Washington Policy Watch

From the Everett Herald:

Does the arc of the moral universe bend toward justice? Martin Luther King Jr. believed that it did, and so have millions of other people who want to see justice achieved.

But justice and injustice are episodic. We have made great progress in the 20th and 21st centuries, progress for well-being, democracy and peace. We have vanquished racial segregation. We have witnessed the overthrow of the apartheid regime in South Africa. Women have gained power, respect and esteem.

But horrible things have happened as well: the Holocaust, the increasing and exponential overcrowding of this planet, the impoverishment of billions of people, coup after coup to prevent democratization of economies and governance throughout the world, and the polarization of wealth and income in our own country. We make progress in some areas and fall back in others. There is certainly no continuous progress toward justice.

This is why the second part of Dr. King’s discussion of the arc bending toward justice is of far greater importance. “It does not bend on its own. It bends because each of us in our own ways put our hand on that arc and we bend it in the direction of justice.”

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From the Seattle Post-Globe:

The health care debate is heating up, for good reason. In our state, tens of thousands of people lost their health coverage when they lost their jobs. They will soon be joined by tens of thousands more who are losing their Basic Health coverage. The number of uninsured has spiked to almost 900,000 people. One out of five adults between 19 and 64 has no health coverage. Meanwhile, businesses which offer health coverage are facing another round of escalating health care costs. And just this month Premera Blue Cross is increased its individual rates by over six percent.

Where’s the hope? Wasn’t that what millions of Americans voted for last November? Hope lies in the push by President Obama for universal coverage. It won’t be easy. The national discussion about health care is undergoing the lobbyists’ metamorphism. All during the Presidential campaign, the run-up to the inauguration, and the first months of President Obama’s administration, the focus was on universal health coverage. But in the past two months, it has switched to making sure that private insurance is not undercut by a public program.

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It’s been about eight years since we’ve heard the “deficit hawks” sing their song – but it’s an easy one to remember because the tune is always the same. Funny how it’s always sung loudest when the conversation turns to investments in improved health, education or infrastructure.

So says Robert Reich in The Great Debt Scare is back, in response to New York Times article predicting a sea of red ink in federal finances. The bottom line, as David Fiderer writes, the Obama administration has inherited a situation in which future deficits will dwarf all those prior to 2009.

Most states don’t have the option of deficit spending — and with the worst recession in generations now gripping the country, they’re grappling with steep declines in tax receipts. Faced with massive cuts to K-12 education, public universities, health programs, and other vital public structures, elected leaders are looking for new revenue to balance the books.

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In the battle over the federal estate tax, the latest issue of Rolling Stone drops some names: Seattle Times publisher Frank Blethen, Senators Murray and Cantwell, and Representative Jim McDermott all get ink. (Hat tip Publicola, which did beat Rolling Stone to this on a couple of counts already.)

Schooooool’s out…for summah! Goldy tackles equity, access and money in Seattle’s neighborhood schools - and spells out why the sorry state of Washington’s tax structure means parents and students are paying more for college.

Undercounting unemployment: Both Schmudget and Joe Turner at the News Tribune take a closer look at the traditional unemployment stats, which count those looking for work who can’t find it, and find that if you include those who have given up looking for work, the rate is much higher: 15.8% in Washington State, and 16.4% nationally, to be exact.

Big questions, clear answers on health care reform: Is “socialized” the same as “single-payer”? What is the “public option”? And who’s going to pay? If you’re looking for clear answers to complicated questions, Ezra Klein has you covered.

Economic stimulus in unexpected places: Yesterday EOI staffer Gary Burris pointed out how increasing Social Security benefits would boost economic growth. Today DMI Blog highlights new research the Economic Policy Institute showing the stimulative impact of raising the minimum wage.

Who’ll Care for Aging Adults? The Work and Family Network says their kids will – for as long as they can, anyway. But in the long run, we’ll have to: “1) either overhaul the way the country provides and pays for the care of aging adults or 2) level with current and future caregivers, as well as the organizations that employ them, so they understand the hard facts and begin to plan accordingly.”

Paid Leave or Bust! (Literally.) DMI highlights a new study from Harvard University researchers finds that 62.1 percent of bankruptcies in 2007 had a medical cause, up from 46.2 percent in 2001. A health care system overhaul is imperative – but so is paid family and medical leave.

The national discussion about health care is undergoing the lobbyists’ metamorphism.  All during the Presidential campaign, the run-up to the inauguration, and the first months of President Obama’s administration, the focus was on universal health coverage.  But in the past two months, it has switched to making sure that private insurance is not undercut by a public program.

It is ironic that we are told to think of health care as a market good, but we are urged to not allow a competitor – the government – which most likely has a more efficient and better product.  We are not protecting the market in health care, we are protecting the cartels of the health care industry, from the for-profit insurance companies to the big corporate pharmaceutical companies, to health care providers themselves.

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Observations in political leadership from guest blogger Matt Loschen:

There I sat, listening to a speech that some would argue only gets delivered by radicals or rubes.

He said that in some ways we followed Rahm Emanuel’s advice and “didn’t let the crisis go to waste” this session (when it came to transportation). But he said the legislature blew it when it came to tax reform. He said we needed to ditch the current system and quit screwing the little guy. He said we should start taxing the wealthy to pay for healthcare and education, third rail be damned. He said that we had to stop hiding behind lame excuses, and get the job done. Most of his cohorts in the room nodded and applauded enthusiastically.

All except the woman seated next to him, who remained oddly silent.

Nope, not another Drinking Liberally meeting or a clutch of campus radicals. This was Sen. Ed Murray speaking at the Washington State Democrats Business Luncheon, held May 13th in that pinko enclave, the Washington Athletic Club. Eating our excellent lunches were revolutionaries in ties, from Boeing, Microsoft, etc. — none of whom appeared to be making a dash for the border to protect their wealth. On the contrary, they seemed to get the necessity of tax reform, and appreciated someone with the decisiveness to pull it off.

Then Sen Murray introduced Governor Gregoire.

Whenever the idea of a state income tax is brought up in Washington, you’ll often hear some variation on this theme: “Watch out, the rich will leave if you raise taxes!” The latest iteration is Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore’s column in today’s Wall Street Journal. The authors cite New Jersey, among other states, as emblematic of this problem — but they’ve overlooked a small detail shown in this little study from Princeton:

New Jersey’s net domestic out‐migration is primarily occurring at the bottom end of the income distribution level. Below the state’s median family income, there is a net loss of 26 people for every 100 out‐migrants. However, above New Jersey’s median income, there is a net gain of 5 people per 100 out‐migrants.

We note that in spite of net out‐migration, the number of half‐millionaires in New Jersey has increased sharply in recent years, from 26,000 in 2002 to 44,000 in 2006 (a 70% increase). Income growth among high earners has led to a tremendous increase in the number of people who fall into the half‐millionaire tax bracket. Using New Jersey tax records, we estimate that the new half‐millionaire tax rate has generated an average of $895 million per year in tax revenues, rising from $739 million in 2004 to over $1 billion in 2006.

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Health care “stakeholders” are meeting in Olympia to discuss how to take 40,000 people off the state’s health care plan, even while the numbers of uninsured grow. Drive half a day south and it’s a different story. San Francisco is enrolling 600 people a week in Healthy San Francisco, the city’s universal health-care program.

According to Mayor Gavin Newsom, Healthy San Francisco is cost-effective, simple to administer, preserves patient choice — and is ready to scale up:

I’ve been in our nation’s capital this week meeting with Obama Administration officials and Congressional leaders about national health care reform. Everywhere I go, from the White House to the Department of Labor to the U.S. Senate, I get the same question: can San Francisco’s universal health care program, Healthy San Francisco, be scaled?

The answer is yes.

The program got under way in 2007, and the results do look promising. It requires private companies with at least 20 employees and not-for-profit groups with at least 50 employees either to provide health care benefits to workers at a cost that meets minimum spending levels or help cover the cost of Healthy San Francisco. The program is not health insurance because it covers services only in San Francisco.

According to the Associated Press, elected leaders in Washington DC appear to be going in a different direction – but voices calling on Congress and the Obama administration to take a hard look at universal health care are growing louder:

…hundreds of nurses swarmed Capitol Hill on Wednesday to call for “single payer” — or government-run — health care, and demand “no” votes from liberal lawmakers on anything falling short. Congressional leaders on health care have taken single payer off the table as politically impractical.

Lawmakers move out, youth legislators  move in: Ironic that the state schools many of these student leaders probably hope to attend have moved further out of reach thanks to decisions made adults who sat in the very same chairs just a few days earlier. The students’ little brothers and sisters will be even worse off unless we find a way to address our state’s chronic revenue shortfall. Meantime, their future professors/faculty at the UW have been invited to consider organizing.

A mental “smack on the forehead”: H1N1 (swine flu) makes clear that everyone gets sick – or needs to care for someone who is – so for the sake of public health and family security, a few paid sick days a year for every worker is smart public policy. Michelle Obama gets that – and more. She’s urging employers to support families with paid sick leave, maternity leave and flexible work schedules. Now, federal workers are one step closer to having paid family leave for those very purposes.

Health insurance not a pretty picture: Using data from a 2005 U.S. Census Bureau survey, researchers have created a map showing the percentage of each county’s population that has no health insurance coverage. The picture hasn’t improved since – Washington Basic Health is no longer processing incoming applications and is preparing to disenroll 40,000 people from the program.

Ignatius: Boomers face retirement time bomb: People have accused the baby boomers of being whiners almost since we were born. But just wait until we get to retirement age and discover that we don’t have nearly enough money to take care of our “golden years.” That’s going to be the ultimate generational bummer.

Newspapers across the country are carrying articles, op-eds, and editorials about the need for minimum paid sick days for every American worker:

Washington: Sick with swine flu but no paid sick leave: Last week, The Seattle Times editorialized to “take care of yourself — wash your hands and cover your cough. If you’re ill with flu symptoms, go to the doctor, not to work.” And there is the catch. Not all of us have the right to even one day of sick leave. | Seattle Times

Connecticut: Paid sick leave should be required: No employee in Connecticut should fear losing a job for staying home when sick. And employers should recognize that over the long haul their enterprises are likely to be more productive while in the care of healthy employees. | Connecticut Post

North Carolina: Paid sick days for better health: [S]taying home from work when a slight fever sets in or you start to sneeze isn’t so simple for the many North Carolina workers who, in this economy, can’t afford to lose a day’s pay by missing work. | North Carolina News and Observer

New York: The Cost of Staying Home Sick: If President Obama is serious about responsible action to control infectious disease threats, he should back legislation to grant Americans at least seven paid sick days a year… . Then virtually all Americans could heed his advice, and we would all be safer. | New York Times

Philadelphia: Calling in sick: President Obama has been urging people to take the same steps as they would to prevent a regular flu: wash hands frequently; cover their mouths, and stay home from work if they are sick. It’s too bad that 57 million workers will have a hard time with that last one. | Philadelphia Daily News

Connecticut: Sick and Fired: If Kia Murrell gets sick, she can call out from work and still earn a day’s pay while recuperating at home. If Marie gets sick, she’s got to sniffle, sneeze and vomit her way through the work day. Murrell is a lobbyist for the Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA), the state’s largest business lobby. Marie drives buses for Bridgeport public schools. CBIA gives its employees paid sick days. Marie’s company doesn’t. If CBIA has its way, that’s how it will stay. | Hartford Advocate

Washington DC: Swine flu or not, many workers can’t stay home: The directions from health officials battling swine flu are clear: Stay home from work. Don’t risk infecting others. And certainly don’t send a sick kid to school. But what if you’re one of the estimated 57 million working Americans with no paid sick days? Staying home could mean losing a paycheck, or worse, losing your job entirely. | Washington Post

Connecticut: Staying Home Isn’t Always Possible: Experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and even the White House have reminded us of the simple, common-sense ways we can reduce the spread of the virus: Cover your mouth when you sneeze, wash your hands frequently and if you feel sick stay home from work or from school. It’s that last part, however, that could cause real problems. | Hartford Courant

New York: School flu closings put working moms in a bind: The goal is to keep the flu from spreading. But the request brings up a glaring disconnect…[n]early half of the people who work for private employers in the US have no paid sick leave, according to an analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among low-income workers in private employment, almost 80 percent have no paid sick time. | Christian Science Monitor

Connecticut: Food Workers’ Sick Pay Would Serve The Public: If Bill doesn’t go to work, he doesn’t get paid. Instead, he has dragged himself in when he shouldn’t have — and prepared food for the rest of us. He’s also sent people home who were too sick to be out of bed, much less preparing or serving food to the public. | Hartford Courant