Friday, May 31, 2013

Why Samuel Adams Matters Today

'Drink More Beer, Not Tea!'
And no, it is not because his name is on the great beer brewed by the Boston Lager Company.

Samuel Adams actually was not a very good brewer back in the day and probably lost more money borrowed from his wealthy dad than he ever made in any venture he undertook.

But he was a darned good writer and was able to catch the Revolutionary Spirit about as well as Thomas Paine or Benjamin Franklin or anyone else back in the day.

For his senior thesis at a small community college back then known as Harvard, Sam Adams wrote on this question:

"Whether it be lawful to resist the supreme magistrate, if the commonwealth cannot be otherwise preserved?"


Wonder what his senior thesis would be today in the wake of the IRS targeting of political opponents by the Obama Administration?

Or the AP wiretapping of FOX news reporters James Rosen?

Or the cover-up of the Benghazi murders by blaming the riots in Libya supposedly on this video, 'The Real Life of Muhammad?

Mr. Adams would have a lot to say about all of these we would imagine. As would virtually all of the founders and patriots of this nation we believe.

The one thing that bound them together like brothers and family was this:

They distrusted any concentration of power in any governmental body or institution, especially when it was concentrated solely in the power of one person, a king.


Aren't we today seeing the dangers of giving our taxpayer money to support more and more government at every level of our lives?

The tendency of mankind is not to become more 'generous' and 'beneficent' the more power we control.

Very, very few political leaders have been 'philosopher-kings' in the best sense of the words or 'reluctant kings' as exemplified by George Washington who willingly gave up his Presidency after 2 terms to go back to live on his farm at Mount Vernon.

King George remarked upon hearing the news that Washington had willingly resigned as Commander of US military forces upon the cessation of hostilities in 1783 after Yorktown:

'If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."

The tendency is for men and women in power to assume more power and use it to suit their benefit, their pensions, their long-term interests rather than the people they are purportedly 'sworn to serve' as public servants.

Take a look at what Mr. Samuel Adams wrote back in 1773 and see if you have the 'revolutionary spirit' to do what he said we should do when faced with oppressive, over-reaching power from an oppressive, over-reaching government:

Resolutions of the Town of Boston - 1773

Published on November 3rd, 1773, the article called for the dissolution of the Tea Act. The Tea Act gave the East Indian Company the monopoly in the importation and distribution of tea in the colony and allowed the company to tax the commodity. Samuel Adams’ objective was to create enough opposition to prevent the shipment of tea to unload in the Boston Harbor which consequently lead to the Boston Tea Party.

'Whereas it appears by an Act of the British Parliament passed in the last Sessions, that the East India Company are by the said Act allowed to export their Teas into America, in such Quantities as the Lord of the Treasury shall Judge proper;
And some People with an evil intent to amuse the People, and others thro’ inattention to the true design of the Act, have so construed the same, as that the Tribute of three Pence on every Pound of Tea is not to be enacted by the detestable Task Masters there – Upon the due consideration thereof, Resolved, That the Sense of the Town cannot be better expressed on this Occasion, than in the words of certain Judicious Resolves lately entered into by our worthy Brethren, the Citizens of Philadelphia – wherefore:
Resolved, that the disposal of their own property is the Inherent Right of Freemen; that there can be no property in that which another can of right take from us without our consent; that the Claim of Parliament to tax America, is in other words a claim of Right to buy Contributions on us at pleasure –
2nd That the Duty imposed by Parliament upon Tea landed in America, is a tax on the Americans, or levying Contributions on them without their consent --
3rd That the express purpose for which the Tax is levied on the Americans, namely for the support of Government, the Administration of Justice, and the defence of His Majesty's Dominions in America, has a direct tendency to render Assemblies useless, and to introduce Arbitrary Government and Slavery --
4th That a virtuous and steady opposition to the Ministerial Plan of governing America, is absolutely necessary to preserve even the shadow of Liberty, and is a duty which every Freeman in America owes to his Country to himself and to his Posterity –
5th That the Resolutions lately come by the East India Company, to send out their Teas to America Subject to the payment of Duties on its being landed here, is an open attempt to enforce the Ministerial Plan, and a violent attack upon the Liberties of America –
6th That it is the Duty of every American to oppose this attempt
7th That whoever shall directly or indirectly countenance this attempt, or in any wise aid or abet in unloading receiving or vending the Tea sent or to be sent out by the East India Company while it remains subject to the payment of a duty here is an Enemy to America
8th That a Committee be immediately chosen to wait on those Gentlemen, who it is reported are appointed by the East India Company to receive and sell said Tea, and to request them from a regard to their own characters and the peace and good order of this Town and Province immediately to resign their appointment.'*

*Samuel Adams, “Resolutions of the Town of Boston,” The Writings of Samuel Adams. Vol. III, ed. Harry Alonzo Cushing (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907), 67-69.

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Monday, May 27, 2013

Who Is Going To Be The 'Next Howard Jarvis'?

Howard Jarvis: 'I'm Mad
As Hell And I'm Not
Gonna Take It Anymore!'
Google him and see who he is. He's more important than you think.

He was the precursor to the Ronald Reagan Revolution that enveloped the nation in 1980 by spearheading the passage of Proposition 13 in the somewhat unwieldy California direct plebescite system.

Many people don't realize that without Howard Jarvis, Ronald Reagan might not have upset President Jimmy Carter in 1980.

Howard Jarvis was not a political operative such as Karl Rove, Lee Atwater or David Axelrod. He was not a wealthy big fundraiser or 'bundler' such as billionairess Penny Pritzker who is President Obama's Commerce Secretary nominee who just revealed she 'forgot' to report $80 million in income for tax return purposes.

Apparently, the IRS was busy doing 'other things' than to bother people such as Penny Pritzker.

Howard Jarvis was an unlikely leader of any political movement. He was a loud, brash, hard-drinking boisterous kinda guy who had lost in the GOP primary for US Senate in 1962 and made several runs for mayor of Los Angeles as the anti-tax candidate.

He was employed at the Los Angeles Apartment Owners Association when Proposition 13 was proposed. It would cut property taxes in California by 57%.

It passed overwhelmingly with 2/3rds of the vote.

Why does any of this ancient history lesson mean anything today when we have very high under-employment or just plain 'very high numbers of people who have dropped out of the workforce because they can't find a job...especially recent colllege grads'? We also have yawning budget deficits and exploding national debt we seem to remember.

Because quite simply the recent IRS abuse revelations that took place under the Obama Administration have struck a nerve in America that is in the DNA of everyone once they come to the United States whether they know it or not.

What the IRS over-reach of power has done is remind most Americans about just how much they hate the IRS. Even people who don't pay any income taxes still have to file with the IRS which they do so with a sense of dread and foreboding that 'someone from the IRS is going to come after them!'. Even though in its best days, the IRS could only pay attention or audit perhaps 1% of all of the 125 million tax returns in a year or just over 1 million households.

The hopes and dreams of those who want 'more taxes' can pretty much forget it now. With this IRS? Under these standards?

And just remember: The same people who had oversight of the IRS when it was passed by the majority of Democrats in Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010 had the foresight (some say 'temerity') to hand over vast amounts of enforcement of Obamacare to, whom class?

'The IRS'

The Obama Administration should have gone ahead and put Count Dracula in charge of the Red Cross blood banks for good measure.

So, the stage is set for the 'next Howard Jarvis' to rise up somewhere in America and coordinate a massive tax revolt that seems to occur in America about every 30 years or so.

As we celebrate this Memorial Day, remember that many of our soliders died defending the right to freedom; the right to low (or no) taxes; the right to not be controlled by any central authority anywhere in government.

It is in the history of America. It is in our DNA to 'rebel against oppression' wherever it might rear its ugly head.

We are right on schedule for a tax revolt on the order of Howard Jarvis' Prop 13. The time is right, The mood is right.

Who will the leader be?



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Friday, May 24, 2013

The State of North Carolina Has A 'North Carolina-Moldova Partnership Committee'?

Quick: Name where the country of Moldova is anyway?

'It's Moldova, Not Freedonia!'
If you guessed between Romania and Ukraine, you should go on Jeopardy! and give Ken Jennings a run for his all-time winnings record of over $3.1 million in 74 victories on the show.

In these times of economic uncertainty and budget excesses, we thought we would bring to your attention this as just one example of a government program that can and should be eliminated and save some hard-earned taxpayer money for the taxpayers.

In North Carolina, there is the 'North Carolina-Moldova Partnership Committee' which has at least 8 board members who are appointed by the Governor and who go on trade missions to the country of Moldova at least once per year it appears.
'In 1999, then-governor Jim Hunt and the president of Moldova jointly established the North Carolina-Moldova Partnership Committee to promote private sector cooperation and international commercial activity, as well as scientific, academic and scholarly pursuits in arts, humanities and education exchanges.'*
The only reason why we even knew about it was that a friend of ours mentioned that there are now 10,000 board and commission positions that can be filled by political appointment in the State of North Carolina.

That means roughly 1 out of every 1000 North Carolinians are on some state board or commission each and every year.

However, since roughly 50% of the voting population are not on the 'winning side' each election cycle, that number drops to 1 out of every 500 North Carolinians from the 'winning side' each election are on some board or commission each gubernatorial cycle.

And since very, very few people are actually active in the political process when it comes to volunteering to work on a campaign or to contribute to any campaign (less than 4% give any money at all...ever), that number drops to perhaps 1 out of every 10 active political people in North Carolina can be on some sort of board and commission.

We are not saying all boards and commissions are 'bad'. Many serve very useful public service functions. We need our very best and qualified citizens to not only run for political office and but also to serve on the Boards of Governors, Trustees or Directors of government-related or sponsored activities such as education and environmental protection.

But 'mission trips to Moldova'? Can't that be handled by the private sector in total all by themselves?

For one thing, if there is a profit to be made by trading with the good folks of Moldova, we are sure some enterprising American will figure out a way to do it without the help of the North Carolina-Moldova Partnership Committee.

Or maybe there is a budding entrepreneurial Moldovan who will figure out that the United States of America is a place where he/she can find a market for his/her products or services and become the richest person Moldova has ever seen in its history. They will find a way to pay for that access without having any taxpayer in North Carolina pay for it.

We don't have the budget handy but we would be shocked to learn that no state taxpayer dollar has ever gone to support any aspect of the NC Partnership Committee over the past 14 years of its existence or paid for any of the junkets (er, 'fact-finding mission trips') that its Board Members have made to the wonderful nation of Moldova on a yearly basis.

We do know that state government-taxpayer paid staff and elected officials' time and energy does get chewed up by even having such an appointed committee. Why? Because they, as paid officials and staff, have to sort through the stacks of names of people who might be interested in being a member of any board/commission/partnership when they could be solving our Medicaid crisis; our primary and secondary educational system or repairing our roads and bridges before one of them falls into the Pamlico Sound such as the bridge that collapsed in NW Washington state yesterday.

Any time any elected official or their staff spends one second on evaluating an application to become the next committee member on any board or commission in North Carolina, that is one second of their taxpayer-paid salary that you and I pay through our taxes every year.

North Carolina has 10,000 board and commission positions to fill. Don't you have to believe we can get away with maybe having only 9,992 board and commission positions to fill if the North Carolina-Moldova Partnership Committee was dissolved?

How about going to only 7000 appointive positions in the state? 5000? That is still a pretty hefty number, isn't it?

See? Having a smaller government starts with a tiny baby step. Once you begin to realize we don't need to have all the government we have in place today, becoming a small government advocate such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison becomes a lot easier.

Plus it will keep your money in your pocket where it belongs because your taxes will never go up again in the state of North Carolina.

Small government is directly linked to lower taxes, you know.



* Source: Winston-Salem Business Journal, July 18, 2001


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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Budget Issues Trump The Benghazi, IRS and AP Scandals

Budget Issues Trump Cards
Or should trump them, at least.

Despite all the consternation about the Obama Administration and Benghazi, the IRS harassment of Tea Party groups and the AP phone records being monitored, we still have a country to run.

Somebody better be paying attention to our spending and deficit/debt problems or else it really won't matter if the Obama White House is lying about any of the above 3 scandals now a-brewing.

They are all important issues of governance or malfeasance, however you want to call it.

But none of them can do the damage to our future that out-of-control spending can cause because our debt gets too high and then, when interest rates return to 'normal'? It either crowds out other essential functions of government or inflation rears its ugly, ugly head and everyone suffers.  Especially the elderly, poor and infirm.

Here's some sobering news from Reason magazine about the most recent budget update from CBO.

Despite the brief rosy scenario put out by the evening news broadcasts today, there is not a whole lot of good news to be popping champagne bottles over or preparing for a ticker tape parade to hail President Obama for delivering us from the dangers that lie ahead.

The second paragraph of the CBO summary, which apparently every newscast chose to ignore, reads:
'But even with revenues above their 40-year average as a share of the economy, deficits will increase later in the decade, mostly because of the pressures of an aging population, rising healthcare costs, and increasing interest payments'
Here's two salient points to remember when some partisans start bleating about how 'President Obama's policies have cut the deficit in half!' as some are wont to say:
  1. An increase of $105 billion in tax revenues occurred mostly because of the Obama tax hike...that is for sure. But it was because so many rich people opted to sell assets before the end of 2012 to take advantage of the lower rates before the Obama tax hikes hit. These tax payments became due and were paid on April 15.
  2. A one-time dividend payment of $95 billion was received from mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as a result of the TARP deal and is unlikely to ever re-occur again.
That is $200 billion in extra tax revenues this year that will not be repeated. No wonder the deficits dropped by over $200 billion this year!

The Obama tax hikes have not taken full root yet this year so they can be scarcely credited with 'reducing the budget deficits'. And the budget sequester! You could squeeze a turnip with your own bare hands and get more deficit-reduction out of it than the budget sequester has so far.

Read the CBO report and see for yourself.  We have a long way to go...and that is not just talking about getting to the bottom of the Benghazi, IRS and AP scandals.


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Sunday, May 12, 2013

Obama, Benghazi and Mark Sanford?

'If you tell the truth, you don't
have to remember anything'
There's an axiom in Washington that goes like this:

'The more words it takes to explain something, the more likely it is that you are lying'.

Think about it. It is always easier just to tell the truth and take your lumps and get over it somehow.

Lying takes a lot of work. Here's some aphorisms about telling the truth versus lying that somehow seems to get forgotten by people when elected to higher public office:


  • 'It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place'.  ~H. L.Mencken
  • 'If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything'.  ~attributed to Mark Twain (probably apocryphal; not verified)
  • 'No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar'.  ~Abraham Lincoln
  • 'Every lie is two lies — the lie we tell others and the lie we tell ourselves to justify it. ~Robert Brault
The verbal and linguistic contortions that poor old White House spokesman Jay Carney has been making on the behalf of the Obama White House and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have been painful to watch.

You feel like the poor guy just knows that if he slips up one time, just one time, he will fired or reassigned to some diplomatic post in an unprotected place like Benghazi was before the terrible attacks occurred on September 11, 2012.

You want to see some other similar 'contortions' of the English language by White House Press Spokespeople? Go no further than poor old Ron Ziegler in the Nixon White House. That poor guy had to defend the indefensible for close to 2 years until the Watergate tape came about and undid every single fabrication the Nixon White House had come up with until then.

'Watergate was just a botched third-rate burglary' Mr. Ziegler often said.

Indeed it was. More so that even he knew at the time.*

We had close to a 2-year period when President Bill Clinton lied about his involvement with intern Monica Lewinsky. What would have happened had he admitted his failure and asked for forgiveness early on?

The American people would have forgiven him. Heck! They have forgiven him 70 times 7 since he left office!

Look at former Congressman/Governor-now-Congressman again Mark Sanford of South Carolina. He just got re-elected to his old congressional seat against Stephen Colbert's sister despite going through one of the most painful public divorces of modern political history.

It is not the 'lie' that does politicians in. It is the 'cover-up'.

Peggy Noonan does a pretty good job of explaining 'The Inconvenient Truth About Benghazi'. As bad as the cover-up has been, we happen to think the most important question is this:
'Why were the armed forces told to stand down 3 separate times from flying in to help these guys out?'
If some future President were ever crazy enough to nominate us for a post in say the newly formed Republic of Freedonia out of the collapsed former Communist Red China, our first question now would be:

'Are you going to protect me and my family and staff at all times and at all costs?'

The Obama White House and President-in-Waiting Hillary Clinton have to be concerned about any more delays in the truth coming out over Benghazi. Every day that passes with some new revelation or congressional hearing that slowly peels off the outer skins of the onion that actually happened at Benghazi is another day that makes it far harder for the American people to forgive them both once the truth does in fact come out.

Far be it from us to offer any political advice to the Obama White House since we have been pretty open about where we think they are seriously off-track in their tax, budget and health care policies.

But here goes anyway:

(draft for Obama Press Conference from the Oval Office)

My Fellow Americans:
The night of September 11, 2012 was a horror story for everyone of us at the State Department and the White House. We lost the lives of 4 Americans including our ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens and 2 Navy SEALS who fought valiantly against the marauding crowd.
I accept full blame for this terrible outcome. John F. Kennedy accepted full blame for the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba in 1962 simply because he was the Chief Executive Officer of the United States at the time.
I am doing the same here with Benghazi.
This diplomatic outpost was undefended which is unacceptable and will never happen again. I will make sure as Chief Executive of our government that no diplomatic or consular mission anywhere in the nation will ever again go without a full detail of Marine support and protection.
What happened on the night of September 11, 2012 was a sad combination of human error, conflicting information and my lack of direction and oversight when the attack began. 
I was fully engaged in a presidential campaign and my attention was sadly too focused on my re-election. I went to bed early to get ready for a campaign fundraising flight to Las Vegas the next morning and perhaps my assistants took me at my word to 'not bother me' that night too seriously.
Regardless, I take full responsibility for this tragic loss and promise to not let it happen again anywhere over the remaining 3.5 years of my term in the Oval Office.
I hope you will forgive me, even though I have no business asking the families who lost loved ones in this dreadful attacks for their forgiveness at all.
Thank you and God Bless America even though we often fall short of the standards set forth by our Founders.

Maybe this would work. Maybe not.

Second term presidencies almost always shoot themselves in the foot by trying to shave the corners just a bit too much or getting too clever or too cute by a factor of 10 instead of a factor of 2.

Ronald Reagan probably wished he had a do-over on Iran-Contra. Bill Clinton wishes he had a mulligan on ever meeting Monica Lewinsky in the first place. Richard Nixon sure as heck would have wanted to win his 1972 re-election against George McGovern by a landslide without having ordered the break-in of the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate complex. (Nixon won the electoral college by 520-17)

Barack Obama will be doing the same 'wishing' unless the total truth comes out about Benghazi. Although now he has this little problem of the IRS probing the Tea Party activities to explain as well.

The sooner the better for him and the nation.



*(we had the good fortune to go to church in Northern Virginia with Ron Ziegler's widow who could not have been a nicer or sweeter person. That was always one of the cool things about working in the Washington area; history was not just in some dull old book but it was living and breathing and sitting next to you on the Metro, in the elevator or in a pew at church)


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Saturday, May 4, 2013

Medicaid in North Carolina: $248 Million 'Mistake' And Still Counting

How Much Of The North Carolina State Budget
Will Medicaid Eventually Consume?
The Governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory, announced another 'mistake' in the Medicaid projections made by the Administration of former Governor Bev Perdue last fall before the elections.

Wonder if these underestimations were deliberate in the hopes of helping the Democrat candidate in the gubernatorial race?

Nah, that never happens. Right? 'Nothing to see here, ladies and gentlemen. Move right along'.

This time, the 'underestimation' accounted for $135 million in the state's largest health care program, Medicaid, for the indigent and infirm.

That was on top of another $113 million or so announced earlier this year.

Here's the question each of you has to answer today before you tell your elected leaders what you want them to do with your hard-earned taxpayer money:
'Which is more important to fund in this state right now: Medicaid or higher education and public education in general?'
Because it is coming down to that simple proposition sure as shooting in coming years. If it hasn't already.

Since the North Carolina state legislature is only in full session in odd-numbered years, that makes such decisions ever more critical each and every time they meet to set the budget for the next two years.

So what is it...increased millions spent for the care of the poor and long-term disabled of the state or decreased millions to educate our next generation. Or vice versa?

Let's do a little simple back-of-the-envelope math because budgets can be very boring and dry documents.

Until you realize that you are funding it all with your tax money one way or another. Then it gets real exciting very. quickly.

The Medicaid budget accounts for approximately 33% of the North Carolina total state budget today. Education accounts for just over 33% of the state budget today. Those two monster line-items account for 67% of the total consolidated NC budget today, state plus federal money.

But that is skewed because so much of the Medicaid budget is paid for by what used to be known as 'matching funds' from DC. It is no 50/50 deal if that is what you consider 'matching'. The federal government pays roughly $13 billion per year to support the NC Medicaid program versus the $4 billion per year paid for by state funds. A 3-1 ratio by our calculations.

You wonder why our federal debt is out-of-control? Federal 'matching' (sic) Medicaid payments to all federal states are a primary reason why.

The 'real' North Carolina budget is approximately $20 billion per year paid for by your taxes, income and sales tax mostly. NC corporate income taxes are so small, about 4% of all taxes and fees collected each year, they should be eliminated altogether. Eliminating the corporate income tax code would be an economic incentive for any CEO or entrepreneur to move business to North Carolina from California or New York, for example, without having to 'give' them any special economic favors to do so.

It probably costs corporations more to comply with the state tax code than the state collects from the corporate tax code in the first place.

Guess what happens when corporations move to North Carolina or entrepreneurs feel emboldened to start the next Red Hat or Quintiles or Troy & Sons Moonshine distillery in the state?

More people go off the 9.6% unemployment rolls and back into the workforce. How great is that?

The North Carolina share of the Medicaid budget is roughly $4 billion. That is the money you and I pay directly in state taxes in North Carolina. We pay the rest of the Medicaid bills indirectly through our 'other' federal taxes we send to Washington that THEN come back to North Carolina to pay for the very same people on Medicaid.

The tax men and women gets you coming and going, don't they? One way or another, you are going to pay for it all.

23.1% of the NC 'General Fund' budget (which you and I pay) goes to Medicaid directly.
55.6% of the NC General Fund goes to pay for education in the state.

78.7% of the NC direct-paid general fund money goes to support 2 programs: education and Medicaid. Nothing else comes close. Justice and Public Safety is the only other double-digit account out there:


Recommended General Fund Budget for the 2013 - 15 Biennium
General Fund Budget, 2013-14

Education                                   $11,447,216,421                               55.6%
General Government                       $430,330,602                                 2.1%
Health and Human Services          $4,758,925,668                               23.1%
Justice and Public Safety              $2,363,610,052                               11.5%
Natural and Economic Resources    $332,333,565                                1.6%
Transportation                                                     0                                0.0%
Capital Improvements                        $32,067,122                                0.2%
Debt Service                                   $718,109,996                                 3.5%
Reserves and Adjustments               $519,075,178                                2.5%
Total                                            $20,601,668,604                             100.0%

As Medicaid 'mistakes' keep being uncovered to the tune of $258 million, it won't be long before the Health and Human Services account above becomes the Pac-Man of state government and chews up all available money.

It already is taking serious money from education in the state. Do you want Medicaid to also crowd out our justice, public safety and prison system next?  How about protection of our air and water? It can't crowd out the interest we pay on our existing debt. Interest always gets paid on debt first no matter what the other needs of the state might be today.

Don't fall back on the easiest bromide of them all: 'We'll just raise taxes on the rich people!' They'll just find other ways to shelter their income or move assets to the Cayman Islands like President Obama's former chief of staff and now United States TREASURY Secretary Jack Lew did for many years.

You may be mad that public education isn't getting 'enough' money in your estimation in the biennial budget. You may be upset that higher public education in North Carolina is being forced to tighten its belts year after year after year.*

But what you have to realize is that 'budgets drive policy'. Always have, always will. In any walk of life. If you don't have the money to pay for something, it is just another good idea or well-intentioned plan.

The North Carolina Medicaid budget is in dire need of big changes so it will work and do what it is intended to do: help the poorest of our citizens get the health care coverage they need.

It also must be reformed to make sure that it doesn't continue to grow unabated and prevent our state from having the absolute best primary, secondary and higher education system humanly possible.

It can be done. But Medicaid has to be done differently than in the past.

*(North Carolina's in-state tuition is still the best deal by about 50% vis-a-vis our Virginia neighbors to the north and our South Carolina friends to the south. Move to either state and your son or daughter's in-state tuition will be roughly double what you are paying in-state to North Carolina public universities. One way to find multi-millions of dollars of more resources for the UNC System is to equalize the in-state tuition to at least 80% of what our neighboring states charge their in-state students...but that is for another discussion)























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