Cassidy's option not as good as other tactics

The question posed by Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy’s latest effort is whether those wishing to have sanity return to American health care insurance can use this as a bridge to get there or if letting the stench worsen has a better chance of succeeding in that.

Cassidy and three co-sponsors rolled out legislation yesterday to make substantive changes to health care policy, to mixed reviews from his fellow Republicans and conservatives and predictably partisan caterwauling from Democrats and the political left. It will act as an amendment to a budgetary bill and must pass within the next two weeks, but only after vetting from the Congressional Budget Office to ensure it does not raise significantly the national debt.

For that reason, it has slim chances of passing. The compressed time frame leaves little opportunity for analysis and to gather support. At present, a majority of Republicans would vote for it, but all but two would have to commit. Cassidy and his co-sponsors argue that not only does this represent the last chance to alter substantially the failing Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) for at least a year, but also allege that without it a “single-payer” system become probable – a ruinous government-run health care system that promises worse care for at least a trillion dollars a year more.

LA Catholic leaders confuse faithful on politics

Louisiana Catholic Church leaders sometimes make it more difficult for the faithful to align their political views to their spiritual beliefs.

This year, a number of actions taken by politicians have invited Catholics to examine how their faith should translate into the political world. The interrogation a week ago by a pair of Senate Democrats – one nominally Catholic – about a Catholic judicial nominee’s faith as it relates to abortion jurisprudence underscores this.

On this matter, some individuals representing the Church cause confusion rather than clarity. It sometimes comes in the form of publicly-rendered judgments such as with reactions to some executive orders issued by Pres. Donald Trump.

Sportcaster tries hand as social justice warrior

Injecting a full dose of ignorance into the debate over a Shreveport basketball arena, Fox Sports announcer and native Tim Brando recently showed why the world doesn’t come rushing to figures in the sports world to gather informed political commentary.

Last month, Shreveport Mayor Ollie Tyler proclaimed that the city would pursue building a facility to house a New Orleans Pelicans minor league team. That would cost the city $30 million, with another $100 million spent by the Alabama firm Corporate Realty to build stores and a hotel around it. Pelican management remains undecided about where to locate the squad.

Opposition immediately surfaced as Shreveport has roughly $750 million in infrastructure needs without funding presently for $300 million, meaning the $30 million would displace other priorities. And the $30 million would depend upon roughly $2 million a year in tax collections from the complex for decades; given Shreveport’s troubled history with supporting professional sports franchises – currently none – and the past instability of what the National Basketball Association at present calls the G-League with 46 different team structures that last a little under five years on average, there is no guarantee the team would stay an extended period of time or generate enough money to repay the bonds.

Shore up flood insurance with individual mandate

As debate over extension of the National Flood Insurance Program rages while tropical disturbances that bring flooding rage, lawmakers should keep cognizant of the larger picture and remember what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Historically, almost annually a significant flood hits somewhere in the U.S. Whether it be from sources as gigantic as the recent Hurricanes Harvey and Irma that just slammed Texas and Florida or as nondescript as the heavy rains that inundated New Orleans a month earlier, or from the Red River in northwest Louisiana to the other Red River in North Dakota, flooding that breaches habitable structures occurs widely in the country under widely different conditions. Indeed, last year every state had at least one NFIP claim.

Yet the U.S. has a schizophrenic policy to deal with these disasters. Almost a half-century ago, policy-makers hoped establishment of the NFIP would create a stable, self-funded regime to take care of the matter. But that rigid, government-run program takes poorly into account actual risk into its pricing, which as a result has failed to accumulate enough reserves to stave off losses triggered by huge weather events. As such, the program has debt of $25 billion.

The Advocate column, Sep. 10, 2017

Supporters of Washington Parish reservoir project are all wet after latest audit
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_672da0c2-93f9-11e7-b176-5fd28caf22ca.html

Links:
https://www.lla.la.gov/PublicReports.nsf/D04C37BED26011548625818400781A27/$FILE/000161EA.pdf
http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1012403
http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=987786
http://www.bogalusadailynews.com/2016/09/19/new-commission-stokes-old-fears-some-citizens-concerned-oak-grove-reservoir-project-still-alive/
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/229395274/
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/neworleans/press-releases/2010/no070710b.htm
https://coraweb.sos.la.gov/CommercialSearch/CommercialSearchDetails.aspx?CharterID=505913_EB1A9195FF
http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/BillDocs.aspx?i=50592&t=authors
http://www.bogalusadailynews.com/2017/03/04/new-reservoir-commission-meets/
https://app.lla.state.la.us/PublicReports.nsf/0F15C484337849D38625768E00506561/$FILE/000147B1.pdf

Will Ethics Board act on more than just Richard?

OK, so the Louisiana Board of Ethics got state Rep. Dee Richard. What’s the holdup on everybody else?

Next week, the Board reportedly will announce a settlement with Richard over $37,000 in campaign funds he apparently misspent. R.S. 18:1505.2 states that campaign funds shall not be used, loaned, or pledged by any person for any personal use unrelated to a political campaign. Richard will admit he spent that on gambling, an addiction he maintains he developed as a result of taking legally-prescribed medication.

A dose of irony comes along with that. Richard has made a career in the Legislature in efforts to reduce the addiction that state government has to spending money, and now he gets busted over his own profligate, illegal spending. Term-limited but not intending to resign early over the incident, his district’s voters now may decide whether to attempt his recall over this breach of trust.

Edwards' model unlikely to gain his party's favor

Can Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards teach Democrats how to win in the South? The answer to this title of a recent Politico website story is more pessimistic than it lets on.

Written by my The Advocate colleague Tyler Bridges, who pumped this out as he left for a fall semester gig as a Shorenstein Media Fellow at Harvard University, it explores whether Democrats elsewhere in the region can transport Edwards’ shock win in 2015 to their own turfs. Bridges gives the effort some hope, writing that the “progressive” elements in Edwards’ governorship should convince his fellow partisans beyond the border to overlook his seeming anti-abortion views and support for the Second Amendment that produce a perception of him  by some as a social conservative.

But Bridges oversells this case – one that he admits isn’t that strong to begin with – in two important ways. First, Edwards’ fidelity to the playbook that gives Democrats their only shot to win in the South – at least pose as a social conservative while espousing class warfare – has serious holes in the first instance.

Will LA left indulge in fascism on donations?

Will the Scarlet D reverberate in Louisiana? More interestingly, how will cultural elites, especially on the political left, react to any appearance by it?

If delayed, it turns out that higher-dollar donors to former Louisiana state Rep. David Duke can face consequences for their support of the white supremacist’s U.S. Senate campaign last year. The Federal Election Commission reported 129 contributions of $250 or greater in 2015-16 – campaigns must report information on persons making these – to fund Duke’s effort, and it seems some have caught significant grief over this.

In California, business fell at a longtime restaurant forcing its closure because of boycotts over the owner’s gift. In Minnesota, many employees staged a walkout from a bar owned by a Duke donor.

Edwards' SNAP policy continues to hurt LA

It’s Labor Day, although one noxious policy decision by Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards makes every day for some like Labor Day’s excuse for not having to work.

As soon as he entered office, Edwards rescinded his predecessor former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s last-minute change that allowed the state’s Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program waiver to expire. That allowed able-bodied adults without dependents to continue receiving food stamps beyond the three out of 36 months period unless working or in a training program for at least 20 hours a week.

Edwards later issued a cosmetic executive order allegedly addressing the open-ended nature of the benefit, mandating that recipients had to report regularly for job training centers – which they already had to do in many cases to receive unemployment insurance, replicating for SNAP the same undemanding requirement to draw that. This does little or nothing to encourage work, which withdrawal of SNAP benefits certainly would do, if history provides any guide.

The Advocate column, Sep. 3, 2017

Here's why it's past time to reform TOPS
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_91e3c5b4-8db2-11e7-b4b3-d762deaceb9c.html

Links:
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_2862a3aa-779e-11e7-b673-a3ee5efe3d4f.html
http://www.regents.la.gov/assets/docs/2016/TOPS2016.pdf
https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/NormsChartMCandComposite-Web2015-16.pdf
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/05/24/state-aid-program-changes-debated-several-capitals