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Memorial Day a time to consider veterans’ health care, retirement
The Memorial Day weekend, and the unofficial start of summer, begins tomorrow with Monday marking the actual holiday. Originally celebrated as Decoration Day, Memorial Day is a day set aside to honor military members who’ve died in service to our country. Decoration Day began in 1868, when Union General John A. Logan designated a day to decorate the graves of Civil War soldiers. Within twenty years, the holiday was renamed Memorial Day, and...
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Tea Party nanny state is no Mary Poppins
The Tea Party crowd — that lovable fringe which stands furthest to the right and screams “get off my lawn!” at anybody to their left — are forever griping about the nanny state, shaking their fists at government wherever it threatens individual liberty in the name of public health and welfare. But don’t be fooled: these crabby partisans stand flat-footed in favor of legislative nannying, just not the doting-but-firm Mary Poppins variety. ...
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Stop N.C. teen health services restrictions
I thought Republicans wanted less government, but interfering in medical treatments, testing, counseling and procedures is as invasive as it gets. House Bill 693 requires that teenagers receive parental consent to make medical decisions and that a notary public witness that consent, even if the parent is present at the doctor’s office. This serves no purpose other than to shame the parent and will discourage NC teens from seeking medica...
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Moving North Carolina forward
Government is nothing more than a social contract. An essential function of government is to provide infrastructure for the common good that is too costly, too big or impractical for individuals to undertake themselves. A look at our history reveals that public infrastructure has been funded through bonds, taxes, tolls and the lottery. We boast the opening of the first public university in 1795, financed in part by a lottery. With stagnatio...
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Healthcare Costs: What you can do to make a difference
The cost of healthcare has certainly dominated the news in recent years with much finger pointing and blame to go around. Quite frankly, there are several things we can all do to help with the healthcare cost crisis, and most of them are pretty easy. First and foremost, have a medical home. Some people wonder what a medical home is, and rightfully so. But it’s really simple. A medical home is where you go for regular care: where you have a ...
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George Jones: A voice loved by all
George is considered by many to be the greatest country singers of all times. He and Tammy Wynette were among the best duets of all times. His records have sold millions. They are still difficult to find where records are sold. There are many reasons for this love affair. His voice, like good Tennessee whiskey blends well with other voices. He doesn’t try to dominate the voice that sings with him. His voice moves in and out such that you ...
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Conservative case for spending more
Fiscal conservatism comes naturally to me. After all, my middle name is McDonald. But I am also persuaded by empirical evidence that fiscal conservatism is the best policy for promoting economic growth. North Carolina governments can improve our state’s competitiveness by limiting spending, finding ways to deliver core services more efficiently, and using the resulting fiscal capacity to reduce the state’s marginal tax rates on work, saving...
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Celebrating the end of the Charlotte curse
What is one thing we can do for Charlotte now that that former Mayor Pat McCrory has been elected governor of North Carolina and his successor, Anthony Foxx, has been nominated for U.S Secretary of Transportation? We can stop referring to the Charlotte mayor’s job as a dead end or curse for politicians aspiring to statewide or national office. It might take some getting used to. The previous three Charlotte mayors who tried for statewid...
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Tax reform requires wisdom and courage
For weeks we’ve heard the legislature will present details of a significant tax reform package. Lawmakers agree they want to lower personal and corporate income tax rates while expanding the tax base to include a wider range of sales and service taxes, but the devil is in tax reform details. Our current tax codes, first passed in 1939, have been modified, amended and expanded so many times they are overly complicated, sometimes contradictor...
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Three reactionary months
It has now been three months since the 2013 General Assembly session began. Most of the news coverage of the lawmakers has understandably focused on the daily debate in a key committee or on the House or Senate floor or the latest absurd resolution or shocking comment that prompts national scorn and ridicule. There’s nothing unusual about that. That’s the way the process works, a key issue is debated fiercely and then decided and then the a...
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Keep our grandfather’s fire burning
“Everybody in North Carolina should have heard that speech.” Someone had just heard Tom Lambeth’s recent remarks to the North Caroliniana Society, which was presenting him with its annual award for service to our state. Lambeth, longtime former executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, used the occasion to talk about some of the people and some of the stories that help define North Carolina and its history for him. Lambeth...
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Medicaid should focus on people, not profits
The McCrory administration maintains that reforming the state’s Medicaid program by opening it up to competition between for-profit managed care companies will bring efficiency and predictability to this public assistance program. We, too, want competition to increase efficiency and lower costs — competition that focuses on keeping people healthy; not on profits for shareholders. The administration admits that states that have turned over t...
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You Decide: How should N.C. fund roads?
My father was born in 1922 on a farm in rural Ohio. Horses and carriages were as common as cars. When the first road was built it was tolled, meaning only those who paid the gatekeeper at the entrance to the road could use it. This is how early roads were financed. If you used a road, you paid for it, on the spot! In economics, we call such payments user fees. But as car ownership expanded and road usage boomed, stopping drivers at every ...
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What you have got to lose?
North Carolina’s official toast boldly proclaims that ours is a state where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great. But we can never be that great state as long as so many of us are so unhealthy. According to the non-profit United Health Foundation North Carolina ranks 33rd in overall health, continually among the bottom third of states. One in three children is overweight or obese while 26.5 percent of white, 42.9 percent of black ...
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Legislature’s progress on helping ex-cons marred by mean-spirited voting bill
One notable bit of incremental progress that has occurred during a very backward looking 2013 session of the North Carolina General Assembly has involved the subject of formerly-incarcerated North Carolinians. Whether motivated by their religious convictions, their desire to cut costs in the prison system or both, many conservative lawmakers have, to their credit, worked with advocates for ex-inmates to advance legislative proposals that woul...
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