To stanch the fiscal hemorrhage, the conservative Heritage Foundation says Florida could save $28 billion over five years by simply opting out of Medicaid. Though that might sound like a radical move, it dovetails philosophically with Attorney General Bill McCollum's lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare.
Opting out also matches legislators' determination to pass a constitutional amendment to prevent the federal government from compelling people to participate in any health-care system. Both the House and the Senate have listed the resolution -- AJR 1 and SJR 1 respectively -- as their first order of business in 2011.
Medicaid is funded differently than Medicare. States have to provide matching grants to Medicaid. No matching funds from Florida means no federal funding. Florida is facing serious problems funding Medicaid. That is due to Florida's economic problems and the Republican obsession with tax cuts. Republicans have long hated Great Society programs like Medicaid. The best way to kill it is not fund it.
The Florida government is running a $3 billion budget deficit going into the new legislative session. The Florida constitution demands that the budget be balanced. Which is why Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon called tax cuts a "top priority."
We also asked Cannon about how the Legislature can afford to approve tax cuts or incentives for businesses this year after news this week that the state's budget shortfall is $3 billion or more.
"It is something that is literally the top priority," Cannon said. "Finding out where to make those cuts and how to make those policy changes to support them is the biggest item, I think, in the windscreen of the Legislature right now."
Incoming Florida Gov. Rick Scott has made the campaign promise of a 19 percent property tax cut. Property taxes have become regressive in Florida. Reform is needed. It is hard to see how Scott can pull off that big of a tax cut when the budget shortfall. It weren't work, but I have no doubt Scott and the Republicans in the Florida legislature will push for tax cuts. Damn the consequences.
Cannon and other Florida Republicans are planning to pay for the tax cuts by cutting Medicaid. There is nothing Democrats in the Florida legislature can do about it. Sen. Joe Negron is planning $2 billion in Medicaid cuts.
Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, who chairs the Senate health budget committee, said he expects to have to trim $1 billion to $2 billion in healthcare costs. He said he is targeting ``soft'' services, such as payments to consultants who don't provide direct care to patients.
Administrative costs do eat up a portion of health care funding. I doubt Negron is going to find $2 billion in savings. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer cut Medicaid costs by refusing to cover transplant surgery. Brewer has refused to call a special session to address the issue. Brewer's policy has placed the lives of people needing transplants at risk. Brewer dismissed the complaints of patients to Think Progress.
Brewer is incorrect about only bone marrow patients not being able to get transplants. Randy Shepherd is in need of a heart transplant. Tiffany Tate fears that if she doesn't get a transplant she will die.
This is the kind of Medicaid we are going to get in Florida if Republicans have their way. J.D. Alexander makes the debunked argument of trickle down economics.
``It's too early to speak to that, one way or the other,'' said Senate Budget Chairman JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales. ``Clearly, putting more money in people's pockets helps them to grow business and feed their families. But, that said, we are facing a fairly challenging economic situation.''
Florida has a tax system that provides tax cuts for stadium luxury suites and yachts. Yet Floridians will see Medicaid cut by Republicans that have long made their contempt for government health care well known. People should be very worried. I'm sorry, but Rick Scott and Dean Cannon are the last two people I want to be making decisions on health care.
The Florida government is in a deficit. The Florida Seminoles gambling compact could bring in an estimated $100 million-a-year in tax revenue. Marco Rubio has taken an anti-tax stance. The Seminoles offered to pay taxes to have slot machines and baccaret. Rubio fought the deal to appease social conservatives. Republican legislators, in their grandstanding, fail to mention that the Seminoles will get new gambling rights through the Department of the Interior.
Lead House negotiator Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, warned that if Crist gives the Seminoles too sweet a deal, lawmakers may throw up their hands and bump the negotiations up to the U.S. Department of the Interior. Doing so would mean the tribe, which is considered an independent nation, would get expanded casino style gambling and the state would be left out in the cold.
At issue is "exclusivity," or how many more games the Seminoles can offer than their competition.
"It's my understanding is that has been their focus," Galvano said during a break in the negotiations.
The gambling industry has been supportive of Galvano. Republicans can not act independantly from lobbyists and contributors. The federal government will grant the Seminoles will get increased gambling rights. The state is in a bad economic downturn. Florida will lose tax dollars if no compact is reached. Galvano and other Republicans have had two years to reach an agreement with the Seminoles. Galvano and other Republican are more concerned about pleasing dog racetracks than dealing with Florida's deficit. Gov. Charlie Crist illegally went around the Florida legislature to an agreement with the Seminoles. The tribe has been a generous contributor to Crist's campaigns. The Seminole compact disaster illustrates how the current GOP refuses to place responsible governing over special interests.
Galvano's threat to the Seminoles is they will not take Seminole tax dollars and the Department of Interior will grant the Seminoles increased gambling priviledges. The Seminoles will still be allowed to run their new games. (They never stopped.) Does anyone believe this intimidates the Seminoles?
More news that will drive anti-outsourcing progressives batshit.
A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute found that Florida lost 100,900 jobs from 2000 to 2007. It is not just manufacturing jobs. The technology sector is feeling the pinch.
Increased imports of computers and electronics account for nearly half of the $178 billion trade deficit between 2001 and 2007.
More than a quarter of last year's $68 billion trade deficit came from advanced technology products. In comparison, the U.S. has a $15 billion trade surplus with the rest of the world in advanced technology products.
More than half of the jobs displaced by trade to China were in the top half of the country's wage earners.
A Center of American Progress study shows Florida having 0 percent growth in manufacturing jobs. Although, I do question where the study finds a 1.3 percent growth in non-manufacturing jobs. (Perhaps from population growth.) I wrote a recent post about increased unemployment in Florida.
My views on outsourcing are more tempered. One of these days, I will finally get around to writing a post on outsourcing.
In other news: the Florida budget is going to take more cuts. The state deficit is increasing. Governor Charlie Crist's solution is to tap into the state coffers.
Recognizing that possibility, legislators earlier this year gave Crist authority to use half of the $700 million in the state's budget-stabilization fund to patch holes in the 2008-09 spending plan.
Once that money is depleted, Crist could then tap as much as $1 billion from the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund, usually used to finance health-care programs, to bring the budget back into balance.
Florida's economic woes are being felt at the county level. Alachua County has a $14 billion deficit. There is no daylight in the near future. Crist and the legislature lack the political courage to clean up the tax loopholes. Crist and the legislature have forced counties to increase property taxes and then tell voters they will relieve their property taxes. The Florida tax system is a shell game. The latest is the Amendment 5 proposal that would cut property taxes. Sales taxes would make up the difference. Crist lacks the courage to firmly say if he supports the amendment.
"I'm evaluating it," he said. "I think the closer we get to November the better idea we'll have about our level of involvement."
