Monthly Archives: March, 2009
Healthy competition?
When Mayor Jerry Sanders wanted to reform city government, he turned to what he believed was an effective tool of market capitalism – competition. He claimed that pitting government workers against private sector companies would generate savings for the city.
Sanders, not an ideologue, grabbed on to “managed competition” so he could privatize city jobs and show his conservative backers that he was one of them. If it resulted in turning middle class city jobs into $12 an hour jobs without health care, that wasn’t his problem.
Now the debate about the effectiveness of public-private competition is at the center of the coming debate on health care reform in Washington.
How to Pay for the Next War
President Obama announced that we would add 4,000 more troops to the 17,000 he already ordered to Afghanistan.
In his address to Congress, he also announced that he would restore honest and transparent budgeting to pay for our military commitments. “This budget,” Obama said, …. for the first time, includes the full cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. For seven years, we have been a nation at war. No longer will we hide its price.”
Obama’s declaration was a clear rejection of George Bush’s supplemental off-budget appropriations designed to make it hard to oppose without being accused of abandoning the troops. Given estimates that the Iraq war may ultimately become the most expensive in U.S. history, Bush’s approach was fiscal irresponsibility wrapped in post-9/11 “yellow ribbon” patriotism. It saddled us with massive deficits and avoided the hard choices of balancing national priorities.
Why are Health Insurance Companies Afraid of Competition
The Health Insurance industry is already gearing up, once again, to fight Obama’s health care plans. This time it’s not Harry and Louise, but rather cries of unfair competition with a successful model of government organized health insurance.
Insurance companies, along with other vested health care interests, have successfully thwarted every serious attempt at universal health insurance since the New Deal and are taking no chances to keep a solid streak. The standard line of attack is to raise the specter of government-run health care, long lines and losing our choice of doctor. They back it up with endless repetition of ideological arguments that free, unregulated markets are the only way to meet America’s needs.
The Next Rod Blagojevich
San Diego political community is buzzing with rumors that long-time County Supervisors Greg Cox and Ron Roberts will retire sometime soon. The heart of the story is that instead of serving out their remaining years, one or both might resign mid-term allowing the County Board to appoint a successor.
This would presumably be the preferred choice of the local Republican establishment, increasingly worried about San Diego’s “blue-ward” shift after Obama’s first-time-since-FDR county democratic majority last November. Since Cox and Roberts are both Republicans in districts with massive Democratic registration advantage, a mid-term appointment may be the only way for the party to hold on to the nominally non-partisan seats. Especially if their replacements were ‘elected’ by the four remaining members of the Board of Supervisors – all Republicans.
Stimulus Jobs Should Be Good Jobs
With their eyes on economic recovery, public officials in San Diego and across the state are scrambling to receive and spend federal stimulus dollars. But the spending will not translate into a long-term recovery unless it is invested in rebuilding the foundation of the middle class.
This means good jobs that provide career ladders and health insurance.
