Brian Zimmerman, writing for the Palladium-Item has an article entitled Pence: Tax cut, spend is possible. Gov. Pence made a speech at my old stomping grounds – Forest Hills Country Club.
Seriously, I spent a ton of time there. My folks were avid golfers, so when I was too young to golf, I was at the pool with my sisters. One of my best friends’ dad’s was the golf pro there before my uncle became the pro. My two brothers and I worked in the pro-shop at various times. (I worked there for 5 years – washing the clubs of, among others, the father of a current state Supreme Court justice and the father of a PGA pro.) For many years, most summer days seemed to consist of golfing there, working there, or hanging out with other kids who golfed and worked there.
But, I digress. Gov. Pence gave a speech there. In that speech, he apparently told the crowd that we can have our cake and eat it too. He characterizes Indiana as having “the largest surplus” in the state’s history. No doubt you have to squint and tilt your head just right to see it; selectively ignoring inconveniently large obligations of the state – unemployment insurance fund bail out money from the feds we have to pay back and underfunded state pensions come immediately to mind. Anyway, the surplus is so large, he says, that we can afford his promised 10% tax cut and, at the same time, spend more on roads and education and address Indiana’s 8.7% unemployment and 22% of Hoosier children living in poverty.
It’s a fine line to walk, trying to simultaneously brag about the fruits of sound fiscal policy for the last 8 years while also saying we don’t have enough money for the stuff you don’t happen to like; e.g., we have enough money for tax cuts, but not enough for Medicaid expansion (unless we use Indiana’s more expensive, less effective health care model).
So, what I’m really trying to say is that this winter is dragging on too long, and I’d really rather stop reading about politicians and go golfing. Also, you can see why my natural political inclinations are, pretty literally, those of a country club Republican.
We can’t afford preschool, even though it is the best bang for the buck:
http://neweconomist.blogs.com/new_economist/2007/08/james-heckman.html
I too grew up a country club child.
And fuck Mike Pence.
What could be more important than the health of our children? And Pence wants to deny poor children access to health care even though the federal govt will pay 90% of the bill.
What an asshole.
That 22% of Hoosier children living in poverty was a number that’s startling to me. But, here is some more information on that.
A recent UNICEF report put the US at 34 of 35 developed nations in child poverty. Only Romania had higher child poverty figures.
That report uses the term:
“% of children aged 0-17 living in households with equivalent incomes below 50% of the national median”
While this report highlights the real & serious issue of income inequality, calling it “child poverty” is misleading.
The facts are on your side, don’t stretch the truth. It gives others easy ways to ignore your point.
I believe that calling it “child poverty” is not misleading. The median income is 40,000$. $23,000 for a family of four is the poverty line. For a family of three it is $19000. Those figures in the UNICEF study are fairly concomitant with child poverty. It is not datum point for datum point, but the numbers are not far off.
It IS poverty compared to the rest of the US. It is not poverty compared to most other countries.
Using it as a measure against other countries to say how well off our people are is misleading.
We are splitting hairs, though, as we agree this is an issue that needs to be fixed.
Now is the time for people to remind our governor that he has claimed to be, first of all, a “Christian”. As I remember, scripture talks about “the poor” more than any other the topic, and the Lord does take a definite position on that issue (and He is pretty judgmental about that, too). Time to step up and show us your stuff, Mike, or just be another one of those hypocrite politicians who use your “beliefs” to wangle votes from gullible people. The data will be your judge.
Stuart, are you taking any bets on how the data will match up with Pence’s “beliefs”?
Like taking bets on a dead horse.
Just a quick clarification (of semantics, really) — though not to defend Pence or his illustrious predecessor, either. The unemployment insurance debt, still over $1.7 Billion owed to the federal government right now, is not a state obligation debt (does not factor into budget considerations or the state’s surplus calculations).
The debt is borne to primarily the businesses of the state who are paying both an extra fee for the FUTA tax (goes toward the federal unemployment trust fund, which is also bankrupt) and are also paying increased premiums for their unemployment “experience” ratings depending on their history of workers leaving employment.
Also, the unemployed have been hit hard as well — the way their claims are calculated have really hurt the total amounts received (the most one can get in a week is $390/week for 26 weeks — or $10,140, before the federal extensions).
Now, the primary reason, aside from the recession, the state is indebted to the federal government is because the Department of Workforce Development has improperly overpaid claimants over $2 Billion since 2006 (the reasons ranging from claimants were not searching for work, were not registered with employment services, were working and not reporting wages, cases were adjudicated improperly by DWD, etc.) DWD has taken absolutely ZERO responsibility for this debacle, and no one higher than them has held them responsible. The business community is furious about DWD’s errors, but because they are represented by the Indiana Chamber and Indiana Manufacturer’s Associations, etc. (groups also upset with DWD), they cannot get upset at the party in charge who is also pushing for reforms they do want (Right to Work, etc.).
Pence, so far, has been no better at reforming DWD as he decided to keep the same team in place at DWD who Daniels had (Commissioner Scott Sanders, et al). They were warned in 2007 and before that what they were doing was detrimental to the UI Trust Fund, and didn’t do anything about it (and still aren’t). Businesses and claimants in this state have lost big due to DWD’s errors.