Wednesday, January 9, 2013

ObamaCare

Someone was recently asking for a copy of the "ObamaCare" bill.

This is what I found:

HR 3962 was eventually passed as a different bill later that year. It is about 30 pages or less and you don't want it. You also don't want the ACA, you want:

the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) signed into law March 23, 2010 plus the amendments that are from the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, signed into law March 30, 2010. I believe the .pdf file I linked below does exactly that. I haven't found a better version.  There are apt to be changes since then, so it isn't current law.

http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf


For some really good information, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act

 


Sunday, January 6, 2013

The Caucus System in Utah

The caucus system is the best way to make sure grass roots movements can work over large amounts of money. It is the only way someone with $100,000 can go against someone with $2,000,000 in election funds.

There were about 60,000 republicans in Utah t
hat went to the neighborhood caucus elections in 2010 to elect the 3500 delegates. Add to those numbers to democrats and the primary elections and certainly the municipal elections didn't do any better in voter representation.

In 2012 the number showing up again doubled. You look at primary turnout and you will see that few voters would decide.

Most people that want the caucus system changed, there are exceptions, are frustrated that they don't have as much power as people that show up to the neighborhood election caucus meetings. It doesn't take money, you just have to show up.

What we need are more people getting involved earlier, not shutting down the system that protects us from power hungry people wanting to take over.


 If you are going to run as a democratic candidate, you have to comply with their rules. If you are going to run as a republican, you have to comply with their rules. If you want to run and not have those rules, you can run as an unaffiliated or independent. There are also 3rd party. This is an attempt to change the party rules by state law, bypassing the party and is even an attempt to change the law bypassing the legislature. That is called being a pirate. 

Bypassing the Caucus / Convention System will NOT create more participation. Between one of every 4 or 5 republicans attended their neighborhood election caucus meeting this last year. One is every three told a KSL poll they were involved or attending. There are 4000 state delegates that spend countless hours vetting candidates to be on the ballot. They are selected by those that attend the neighborhood election caucus meeting. You just have to come.

When people realize this will give them less of a chance to participate but give media and power brokers more power, they will not sign any initiative. It sounds good, but so did the unethical reform proposed as "ethical reform" which was a power grab by a few. That is what this is. It doesn't mean things can't be better, but this isn't the way to do it.

Friday, January 4, 2013

Utah Public Education Funding

It is crucial that Utah Public Education continue to do amazingly well with the resources we have using great teachers, innovation, and technology.

Education in Utah must be and is a priority. With approx. 600,000 K-12 students in Utah, It takes a lot of commitment. Out of the $5 Billion total "State" funds we invest approx. $2.5 Billion to K-12 Public Education and approx. $750 Million to Higher Education. Even with $13 Billion to work with including "State" funds and also funds for Federal Programs and others, we invest $3.7 Billion to K-12 Public Education and $1.4 Billion for Higher Education.

With the currently available resources, Utah does not have enough money for the demands for Public Education, Transportation, Water, Public Safety, Energy and others.  Raising Taxes isn't the answer as that can create bigger government and slower economic growth. 

Teachers often do not have the supplies they need, and in most cases deserve more pay for the critical work they do. Education Funding is too complex and funding doesn’t seem to make it to the classroom.

The above numbers were based on this report. start with page 13:
http://le.utah.gov/lfa/reports/bbib/APPEXE_03-08-12_5.pdf