The LuLac Edition #2407, April 23rd, 2013
Kathy Dobash, candidate for Luzerne County Council. (Photo: LuLac archives).
DOBASH’S FORMAL CANDIDACY ANNOUNCEMENT
Hazleton resident Kathy Dobash has been circulating a pithy 30 second video announcing her candidacy for Luzerne County Council. Unfortunately we can’t pull it up on the site but here’s a synopsis of her platform.
Republicans, I appreciate your support as I campaign for a seat on Luzerne County Council. Democrats, I ask for your vote and write in my name. It would be an honor to serve and protect your tax dollars. I'm Kathy Dobash and I'm running for Luzerne County Council.
I've shown my commitment to our county residents by frequently attending Luzerne County council meetings for the past two years.
I will not vote to raise taxes.
I will insist that our government employees share the costs of their healthcare.
I will demand the county manager lives within the budget.
I promise to work to improve transparency in County Government by ensuring that all members of Council follow the Sunshine law with deliberations at public meetings.
This is the most appropriate way to move our county forward.
Sincerely, Kathy Dobash Candidate for Luzerne County Council "Together, Let's make Luzerne County better".
Dobash has been a candidate before and is a frequent speaker at Luzerne County Council meetings.
BLAKE ON THE CASE
With Governor Tom Corbett still resisting the Medicaid money for the State, 22nd District Senator John Blake has stepped up his effort to get the Governor to change his mind. In a social media outreach to his constituents as well as the General Public, Blake has mounted an effort to get Corbett to come around on an issue, that if left unchanged, will cost the state a lot of money. Plus residents who otherwise would have health care, will have to do without. Here’s what Blake wrote in his newsletter:I was hoping I could share the good news that Gov. Corbett had acted to include Pennsylvania in the growing list of states to accept our federal government’s offer to pay for an expanded Medicaid program, but we’re still waiting.
There is a powerful and growing consensus in support of the expansion of PA’s Medicaid program. Consider the numbers and it’s a no-brainer. There’s something for everyone.
The Rand Corporation did a study that said Pennsylvania’s participation in the program would mean an additional $2.5 billion from the federal government. And, between 2014 and 2020, the state’s “cumulative inflow” of federal funds under Medicaid expansion would be $16.5 billion higher than if the state declines the invitation to participate.
(http://www.rand.org/news/press/2013/03/28.html) (http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR256)
Dollars aside, Rand found that 350,000 additional Pennsylvanians would finally be able to have health care insurance, reducing the staggering costs our hospitals – and, indeed, all taxpayers bear – for uncompensated or unfunded care. Further, the Rand study confirms that Medicaid expansion will sustain more than 35,000 jobs. The enrollment of 350,000 more Pennsylvanians in Medicaid will drop the state’s uninsured rate from 12.7 percent to 8.1 percent. By 2016, it would dramatically fall to 4.8 percent.
The time is now for Gov. Corbett to move and to do what is right.
Call, email, tweet, Facebook or write to him to tell him that you want federal tax dollars paid by Pennsylvanians to come back to this state to help our people.
Gov. Corbett’s Office of Public Liaison: 717-787-5825
https://www.facebook.com/Gov.TomCorbett https://twitter.com/GovernorCorbett
posted by David Yonki @ 6:54 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
STAND STRONG TOM!!
Reject the Medicaid expansion.
Greater dependence on federal dollars tangles the states in bad fiscal policy and bad health care policy. States that reject the expansion avoid relying on unsound federal revenues, stretching an already thin program beyond its means and adding millions to a failing program.
Scale back existing eligibility where possible.
Some states have allowed Medicaid to grow beyond its original intent by moving middle-class families into a welfare program. To restore Medicaid as a safety-net program, states should review eligibility levels, scale back eligibility where possible, and restore the program’s focus on its core Medicaid functions.
Advance a separate, state alternative.
Instead of using a flawed Obamacare model, states should put in place an alternative. States should develop a state solution tailored to the specific needs of this new population rather than placing them in a one-size-fits-all Medicaid option.[14] A non-Medicaid, state-based approach, especially for this targeted population, would give states the control to design policies best suited to addressing the needs of their citizens without onerous Medicaid constraints.
Congress should eliminate the federal enhanced Medicaid match.
To avoid the argument that states rejecting Medicaid are leaving federal dollars on the table, Congress should level the playing field by removing the new, enhanced federal dollars. This would remove/minimize the temptation of excessive and unsustainable federal funding and restore fiscal constraint at the federal level. States would still be able to expand eligibility but would have to do so with the traditional (non-enhanced) federal matching rate. If Congress ignores this opportunity to restrain federal spending, it could “block grant” the enhanced federal dollars to the states to develop their own state-specific approaches, including alternatives outside of Medicaid.
An Alternate Solution is needed
Medicaid is already spread too thin. Adding a new and complex population to this program does not solve its challenges; it only makes them worse. States should resist, and Congress should remove, this temptation. Both should begin to lay out a better and more sustainable alternative than a failing government health program to care for the less fortunate.
STAND STRONG TOM!
Dobash: "I will not vote to raise taxes".
Not even in an emergency? Like, oh say, flooding? What if we actually need money and revenue, you know, to fix the post-apocalyptic areas of downtown that would be a major flood's inevitable result? And judging from recent years, that's not out of the realm of possibility.
This is some Grover Norquist/bratty teenager stuff right here... Kathy Dobash is quite the idiot, wouldn't you say?
8:14 PM, You're right, lets get those bums from the middle class of Medicaid and please don't accept federal money to give our citizens health care coverage. You sound like a government worker who gets good health care benefits so as long as your OK, all is well with the world......NOT!
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Kathy Dobish, will she ever just go away. I have watched her at meetings and listened to her on the radio and yes, I even heard her give a speech. 51 cards!
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Kathy shows her mind set and lack of government operational knowledge when she pledges to NEVER vote to raise taxes. How can any responsible candidate make such a pledge. Luzerne county has eliminated hundreds of jobs and office are working full blast to just keep up. Older employees are getting ready to retire and the younger employees are being cut so who is being trained to take over? Many county positrons require on the job training and at this rate there will be no trainers for the trainees. The cost of everything goes up every year and not just in our own homes but at the work place also. Kathy just doesn't have a clue.
7:37
If ObamaCare and Medicare are so great why is the House and Senate both making plans to exempt themselves.
Step away from the Kool-Aid and think.
Hey 11:08
"Not even in an emergency?"
Please identify for me any 3 recent (I'll give you 50 years) temporary taxes? Defined as "a tax initiated on the general public for a limited time and specific purpose that was repealed within 8 years". Fair enough?
It's easier to identify tax breaks for citizens that were temporary.
8:36 PM...... The Congress is not working at exempting itself from Obama Care, they have health coverage so it does not pertain to them. This is not a single payer issue. So, I'l stop drinking their kool aid if you stop swallong the Conservative bullshit.
7:35 - You're missing the point. Pledging to never raise taxes is a fool's move and certainly not one that any person running for elected office should make. It doesn't result in small government, it results in underfunded government. In an emergency, like a major flood hitting Luzerne County, taxes are probably the last thing anyone should be worried about. If you don't like taxes, move to Texas - after the West, TX plant explosion (a result of a disturbing lack of regulation and a commonly exploited loophole in inspection law) Gov. Perry's low-tax paradise got on its knees to beg for federal help.
Dobash belongs at a Tea Party rally with the rest of the nuts, not in government, local or otherwise.
7:39
Congressional leaders in both parties are engaged in high-level, confidential talks about exempting lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides from the insurance exchanges they are mandated to join as part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, sources in both parties said. The talks — which involve Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Obama administration and other top lawmakers — are extraordinarily sensitive, with both sides acutely aware of the potential for political fallout from giving carve-outs from the hugely controversial law to 535 lawmakers and thousands of their aides. Discussions have stretched out for months.
…if Capitol Hill leaders move forward with the plan, they risk being dubbed hypocrites by their political rivals and the American public. By removing themselves from a key Obamacare component, lawmakers and aides would be held to a different standard than the people who put them in office. …
There is concern in some quarters that the provision requiring lawmakers and staffers to join the exchanges, if it isn’t revised, could lead to a “brain drain” on Capitol Hill, as several sources close to the talks put it.
I'm beginning to consider moving to Texas. I feel more comfortable with the Tea Party nuts than the Occupy Anything nuts. Met many of both and I choose civility and logic (my conclusion).
Too criticize Perry for his request to help his citizens with the citizens tax money that the citizens sent to Washington is bully ignorance. Using this template California, Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York or any high tax state is able to finance disasters from there overflowing state treasuries. Uh-huh. Remember the strings that come with the Federal aid. Letting us rebuild in the flood plain?
2:06 That's just plain and pure bullshit. The Affordable Health Care Act is a vehicle to put people into health care coverage. If you have coverage and are happy with it, there is no change in place for you and that includes Congress. Stop with the BS Conservative line already.
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Kathy Dobish's plen to never raise taxes is beyond stupid and unworkable. We don't need a huge problem such as a flood, all we need is for the day to day costs of government operations to increase and they always do. Think back to what you earned in the 60;s, 70;s and 80;s would that income carry you now? Of course not. Inflation increases regardless of how it is determined. Let's not forget that the no so great Ronald Reagon removed the cost of housing from the cost of living index which made him a hero to the brainless. So the County Council should just tell the fuel companies, the power com;panies, the insurance companies to stick their increases because Kathy Dobish is not going to raise taxes? Stupid empty promise and the backbone of the Tea Party which by the way I think should be named the Koolaide Party as in Jones Town.
The Affordable Health Care Act is a vehicle to put people into health care coverage. If you have coverage and are happy with it, there is no change in place for you and that includes Congress.
Did you just awake from a comma or develop early onset awareness denial. Either way: cast your net wider, you'll be surprised what's out there.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/obamacare-exemption-lawmakers-aides-90610.html
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/04/26/dems-on-capitol-hill-retreat-from-obamacare-exemption/
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