While the Fed worries itself over bailing out Citibank, AIG and other behemoths to "large to fail" the non-corporate world is suffering. Cities and states are required by law to balance their budgets, but the Fed can simply print or borrow more money as it takes on trillions of dollars from the mess these giant trusts monopolies corporations have created. All of that money seems to fall into a black hole, yet if the same bailout, neigh, investment were made into our the localities where we live, the difference would be astronomical.
Thomas Suozzi, County Executive of New York gets it:
As chief executive of a county with a budget larger than 16 states, I’ve seen and successfully managed through some challenging situations. But during the current economic crisis, I'm doing everything wrong.
Like Governor Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg — and hundreds of governors and local leaders across the nation who are responding to rising costs, shrinking revenues, and massive projected budget deficits — I’m cutting jobs, eliminating programs, and in the case of Nassau County, reducing capital spending and raising property taxes for the first time in five years. We have to. Because unlike the federal government, states and localities must, by law, balance our budgets every year, leaving us no choice but to make difficult decisions. These efforts are necessary in the short term, but we are undoing any national efforts to stimulate the economy.
In the war to save America’s economy, the local, state, and federal governments are all on the same side but pulling in opposite directions.
And he wants to work with soon to be President Obama to make sure we all work together. Here's his idea:
It won't fix everything and definitely needs some tweaking, but funding the states' share of Medicare and Medicaid would take an immediate burden off of the fifty legislatures across the country. We still need to implement a national infrastructure program and insure everyone gets health coverage but this is an immediate investment that can work. We need to stop giving greedy bankers hundreds of billions of dollars with hardly any strings attached and start helping Main Street again.
The plan is simple and could be implemented in two phases. Beginning in 2009, the federal government would start a three-year phased- in assumption of the state and local share of Medicaid costs. By assuming one third, or approximately $50 billion, of the state/local cost each year, plus normal inflation, at the end of three years, the Medicaid program would be fully federally funded. The benefit to each state would be proportional to its Medicaid expenditures, resulting in all states being treated equally and fairly. In New York, for example, this proposal would relieve the state of approximately $8 billion or two thirds of its current projected deficit, thereby averting further reductions to critical programs, including education and health care.
As a condition of participation, states must maintain their current state plan, agreeing not to alter the existing scope of services or impose restrictions on eligibility. Bad debt, charity care, disproportionate share, and other funding programs will continue. States could expand the Medicaid program to cover those receiving unemployment benefits either by funding COBRA benefits or granting them Medicaid benefits.
In addition, state participation in Phase I would be conditioned on implementation of cost-saving measures, including combating fraud and abuse, developing programs to prevent, detect ,and manage illness, reforming long-term care, and eliminating minority health disparities, among many others.
Phase II would incorporate a number of health care proposals now being developed by knowledgeable members of Congress, including Senators Kennedy and Baucus and our own Senators Schumer and Clinton, a recognized national expert on health care. Together with the new administration, they would further develop and refine these proposals to build toward a national health insurance program that this nation so desperately needs.
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