The civility is quickly fading as the negative attacks start to fly in the McWaters v. Wilson bout. At the GOP breakfast last Saturday, McWaters told a crowd of party faithful that he thought Health Care is a right, which echoes his sentiments in this Pilot article. In America, health care is clearly a right. Should an employee at any hospital deny health care to anyone, they will be sent to jail. Free health care, however, is an entirely different matter.
Wilson’s campaign, in a stroke of intuitive genius, distributed mailers linking McWaters to Obama’s health care plan at the onset of the breakfast where the statement in question was made. A blog post on Bearing Drift and 39 comments later, and the reader should have learned a great deal about both sides of the argument. Still the question has yet to be laid to rest and so McWaters has issued this release.
Whether McWaters truly agrees with Obama is up for you, the reader, to decide. However, it should be noted that McWaters was the founder and CEO of Fortune 600 company Amerigroup Inc, a company that provides services to states in managing medicare costs.
Sadly, the negative attacks will not stop with something as insignificant as a disputed quote. In 2008 Amerigroup settled a lawsuit claiming it denied coverage for eligible pregnant women for upwards of $200 million. Although McWaters claims “We did what we were asked to do” by the state, an attack mailer on this topic is surely in the works.
Ever wonder where that money seized in drug raids ends up? Or where the money from police auctions goes? Section 19.2-386.14 of the Virginia State Code provides for the sharing of cash seized in drug cases and funds generated from the sale of confiscated assets. As drugs certainly harm our communities, an investigation of where this money goes is very important. According to the code section, the money is distributed as follows;
In a highly unusual move, Mayor Fraim announced at the onset of the meeting that the council had decided to vote down the proposed charter changes during the informal closed door meeting earlier in the day. Citing resident confusion and a lack of public input, Fraim admitted that this whole situation was handled far from properly. However, he did indicate that the changes would be brought back up at a later date.
According to many members of the council, the proposed changes were stuck in the agenda by City Attorney Bernard Pishko without out any prior notice or discussion. The truthfulness of that statement is in severe question; Randy Wright himself said that he had proposed the changes at an earlier meeting because he thought 4,000 signatures was too few for a referendum. Clearly he is out of touch, as is the rest of the council.
For a 2:30pm meeting with one days notice, the turnout was incredible. Perhaps just short of half the seats were filled and 14 people signed up to speak, including myself. Comments ranged from simple displeasure to charges that the council had overstayed their welcome and were not to be trusted. Among the best points of the afternoon were that any council member doing their job should have no fear of being recalled and that the recall provision was initially put into the charter in 1918 to provide a means for citizens to react should the council become too detached from reality.
The mayor and all but the at-large members of the council are up for re-election this May. Several groups are actively seeking candidates and two have already announced; Teacher of the Year Tommy Smigiel against Randy Wright and retired shipyard worker and perennial council critic Don Montague will again be running against Paul Fraim for mayor.
Norfolk’s City Council is trying to pull a fast one on residents tomorrow. Local blogger Vivian Paige has done the city a huge service by uncovering this plan to double the number of signatures needed for a referendum and to completely delete the recall provisions in the city charter.
I personally called all the major media outlets in the city and none were aware of the proposed changes. Harry Minium, the Pilot reporter who covers council, was aware of the proposed changes, but didn’t realize they wanted to double the referendum requirement. If a pro like Mr. Minium missed it, then how could council have expected the average citizen to know what’s going on?
In fact, 2 city council members said that they themselves were unaware of the proposed changes until earlier today. According to Barclay Winn and Paul Riddick, the changes were drafted by the City’s Attorney and not shown to council members in advance. The City Attorney, Bernard Pishko, was a complete ass when I called inquiring about the changes. He said thank you for my “disparaging” remarks and then hung up.
Norfolk’s City Council needs to go. This is the latest in a long string of offenses that the council has committed against its constituents. We can only hope strong and principled candidates will appear to kick these bums out of office.
Today at about 8:45am there were about 30 people gathered at the Marian Manner retirement home expecting to see a debate between Jeff McWaters and Rosemary Wilson. Wilson’s chair remained empty as she was unable or unwilling to attend. Word from her campaign is that she was flooded in from the storm and that the organizers never formally invited her. This is totally contrary to the reality on the ground (flood waters have receded) and contrary to what VBTA president John Moss said at the event; that as soon as the Nov 3 results were in, Wilson’s campaign was contacted and asked to attend this forum. No personal response was made by Wilson, however her consultants responded and said she could not attend. This does not bode well for her credibility or that of her consultants.
McWaters, however, he came prepared with pocket constitutions for the crowd, charts for the answers to his questions, and a good sense of humor to boot. Whenever the time was up for his answer, he would immediately stop speaking mid-sentence which garnered rousing applause from the crowd. Its nice to see a politician respect the rules and give straight answers. His expertise on health cause issues is clearly unrivaled and his mindset is that of someone ready to clean house. The quote of the morning was McWaters saying he hopes he finds mismanagement when he gets to Richmond, “If there is mismanagement, there is hope we can fix it.” Obviously if its not mismanagement, its corruption, and we won’t go there; at least not in this post.
The election to decide which of these two will replace Ken Stolle in the senate has been set for Saturday, December 5th. No word yet on polling locations or times. Check back for updates.
Coby Dillard Announces Candidacy for 3rd Congressional District Seat
I’m happy to announce that I have formed an exploratory committee to begin work on a congressional run in 2010 in Virginia’s 3rd congressional district. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be talking with both community and political leaders in the district to get the ground-level truth on their problems and whether they feel their concerns are adequately addressed by their current representative. Next week, we’ll launch our social interaction site-dillardexploratory.ning.com-where people will be able to keep up with our work and express their thoughts on the direction and future of their district.
I take on this task with full knowledge of the electoral history of the 3rd district. The last Republican to run for this seat in 2004 lost by nearly a 2 to 1 margin. I have no illusions that a run for this seat will be an uphill battle and, ultimately, may not be successful. I believe, though, that the people of this district-from my childhood home of Richmond to Hampton Roads, where I now live-deserve a voice in Washington that works to serve all their interests and sometimes tells them the hard truths, rather than one who is no more than a reliable party-line vote. For them, I seek to be that voice.
-Coby W. Dillard
Tomorrow starting at 8:30am the Virginia Beach Taxpayer Alliance will be hosting a forum between 8th senatorial district candidates Jeff McWaters and Rosemary Wilson. The event will take place at Marian’s Manor retirement home on Virginia Beach Blvd.
Rumor has it that Rosemary Wilson has yet to officially accept and may not be attending tomorrow, so check back later for my own analysis of where the candidates stand on the issues.
Modern Money Mechanics:
Deposit Expansion and Credit Creation
Some years ago the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago published a workbook on bank reserves and deposit expansion entitled, “Modern Money Mechanics.” The pamphlet describes the process of money creation under fractional reserve banking and gives unparalleled insight into the failings of our monetary system.
“Money, like anything else, derives its value from its scarcity in relation to its usefulness. Assuming a constant rate of use, if the volume of money grows more rapidly than the rate at which the output of real goods and services increases, prices will rise. This will happen because there will be more money
than there will be goods and services to spend it on at prevailing prices. But if, on the other hand, growth in the supply of money does not keep pace with the economy’s current production, then prices will fall, the nation’s labor force, factories, and other production facilities will not be fully employed, or both. (Pg 2-3)”
It is often subconsciously assumed in our society that a person who grows, for example, 200 pounds of soybeans, also creates the purchasing power for 200 pounds of soybeans. Of course this is untrue, as is the fallacy that there is collective purchasing power available somewhere to buy all the world’s goods at retail prices. The fact is that the cycles of production for money and material goods are carried out in large part irrespective of each other and certainly have no direct mathematical relation. An increase in real goods does not necessitate an increase in the total money stock, nor does an increase in the money stock necessarily create an increase in real goods. As a result of the separation of these two cycles, what is physically possible is a function of what is financially possible and not vice versa.
Read more…
The Pilot is reporting that Villanueva’s win was certified today by the local board of elections. According to Mathieson’s lawyer the race will still be going to a recount, but this certification had to happen before the recount can start.
“It’s been quite a journey, and I look forward to serving the citizens of Virginia Beach,” Villanueva said.
“I think the recount will be in the best interest of the 21st District,” Mathieson’s lawer, Jack Young said.
CBO Long-Term Budget Outlook – June 2009
Summary and Analysis
The picture painted by the 2009 CBO Long-Term Budget Outlook is grim. The conclusion for each of the two scenarios investigated is the same; the US government is on an unsustainable financial course.
1.Extended-Baseline Scenario – expiring tax provisions in the 2001 Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA) and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (JGTRRA) would not be extended and the Alternative Minimum Tax would be left as is and not indexed to inflation
2.Alternative Fiscal Scenario – EGTRRA and JGTRRA would be extended and the ATM would be indexed to inflation
Revenue Projection for Extended-Baseline Scenario
Revenue Projections for Alternative Fiscal Scenario
