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Friday, May 16, 2008
Education and health care bills worthy of GOP
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Saving the best for last, Gov. Sonny Perdue “sealed his legacy as one of America’s foremost ‘education governors’ ” last week.
That’s the view of Lori Drummer, director of state projects for the Washington-based Alliance for School Choice, the nation’s largest nonprofit promoting school vouchers and scholarship tax credit programs. “Georgia is now a national leader in a school choice movement that is gaining momentum,” she said.
The reason for her exuberance? On the final day allotted to deal with legislation passed by this year’s General Assembly, Perdue signed a bill authored by State Rep. David Casas (R-Lilburn) that will assist families, like those poor souls in Clayton County whose children are held hostage by a system in turmoil.
The bill Perdue signed will allow corporations and individuals to get tax credits for donations to organizations that give scholarships to parents who want to put their children in better schools.
With two other pieces of education legislation signed earlier, this session — the squabbling notwithstanding — will go down as one of the most productive in two important areas since the GOP took control: education and health care. The bills signed earlier — one part of the governor’s agenda and the other authored by State Rep. Jan Jones (R-Alpharetta) — completed an education-reform trifecta.
The bill that grew out of an education commission the governor appointed gives local systems freedom from state regulations in return for promises to produce results in areas such as dropout reductions. It eliminates excuses and the tendency of local boards and superintendents to blame somebody else, usually the state, for their failure to educate.
The Jones bill promotes public school choice and establishes the important principle that the money follows the child.
The education trifecta this year had a number of heroes. There were Perdue, Jones and Casas, of course. Another is Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah), whose persistence and skill produced the first breakthrough last year with a voucher program for children with special needs. This year he maneuvered another education bill through the Senate that the Alliance for School Choice praises. In the House, Rules Committee Chairman Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs), an early advocate of the scholarship tax credit idea, was masterful behind the scenes in easing passage of Casas’ bill, a legacy achievement.
Less noted, but remarkable still, are the successes in the health care arena. Perdue earlier this month signed legislation that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich described as “an extraordinary new law that will make Georgia the national leader in new and innovative solutions to expand health coverage.”
It’s a combination of the governor’s bill and one offered by State Sen. Judson Hill (R-Marietta). One part exempts insurers from a state premium tax for high-deductible plans with a health savings account (HSA), and allows individuals to deduct premiums from their state income tax. Insurers can reward individuals for healthy lifestyles. Another provision provides a $250 tax credit for the self-employed and for small businesses that enroll employees in an HSA plan.
The importance of this is that it puts Georgia on an alternative course to government-sponsored universal health care. In urging Republicans not to surrender on the issue, former U.S. House majority leader Dick Armey of Texas, writing in The Wall Street Journal, had this to say:
“I believe the American people will reward innovative, principled leadership on health care. A rational, conservative solution to rising health care costs gets the government and other third parties out of our health care business.
“Both our families and the GOP can win by expanding health savings accounts, by allowing people to buy insurance across state lines, by doing away with tax policies that encourage third-party payment systems, and by embracing health care price disclosure.”
Congress has the larger role here. But Georgia is clearly on the right course in giving consumers choice — and incentive to be responsible. There is a conservative difference.
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Tainting McCain, raising the Barr
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention releases a study revealing that almost three in 10 households either have only a cellphone or seldom take calls on their land line. This need-to-know insight is brought to you from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Whatever.
The dying gasps of welfare-state financing are revealed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a post-Reagan Republican, who proposes to borrow $15 billion, pledging future lottery collections. The alternative would be to make unpopular spending cuts. The post-Reagan Republicans can look a lot like the Barack Obama Change-Democrats. That’s where they find common ground.
Get ready. Just as soon as Hillary is driven from the race for the Democratic nomination, partisans and their commentators on the left will make certain that the uttered, printed or e-mailed stupidity or racism of anybody who ever voted Republican is surgically attached to the hip of John McCain. It’ll be nasty. Voter ID times 10. All to drive turnout.
Anybody who steals the wedding and engagement ring of a deceased accident victim in the emergency room, as a Grady Hospital employee is accused of doing, is too immoral to live uncaged. A $20,000 reward has been posted for their return. Surely nobody would take money for doing the right thing in getting the rings back to her family.
The bulk of the $300 billion farm bill —- at least two-thirds —- goes to nutrition programs, including food stamps and emergency food aid. Congress is expanding eligibility, and therefore costs, though the program’s not serving all who are eligible now. It’s being done to attract urban reps in hopes of building a veto-proof majority for this pork-laden giveaway.
Whatever the look of the proposed MLK monument, it’s a far-too-tall 28 feet. That’s the problem with the Richard B. Russell monument on the grounds of the State Capitol. It’s far out of proportion to those added later, including Ellis Arnall and Jimmy Carter.
Bob Barr’s running for president as a Libertarian. First chore is to get the nomination. Then to be something other than a spoiler. No third parties for me, but he’d be my second choice for president among the current field.
“Some people talk about change,” says Rep. John Lewis. “I am change.” Proof yet again that political slogans are devoid of meaning. Lewis has his hands full. Opponent “Able” Mable Thomas, a state rep, is no slouch.
Great week for Gov. Sonny Perdue. He was Thinking Right on the bills he signed and those he vetoed. Guns, yes. Education, yes. Insurance, yes. Pork, no.
Complain all you want about the failure of the General Assembly to create a trauma-network entitlement, but the fact is that unless the Legislature finds a way to avoid that, the funding requirement won’t be $74 million —- the sum to be raised by a $10 tax on cars —- but $250 million or more. No specific tax should be levied for trauma centers. A designated tax becomes the funding base and an entitlement.
Oh, good. Jane Fonda’s finally back in the news again. It’s been forever, a couple of days anyway, since there was a Fonda sighting.
Conservation reduces Fulton County water use by 30 percent. So rates will be increased by 15 percent. Classic monopoly, which is why most liberals would nationalize the oil companies. Take the profits for “social good” and tax up the price to force people out of the hated SUVs.
Please wake the voters in former state Rep. Ron Sailor Jr.’s district in the DeKalb-Rockdale area. They had grown so accustomed to him missing votes that they came to believe they weren’t entitled to representation. In a five-candidate contest to replace him this week, only 523 people voted. A House district population is about 45,500. The top two got a total of 263. I’d tell you when the runoff is, but nobody cares.
The California Supreme Court’s 4-3 decision on marriage is precisely the reason voters in Georgia and elsewhere amended state constitutions. Activist judges willing to substitute their social views for those of legislators exist everywhere. A measure expected to be on the ballot in California in November will declare that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” Some 1.1 million signatures have been gathered to put it on the ballot; 763,790 are required.
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