The Sacramento Bee

Maya MacGuineas in Sacramento Bee | 'Dems Intend to Spend, But With What?'

Communications — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:46:00 -0500

New America in the News:

Dems Intend to Spend, But With What? (The article appears in the Sacramento Bee, CA and the Youngstown Vindicator, OH)

"It is getting a little bit discouraging that promises that are on the wrong side of the ledger … are starting to add up. It gets more and more difficult to see how any of the candidates can meet the full portfolio of promises" they've made, said Maya Macguineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a bipartisan group that advocates balanced budgets. ...

Gregory Rodriguez's New Book Featured in The Sacramento Bee

Communications — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:15:00 -0500

New America in the News:

As Ward Connerly prepares initiatives to abolish race-based affirmative action in five more states, New America Foundation fellow Gregory Rodriguez, no fan of Connerly's movement, has published an eye-opening book that nonetheless reinforces deep questions about the nation's racial assumptions and categories.

Connerly is the Sacramento businessman and ex-regent of the University of California who drove the successful campaigns overturning race-based preference policies in public education, employment and contracting in California, Washington and Michigan. He's now planning similar campaigns in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Connerly's most notable failure was the overwhelming defeat of California's Proposition 54 in 2003, which would have prohibited the use of official racial categories in all instances where they were not required by federal law and not essential to public safety. Those categories, Connerly said, legitimized racial divisions that were long obsolete.

Rodriguez's book, "Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans and Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and the Future of Race in America" raises similar questions but folds them into a compelling, extensively documented history, going back to the conquistadors, of the consequences of the Mexican racial and cultural synthesis called mestizaje – the mixing of Spaniard and Indian. ...

For the complete article, please follow this link.

Rethinking Subsidies for Health Care

Articles — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 09:06:00 -0400

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislative leaders Fabian Núñez and Don Perata have found common ground on the central goal of health care reform: to cover the millions of California workers and their families who don’t get health insurance through their jobs and can’t afford to buy it themselves. The harder part, to no one’s surprise, is agreeing on a way to pay for it.

The governor set out this year to take a big step closer toward universal health coverage by expanding public insurance coverage, requiring every Californian who is not eligible for public programs to buy private insurance and… more

Sacramento Bee Editorial Features Michael Lind's Tax Credit Ideas

Communications — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 05:43:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Here's an interesting factoid to ponder on Labor Day. The vast majority of working Americans pay a greater share of their federal taxes as payroll taxes, not income taxes. In fact, 86 percent of wage earners pay more in payroll taxes than income taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center.

Why should this matter?

First, the payroll tax, which pays for Social Security and Medicare, is regressive -- that is, lower- and middle-income workers pay a higher share of their income in this tax than do high-income workers. It is a flat 15.3 percent tax (split between worker and employer -- though economists say the employer's share ultimately is shifted to workers in the form of lower wages). It does not apply to wages above $97,500....

Second, as Michael Lind notes in "Share the Credit" in the September issue of American Prospect magazine, many workers cannot take advantage of many tax benefits -- from the home mortgage interest deduction to various child care and savings credits. They just don't pay enough in income taxes to benefit from these tax credits. The system is set up so that workers claim these tax credits against income taxes, not payroll taxes.

Lind thinks that should change, too. His idea is to make all Americans who pay payroll taxes eligible for every existing income tax credit.This idea has been around for some time on the child tax credit. Lind asks a good question: Why limit it to just that one tax credit?

Of course, the federal government would have to make up for lost revenue. But that could have good effects, too, making the tax system more fair and less complicated....

Details aside, Lind's point is a valid one: American workers who pay payroll taxes should not be discriminated against in favor of Americans who pay income tax. Both Republicans and Democrats should be able to agree on that. How about that for a post-Labor Day agenda in Congress and going into the 2008 presidential election?

For the complete editorial, please visit The Sacremento Bee's web site.

Sacramento Bee Cites Peter Harbage on CA Health Care

Communications — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 09:42:00 -0400

New America in the News:

A debate winding to a close in Washington could undermine ambitious health care proposals by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrats in the Legislature that would provide coverage to every uninsured child in California.

The State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, a bipartisan compromise created a decade ago from the embers of the Clinton universal health care plan, expires on Sept. 30.

As federal lawmakers prepare to leave this week for a monthlong summer recess, the U.S. Senate and House are grappling with separate bills that would dramatically increase SCHIP funding to states -- the Senate by $35 billion over five years, the House by $50 billion -- by raising tobacco taxes...

But President Bush has threatened to veto both congressional bills and instead has proposed a $5 billion increase in funding over five years.

A recent study by a research team led by Peter Harbage of the New America Foundation found California alone would need an additional $4.2 billion during that period to cover eligible children...

For the complete article, please visit The Sacramento Bee website.

Downsides of our Presidential System

Articles — Wed, 30 May 2007 11:01:00 -0400

The Bush administration seems to be reeling from policy failure to scandal.

Key administration officials have resigned, President Bush’s approval ratings are in the high 20s, with support dwindling even among Republicans and high-ranking military officers. Ed Rollins, a Republican strategist who ran Ronald Reagan’s 1984 presidential campaign, has said, "The country doesn’t believe George W. Bush, it doesn’t trust him, and with 19 months to go it’s only going to get worse." The government of George W. Bush clearly has "fallen," in the classic parliamentary sense. President Bush is the lamest of ducks.

Yet our presidential system does not have a… more

Gov. Schwarzenegger Cites New America Study in Sacramento Bee

Communications — Fri, 11 May 2007 14:12:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, legislative leaders and a coalition of business executives presented a united front Thursday, calling for an overhaul of California's health care system.

But midway through the legislative session that ends Sept. 14, Democrats and Republicans remain divided on how to reduce costs and the ranks of the more than 6.5 million Californians without insurance.

"Everyone is in sync that we need health care reform," the governor said at a Capitol news conference to tout the formation of the Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform, a business group...

Five overhaul proposals are being considered in the Capitol, including competing plans by Democrats and Republicans in each house of the Legislature. Even more coalitions have been established by groups protecting their turf...

Schwarzenegger's plan seeks to bridge the differences between the parties by requiring both employers and employees to contribute to their health coverage.

The governor's plan would cover more people than any other proposal -- and require hospitals and doctors to subsidize insurance for the poor.

"The sad story is that the (people) who are insured pay for the uninsured," Schwarzenegger said, alluding to a study by the New America Foundation that found the average family with insurance pays $1,200 a year to subsidize health care for the uninsured. "So what we want to do is get rid of the hidden tax..."

For the complete article, please visit The Sacramento Bee website.

An Unholy Alliance

Articles — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 00:20:00 -0400

Five hundred million dollars is a lot of money -- especially for a public university. When the giant oil company BP announced Feb. 1 that it had chosen the University of California, Berkeley, to lead the largest academic-industry research consortium in U.S. history, University of California officials appeared giddy.

If the deal is approved, BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, will give $500 million over 10 years to create a multidisciplinary Energy Biosciences Institute at UC Berkeley. Berkeley would partner with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to establish the institute devoted to researching biofuels… more

Stanford's Deal with Exxon Mobil Raised Concerns

Articles — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 17:22:00 -0400

The alliance between the oil giant BP and the University of California, Berkeley, stands out because of its $500 million price tag, its commercial scope and the potential for BP to exert excessive influence over the academic research. But it isn’t an isolated case.

The second largest such partnership is a 10-year, $225-million deal Stanford University signed with Exxon Mobil and other energy firms in 2002 to fund a Global Climate and Energy Project.

The Stanford deal was controversial from the start, but one aspect recently captured headlines. The San Jose Mercury News reported March 11 that Steve Bing -- a… more

Daniel Weintraub Writes on Immigration and Kids Savings Accounts

Communications — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 19:45:00 -0500

New America in the News:

Two seemingly unrelated developments last week tell us a lot about immigration and the public's attitude toward it.

One was the conservative reaction to a bill introduced in the Legislature that would give a $500 savings account to every child born in California.

The other was a study by the Public Policy Institute of California concluding that immigration -- legal and illegal -- tends to increase wages for everyone except earlier immigrants.

The savings bill was introduced by two state senators, Democrat Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento and Republican Bob Dutton of Rancho Cucamonga.

It was a pale imitation of an idea first advanced by authors Bruce Ackerman and Anne Alstott in their book, "The Stakeholder Society." Ackerman and Alstott propose that all Americans receive $80,000 from the government on their 21st birthday so that they can buy property, start a business or pay their way through college.

The notion has been kicking around think tank circles for years and has attracted some support from across the ideological spectrum. The idea is to give every American a stake in society, to ensure that even those children born to poor parents and raised in disadvantaged neighborhoods have an opportunity to move into the middle class.

The California version introduced by Steinberg and Dutton was inspired by the New America Foundation, which promotes bipartisan solutions to difficult problems. The $500 grant the bill proposes would be deposited in a state account in each child's name, and friends and relatives would be encouraged to add to the stake over time. Upon turning 18, the recipient could withdraw the money and spend it for a house, education, vocational training or to put into a retirement account...

For the complete article, please visit The Sacramento Bee website.