- Jun 6, 2007
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The Democrats could have had a slam dunk with their $26 billion state aid bill involving funding to help states pay their Medicaid obligations. It really could have been a feather in their cap the states desperately needed help paying their Medicaid obligations which the bill provided and the bill didnt increase the deficit. But they had to indulge their liberal agenda and pursue increase in social spending in the bill, specifically education spending which is going to really mess-up the gears in many state budgets across the nation. This $26 billion dollar bill provides that $16 billion be provided to the states to pay their Medicaid obligations and $10 billion be provided to the states for teachers salaries and the like. This is the problematic twist with the education spending which is that the states have to use this funding in addition (or to supplement) their planned education spending. There is at least two glaring problems with this initiative many states are experiencing serious shortages of funding in non-education areas of spending Congress shouldnt micromanage state spending because in doing so they often wont be doing what is best for the people in a state. Secondly, this initiative will increase state education staff and programs this year and the Federal government has not committed and almost certainly will not commit (after the November elections when Republican pick-up seats) to such funding in future years which will put pressure on state governments to pick-up the tab which they will often not be able to afford because from a practical standpoint it is almost definite that this is the last year for this exceptional federal Medicaid assistance and states will have their hands full trying to fill this Medicaid gap. What the country will see here is one year spending initiatives which will have limited effectives what the Congress is largely doing here is throwing money away!
A perfect example of what an utterly stupid idea this placement of $10 billion dollars of restricted education funding in the bill can be seen by looking at the state of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania passed its budget this year assuming that the Federal government would come through with $850 billion dollars in extraordinary Medicaid aid, based on the Federal assistance in this area from last year and that the economy still has not recovered (unemployment is 9.5 plus percent, etc.). This Senate passed bill gives only $600 billion to Pennsylvania for Medicaid assistance; it gives $390 million dollars for education funding to Pennsylvania but that has to be used in addition to the education spending Pennsylvania already planned for. Because of the restrictions on the new education funding the Pennsylvania Legislature and the Governor have to cut $250 million dollars from the budget. Let me ask the Democrat leadership in Washington how many hundreds of PA jobs will be eliminated to fill this gap and I would like these leaders to explain to these layed-off workers and their families how these jobs are not as important as teacher jobs! Moreover, if these leaders in Washington knew a scintilla about the politics in Pennsylvania they would know there is not a snowballs chance in hell that the Pennsylvania Senate will come-up with $390 million dollars next year to duplicate this federal funding so this will likely be a one year funding initiative, Great Work Democrats!
This Medicaid assistance bill is a rerun of the $787 Economic Stimulus bill. The country needs the Federal government to enact a stimulus bill to turn around a tanking economy, so what does the Democrats in Washington do they pass an economic stimulus billion that has a $100 billion dollars plus of education spending the business community has no confidence in the bill and the American economy sheds jobs in a manner that causes the unemployment rate to sky rocket. The lesson from all of this is that America desperately needs to have fiscal moderates running the country for the foreseeable future; liberal democrats with their social spending and their increase employment by putting people on the Federal payroll mentality is a disaster as well as is the ideology of right wing politicians with there cut taxes for the wealthy and it will create plenty of middle class jobs, sorry to say but most American dont see any trickle from trickle down economics theories!
A perfect example of what an utterly stupid idea this placement of $10 billion dollars of restricted education funding in the bill can be seen by looking at the state of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania passed its budget this year assuming that the Federal government would come through with $850 billion dollars in extraordinary Medicaid aid, based on the Federal assistance in this area from last year and that the economy still has not recovered (unemployment is 9.5 plus percent, etc.). This Senate passed bill gives only $600 billion to Pennsylvania for Medicaid assistance; it gives $390 million dollars for education funding to Pennsylvania but that has to be used in addition to the education spending Pennsylvania already planned for. Because of the restrictions on the new education funding the Pennsylvania Legislature and the Governor have to cut $250 million dollars from the budget. Let me ask the Democrat leadership in Washington how many hundreds of PA jobs will be eliminated to fill this gap and I would like these leaders to explain to these layed-off workers and their families how these jobs are not as important as teacher jobs! Moreover, if these leaders in Washington knew a scintilla about the politics in Pennsylvania they would know there is not a snowballs chance in hell that the Pennsylvania Senate will come-up with $390 million dollars next year to duplicate this federal funding so this will likely be a one year funding initiative, Great Work Democrats!
This Medicaid assistance bill is a rerun of the $787 Economic Stimulus bill. The country needs the Federal government to enact a stimulus bill to turn around a tanking economy, so what does the Democrats in Washington do they pass an economic stimulus billion that has a $100 billion dollars plus of education spending the business community has no confidence in the bill and the American economy sheds jobs in a manner that causes the unemployment rate to sky rocket. The lesson from all of this is that America desperately needs to have fiscal moderates running the country for the foreseeable future; liberal democrats with their social spending and their increase employment by putting people on the Federal payroll mentality is a disaster as well as is the ideology of right wing politicians with there cut taxes for the wealthy and it will create plenty of middle class jobs, sorry to say but most American dont see any trickle from trickle down economics theories!
