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In trying to duck their Medicaid responsibilities, Republican governors could be rushing into a long-term budget disaster for their states.
Archive for the ‘Policy Analysis’ Category
February 17th, 2011
Can the assertion “Government is too big [or too small]” ever mean enough to support a serious conversation, much less a policy decision? How about “California [or the US; plug in your own jurisdiction larger than a small town] can’t afford [plug in a program]“? What could such statements mean, or be shorthand for?
February 15th, 2011
Over the past three years, we have experienced an amazing number of political, economic, and legislative trials. Have your views changed on anything important?
January 17th, 2011
Category: Affordable Care Act, Policy Analysis
As a follow-up to an earlier post, my Kaiser Health News high-risk pools piece is now up. Yeah the pre-existing condition insurance plans are problematic, embarrassingly under-funded stop-gap measures. Their inherent complexities create many administrative challenges and glitches. Yet this effort is taking more than its share of cheap shots, too. I think a key [...]
January 5th, 2011
For every dollar I pay in federal income tax, I pay only $0.13 to Illinois. That’s just not enough.
January 3rd, 2011
Category: Policy Analysis
The federal government requires many “metrics” from agencies it funds. Much of these data are costly to collect and don’t do much good.
August 25th, 2010
British Petroleum (and the government) apparently provided implausibly estimates of how much oil was spewing into the Gulf. This was obvious from the start. If reporters were more numerate, they would have known.
August 23rd, 2010
Welcome to Berkeley, probably still the best public university in the world. Meet your classmates, the best group of partners you can find anywhere. The percentages for grades on exams, papers, etc. in my courses always add up to 110% because that’s what I’ve learned to expect from you, over twenty years in the best [...]
July 31st, 2010
Category: California Politics, Education policy, Policy Analysis, Prisons and penal policy, Taxation
…are about the same size and shape. It’s an iron law of sound household management, ignore it at your peril, and I know you will recognize its absolute unvarying truth, that you can put a baseball in your fruitbowl only if you’re willing to take one apple out of it. So what? Does any sane [...]
July 8th, 2010
Category: Affordable Care Act, Policy Analysis
My latest Kaiser Health News piece about Lebron James—I mean about Republican criticisms of the new high-risk health insurance pools. I have been concerned about this issue for a long time. Given the venue (KHN, not ESPN) and some final edits, the piece reads a little more naively bipartisan than I had intended. I don’t [...]
