Politicians Go Blogging
It's easy to overstate its significance, but here is the first instance that I have found of a politician-written blog. It appears to be a combination of commentary as well as reports along the lines of "I met with this committee and we talked about this." Of course, there's some feel-good stuff, too, like a report of an Eagle Scout ceremony.

Cox's announced opposition for the next election, has his own blog, by the way.
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I'd Like to Buy a Vowel, or Why Health Care is So Expensive
One reason why health care is so expensive is that there's so much administrative overhead. An official list of acronyms used by the web site of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (the official agency of Medicaid and Medicare) runs approximately 166 pages--in 8 point Times New Roman font. If you'd like to choke your computer, you can look at the entire list here.

Remember, that collection is just the guide to the alphabet soup of bureaucratic, the tip of the iceberg that's going to sink the ship of state and federal budgets.
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Illinois Mortgages "Quirky" Building
The State of Illinois has secured a $200 million mortgage on the Thompson Center, a state-owned office building in the Chicago Loop. (Here's one photo, best I could find in about 30 seconds.)

The state, which is looking for more cash, will get the $200 million, and make payments of $14 million for 10 years, after which it will have to refinance or pay up the balance.

There was talk of perhaps selling the building outright, but as the Sun-Times puts it, the design--made possible, most likely, by the fact that it was purchased by taxpayer dollars--was off-putting to potential buyers. "Because of the quirky architectural character of the building at 100 W. Randolph, where large amounts of space are consumed by an atrium, it was not a ready-made choice for a business seeking a splashy Loop presence. Potential buyers shuddered at the atrium's costs, and the open floors of the 17-story building deter tenants that want privacy and security."

The Illinois Policy Institute had called for the sale of the building, and possibly having the state lease it back. The Sun-Times says that there is not enough time to go through that route, which comes with a June 30 deadline imposed by the legislature.

The Thompson building has always reminded me of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, though admittedly, it's not as ugly.
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California Targets Pharmaceutical Companies Again
While Iowa is inhibiting the ability of citizens to make bulk purchases of cold medicine, California wants to make it easier to buy drugs, by making it easy to buy drugs from Canada. It also hopes to strip away the confidentiality of several contracts that state agencies have with different companies, thereby increasing the leverage of all state purchasers.
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Do You Have a Cold, or Are You Looking for a Rush?
A committee in the Iowa House has voted to forbid the sale of more than two packages of cold medicine at a time.

If you're planning on stocking up on allergy medications before all the pollens enter the air, watch out: you could be guilty of a misdemeanor, and subject to a $100 fine.

So why would the people's representatives stand in the way of good health? The measure to forbid the sale of "more than two packages of medicine that has pseudoephedrine as the active ingredient" was described as a way to make it more difficult to make methamphetamine.

The home-made drug kings will, of course, find ways around the ban. Simply shopping at a few more stores--or going back to the same stores the next day, or even the next hour--may do the trick. On the other hand, law-abiding citizens will face one more nuisance, all in the name of the war on drugs.
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Breaking the Education Monopoly Through Blogging
A 14-year old girl broke with political correctness, and argued in a school paper that the goals of historic feminism had been achieved. This didn't sit well with her teacher, who turned the paper into an occasion to accuse the girl of racism, in front of several classrooms. The girl wrote about the incident, and was swamped with messages of support from blog-readers around the world.

Her mother writes about all this for National Review, saying "I suppose that tales of students humiliated by teachers for dissenting from the prevailing groupthink always touch a chord."

More? "The traditionally small, closed world of high school can no longer be so small and closed — not when any kid can find countless informed opinions that differ from what the teacher thinks with just a few mouse clicks."

Of course, the Internet, and blogdom, is not all high virtue and good intentions; pedophiles and other creeps use it as well as every one else. In general, though, high school education could stand a little more shaking up. At least when it comes to looking at social and political questions, too many students get fed a warmed-over version of whatever is the prevailing wisdom at the time. It's too late to go back to the time of teacher-as-Socratic guide. We might as well use the tools at hand to enrich the educational experience. Not all students are up to this, but those who are could benefit.
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How To Deal With Traffic Congestion? Buy a Good Stereo
Anthony Downs, writing for the Brookings Institution, says that "Peak-hour traffic congestion is an inherent result of the way modern societies operate." To make things worse, people will use autos more and transit less as income increases.

He dismisses peak-time pricing, saying that most Americans would reject them because they "favor wealthier or subsidized drivers." That's not entirely true--toll lanes are used by all economic groups, and even all-Lexus lanes would take cars out of lanes used by everyone else, a win-win situation.

Expanding roadways to accommodate all peak traffic, on the other hand, is "prohibitively expensive." As for mass transit, it represents only 17 percent of all commuters, even in the most densely populated regions. Tripling transit capacity isn't cost-effective, either. It would reduce morning commuting trips by 8 percent--not nothing, of course, but not much. Finally, "living with congestion" is, Downs says, "the sole viable option."

"For the time being," he laments, "the only relief for traffic-plagued commuters is a comfortable, air-conditioned vehicle with a well-equipped stereo system, a hands-free telephone, and a daily commute with someone they like."
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Have I Got a Bridge for You
One tradition I've never been part of, but hope to join some day, is the annual walk over Michigan's Mackinac Bridge. The annual walk draws up to 70,000 people, and by tradition, it's lead by the governor. The newish governor, Jennifer Granholm, wants to add a run before the traditional 5-mile walk.

A spokesman says that the governor wants to provide an option for people "excited about health and fitness." I suppose that's fine, as long as she lets me eat my occasional quarter-pounder in peace and quiet.
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This Little Piggie .... State Government Waste
Citizens Against Government Waste publishes an annual Pig Book, detailing wasteful spending at the federal level--you know, things such as teaching walleye how to hum.

The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, sadly for the citizens of Oklahoma, has found enough material in that state's budget to come up with a piglet book of its own. Among the examples: subsidizing golf, at $6 per round.
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Coming to a Store Near You: Higher Taxes on Booze
First it was a delay in the planned cut in state income taxes. Then it was a proposal to hike the cigarette tax. Governor Granholm now hopes to increase taxes on Michiganders again by increasing taxes on alcoholic beverages. Since 1994, taxes on cigarettes have been increased $1 a pack, in the name of school funding. Death will become even more expensive for some people, with talks of imposing an inheritance tax "to replace a levy that is expiring."

She doesn't plan to rely totally on increasing taxes to deal with another anticipated deficit. There's also an accounting gimmick or two, and no increases in municipal aid. On the other hand, modest cuts to K-12 schools and universities will be restored.

The director of the House Fiscal Agency, when asked how the budget could be balanced without raising taxes, said "I don’t know how you do it."

For starters, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy has identified over $2 billion in possible savings.
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Shocked! I'm Shocked!
Take a look at this headline from the Chicago Sun-Times: State pork creeps back into budget.

You don't say.

"Only about $15 million of the total equates to new state spending. The rest of the package involves money budgeted in the past for legislative pork and federal funds earmarked for Medicaid.

It includes $1 million to fund grants for the Illinois Arts Council, headed by Shirley Madigan, wife of House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-Chicago)."
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Another Lesson in the Golden Rule
We're not talking about the teaching of Jesus here, but the idea that "he who has the gold makes the rules." Mitt Romney, governor of Massachusetts, wants Medicaid patients to stop seeing physicians at hospitals for routine care, and instead go to community health centers. One concern of the governor: people spending too much money at teaching hospitals. This Boston Globe article cites several physicians who object, saying that the proposal may be inappropriate for people with complicated medical histories.

As for the patients themselves, the possible denial of choice is yet another reason why states need to move to consumer-directed health care, such as using health security accounts, wherein individuals, not officials, weigh and make decisions on where to seek treatment.
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Utah Snubs "No Child Left Behind"
The Utah House of Representatives has voted to prohibit that state's education department from spending state money to implement No Child Left Behind. Among the concerns: NCLB infringes on federalism, and is inadequately funded.

The measure is symbolic at this point (it's not law yet, and the state is not opting out of NCLB entirely). Utah joins Vermont and Virginia, which have made complaints of their own about the measure.

UPDATE:
In the lead editorial for February 12, the Wall Street Journal chides the states, saying that "this convenient rediscovery of federalism [comes] now that the federal education dollars come attached to some accountability for results."

Even more useful is a pair of charts. Chart one shows "Total funding for K-12," from 1990 through 2003. Total government spending (federal, state, local) on K-12 was roughly $230 million in 1990. Now it's close to $500 million. Correction. Change those millions to billions. What have we got for all that spending? Chart two shows the progress of fourth-grade reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress during that same time. They're flat. In other words, a lot more money for the same old (inadequate) results.
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Bring Back 55?
Eric Peters, who often writes on automotive issues, says that a group of state highway officials is calling for the bad old days of the 55 mph speed limit. Why? The number of highway deaths in 2002 (last year for which statistics are available) was the highest since 1990.

Despite this scary statistic, things aren't getting out of control. In fact, "the overall fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled has not gone up at all."

Given the increased number of cars, and number of miles traveled by car, traffic safety is actually greater now than it was in 1990--under 55.
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Cigarette Smuggling to Increase in Indiana, Ohio
Expect to hear about reports of increased smuggling of cigarettes in Ohio and Indiana. Why? Michigan's governor wants to plug a deficit hole by raising the tax to $2 a pack. Too bad she isn't doing more to use this budget situation as an opportunity to reform Michigan government, to do less with less.

Back in 1998, by the way, one federal official warned that smuggling was likely to increase as states raise their taxes. (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)
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Great Acts of Civil Disobedience?
From another article in Stateline, "Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota is brazenly bucking federal law by using the World Wide Web to help Gopher State residents buy less-expensive drugs from Canada."
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The Lure of Light Rail
As a skier, I noticed this article in Stateline about the difficulties that Denver-area residents face while trying to get to their state's fine ski resorts. The drive has become like rush hour. The solution, according to some is more transit, especially monorail.

(Sorry, but this reminds me of Marge versus the Monorail, a classic episode of The Simpsons. As the official web site for the show summarizes the episode, "Mr. Burns is forced to pay a $3 million fine for illegally dumping toxic waste under trees in the park. At a town meeting where Springfield's citizens discuss how to best use the new funds, Lyle Lanley, a charismatic traveling salesman convinces them to build a completely useless monorail. Marge is the only one in town who disapproves of the project and when the monorail is complete disaster, her reservations are proved correct.")

Meanwhile, ski area owners are responding to the problem with private-sector solutions. "Some ski areas are coming up with ways to cope with bad traffic: overnight hotel accommodations cheap enough to keep metro-area skiers from commuting home after a day on the slopes, and flex-time skiing with a half-day lift ticket that can be used any four hours of the day."
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George W. Bush: Wartime Leader in the League of FDR
John Lewis Gaddis, a historian of the Cold War, is giving President Bush more credit than most academics. He puts Bush in the same category as FDR and John Quincy Adams.

In this Boston Globe profile, he says that preemptive war, unilateralism, and American hegemony, elements of the Bush strategy, have been part of U.S. policy since Adams, who was Secretary of State during the War of 1812.

After 9/11, Bush became one of the few presidents to develop a grand strategy, foreign policy in its broadest form, laying out the country's mission, interests, and priorities. At the heart of "the vision thing" (as Bush 41 may say) is a renewed interest in stopping nuclear proliferation, and a push to bring democracy to the Middle East.

Especially gratifying in this article is the vindication of my own views, which were in the distinct minority in my graduate program: "Gaddis argued that the Cold War emanated from the very nature of the Soviet Union: from the way it coerced satellite states into its orbit; from its brittle, inflexible alliances; from Stalin's paranoid and confrontational personality; from the ''geriatric over-exertion'' of aging Kremlin bureaucrats who fancied themselves great friends of Latin American revolutionaries; and from genuine ideological romanticism that blinded Soviet leaders to their own interests."

ADDENDUM: While on the subject of the Cold War ... it's still being fought among academic historians. So says the Chronicle of Education. Thanks to Milt Rosenberg for the link.
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The Tax Mix Makes a Difference
Also from the Goldwater Institute is a new report on that state's tax system. It examines three alternatives for reform. One eliminates the personal and corporate income tax and expands the transaction privilege tax. A second repeals current income and sales taxes, and replaces them with a different sales tax regime that excludes intermediate business inputs. (This has the best outcome of the three plans: $24 billion in personal income growth over 15 years, and 14,100 new jobs per year.) A third includes a higher sales tax rate.

Says Debra Roubik, author of the report, "Ample evidence exists that lower taxation rates are preferable to higher rates. Simpler taxes with low compliance costs are preferable to complex systems, and consumption taxes are preferable to taxes on income. The study demonstrates that Arizona taxpayers can gain enormously from reform without impacting total government revenues.”
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Reforming Unemployment Insurance
The Goldwater Institute calls for a reform of the unemployment insurance program. While it focuses specifically on Arizona, the group's study may have lessons for other states.

Author William Conerly argues that the current UI regime discourages work. Putting more emphasis on face-to-face contact between beneficiaries and program administrators could help, he says. He also chides the feds for diverting money to unrelated programs (yes, they do get involved, even though this is largely a state program), and calls for increased flexibility for the states.
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Low-Cost Housing is Costly
In one of those strange paradoxes that is government policy, it actually costs more to build housing that costs less to tenants. Why? Government regulations. Chief among them, according to a study in California, prevailing wage (union scale) requirements and a need to spend more to buy off middle-class opposition. For the complete study from the University of California, get your Adobe Acrobat in tune and click here.
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