to save you money! Of course, Demorats would also have you believe we need fewer jail cells because criminals will behave if we ask them nicely.

Demorats would have you believe the Social Security Trust Fund can underwrite ObamaCare to the tune of $71 billion. Of course, Demorats would also have you believe the increase in cost of living last year didn’t affect seniors because they have a fixed income.

Demorats would have you believe the new $50 billion long-term ObamaCare insurance premium isn’t a cost increase. Of course, Demorats would also have you believe they’ll never have to pay out $50 billion for long-term care because those costs will not come before 2020.

Demorats would have you believe doctors who already receive less than a quarter of what they bill will accept $371 billion less for their services under ObamaCare. Of course, Demorats would also have you believe a quarter of doctors or more won’t just drop taking Medicare patients when this cut occurs.

Demorats would have you believe the $210 billion new ObamaCare tax on investment income will help the economy. Of course, Demorats would also have you believe the Moon is made of blue cheese.

Drop your drawers and bend over the examining table, America. Demorats would have you believe this won’t hurt a bit.

Posted in ObamaCare, Throw Da Bums Out, Politics & News, Random Access | 6 Comments »

March 8, 2010 by Dick.

A bill in the Vermont House shows that “Vermont First” is not always a distinction.

Vermont is the pilot project for the nation. The U.S. Post Office printed its first stamp in Brattleboro in 1846. The Social Security Administration issued the first check, $22.54, to a Vermont widow in 1940. The first program to force universal health care came with a Vermont law that banned cherry picking in 1992. Now the Vermont Assembly would legislate our non-profit hospitals out of business.

An Act Relating to Health Care Cost Containment is now in the hands of the House Committee on Health Care.

Buried among the Medicaid information technology funds, task forces, hospital budget review programs, and certificate of need rules, this bill will require that insurers participate in the Blueprint for Health and will prohibit hospitals from paying for “marketing and advertising.” It also sets up the State to take over any hospital in financial jeopardy. Shades of General Motors. The experience we have had with the State Hospital at Waterbury shows how well Vermont runs health care in the real world.

That experience matters not. The Vermont House has 94 Democrats, 5 Progressives, 3 Independents, and 48 Republicans. The Vermont Senate has 22 Democrats, 1 Progressive, and 7 Republicans. Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin (D-Windham) is running for governor. House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Lamoille-Washington) has not announced.

The “Blueprint for Health” in the bill will become a new statewide infrastructure/prevention/care management bureaucracy. It includes “an integrated approach to patient self-management, community development, health care system and professional practice change, and information technology initiatives.” The Blueprint Bureaucracy has the carrot of withholding Medicare payments from “under performers” and the stick of taking over the hospitals. Vermont docs and other providers receive about 40 percent of their revenue from Medicare and Medicaid.

• “Marketing and advertising” means promotion, or any activity that is intended to be used or is used to influence individuals seeking health care services to use a specific hospital to attain those services.
• Individual hospital budgets established under this section shall: … include a finding that the analysis provided in subdivision (b)(9) of this section is a reasonable methodology for reflecting a reduction in net revenues for non-Medicaid payers; and not include spending on marketing and advertising.
• The term hospital shall also include all corporate or other entities affiliated with the licensed hospital…

I’m glad the Legislature has finally noticed that the skyrocketing cost of health care is a wee bit of a problem. That’s why House Health Care Committee Chair Steve Maier (D-Middlebury) says he included a provision to prohibit hospital from spending money for advertising and marketing. “It’s not producing health care,” he told the Burlington Free Press.

When I read about the bill, I thought this was a First Amendment issue. After all, even Vermont Law School constitutional law scholar Cheryl Hanna told the Burlington Free Press the legislation raised significant constitutional questions.

That’s a red herring.

The bill is another land grab, perpetrated by a legislature determined to gobble up all segments of health care from patient’s the first tiny down payment to the last visit to the morgue.

Here’s how that works. Hospitals get squeezed by shrinking Medicare payments, swelling Medicare patient loads, new budget caps mandated by the Blueprint for Health bureaucracy, and fleeing traditional payments. Hospital owners leave the state when confronted by a power grab at their books. Hospitals fail. Hospitals get taken over by the Blueprint for Health bureaucracy.

I would be werry werry afwaid if I were a hospital owner or administrator in any state in the union. After all, as Vermont goes, so goes the nation.

Did We the OverTaxed People sit out the last couple of election cycles? If we can’t learn from the Vermont experience, we could learn from the Sunni Arabs who sat out Iraqi elections in 2005. The need to protect their own interests brought Sunni Arabs out in droves on Sunday.

Posted in ObamaCare, Throw Da Bums Out, Society, Politics & News, Random Access | 2 Comments »