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Health

GOP Senate Candidate Tommy Thompson: ‘Who Better Than Me… To Do Away With Medicaid and Medicare?’

By Ian Millhiser on Sep 23, 2012 at 6:34 pm

Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson

Republicans and their defenders have claimed that the GOP’s massive proposed cuts to the nation’s health care safety net will not eliminate Medicare or Medicaid. The Romney campaign even released talking points claiming GOP proposals would “strengthen Medicare” shortly after they announced that Paul Ryan, the author of a 2011 plan to phase out Medicare, would be the vice presidential candidate. Yet, in a speech last May to a conservative group, former Bush Secretary of Health and Human Services and U.S. Senate candidate Tommy Thompson (R-WI) appeared to admit that the GOP’s proposals have a far more nefarious purpose:

[W]ho better than me, who’s already finished one of the entitlement programs, to come up with programs to do away with Medicaid and Medicare? Let’s block-grant what the state has, and allow the states to determine what’s going to go into Medicaid. And Medicare, let’s wait until everyone that right now is under 55 reaches 55 by age [sic] 2020, and give them a choice whether they want to purchase health insurance with a subsidy from the federal government, or stay on Medicare.

Watch it:

Climate Progress

PBS Ombudsman: NewsHour Climate Story ‘Stumbled Badly’, Use Of Non-Scientist Watts For Balance Was ‘Stunning’

By Joe Romm on Sep 23, 2012 at 12:45 pm

PBS viewers who understand climate science were understandably shocked by the PBS News Hour last week. Their climate segment (below) and online interview focusing on the long-debunked views of non-scientist Anthony Watts were widely criticized — see here and here.

The PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler has responded with a lengthy and thoughtful piece, “Climate Change Creates a Storm,” which opens:

It was not the PBS NewsHour’s finest 10 minutes. In my view, and that of hundreds, even thousands of others, the program stumbled badly. On the other hand, it was not the end of the world, so to speak.

A segment on climate change last Monday evening produced a storm of protest from critics who felt the program mislead viewers — by a faulty application of journalistic balance — about the very real threat of global warming and man’s contribution to it, as well as a sprinkling of support from those who think that threat is overstated and that balance was just the right touch for the NewsHour.

Just below is a video link to the segment so those that did not see it, or wish to see it again, can form their own opinions.

This may be the longest ombudsman column I’ve ever posted because the subject generates about as much thunder and heat as one of those storms many have experienced lately that at least seem to make us think more about climate change. It also is one of those lose-lose subjects for an ombudsman in which whatever one writes is certain not to satisfy a lot of people.

The post notes the segment was widely criticized and it links to my piece, “False Balance Lives: In Worst Climate Story Of The Year, PBS Channels Fox News” and to an excellent commentary by Bud Ward at the Yale Forum.

Here is some of Getler’s specific criticism:

Read more

Security

Lindsey Graham Pushes Romney To Keep Troops In Afghanistan

By Aviva Shen on Sep 23, 2012 at 12:29 pm

As the last of the “surge” troops leave Afghanistan, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called for Mitt Romney to back an extended presence in Afghanistan. President Obama plans to bring all American troops home from Afghanistan by 2014. But Graham said that Romney should say he wants to keep U.S. troops there past that deadline.

The Hill reports:

They should, instead, pursue a war plan focused on “what we leave behind” in the country, not just ending the war as soon as possible, according to Graham.

“It’s about getting it right,” the South Carolina Republican said. Getting it right, he added, almost certainly means keeping U.S. forces in country past the administration’s deadline.

“On the first day of a Romney administration,” the presumed president-elect needed to call a meeting of the top U.S. commanders in Afghanistan and chart a different strategic course for the country, Graham said. “And if [they] need to change the timetable in Afghanistan, that is what we will do.”

Romney has so far avoided laying out a specific foreign policy plan, and an adviser said in May that the candidate would not “engage these issues until he is in office.” And while Romney has said he’ll stick with Obama’s withdraw plan, his Afghanistan plan has been muddled at best. Most recently, leading Republicans criticized him for failing to mention Afghanistan or the troops in his convention speech. However, distancing himself from Obama’s timetable is not only ill-conceived policy, but could hurt him politically as well; half the country wants Obama to speed up the withdrawal of troops. Taking this position would also put Romney at odds with most Republicans, who have mostly backed off supporting the war.

NEWS FLASH

Top Romney Adviser: ‘We Are A Nation Of People Dependent On Their Government’ | Mitt Romney adviser Bay Buchanan reiterated the Republican campaign’s belief that half of Americans are dependent upon government, during an appearance on Meet Thee Press on Sunday. “We are in perilous times in this country. We are looking at financial ruin. We are looking at dependency. We’re a nation of people dependent on their government, and that is what Barack Obama gives us,” she said. Watch it:

Climate Progress

Can California Cap And Trade Program Help Bridge Solar Financing Gap?

By Climate Guest Blogger on Sep 23, 2012 at 11:00 am

by Kate Gordon, via Center for the Next Generation

61.2 million greenhouse gas allowances go on sale November 14, in the first auction under California’s cap and trade program.  That means it’s about time to decide how we’re going to spend the revenues, which are projected to be somewhere between $660 million to $3 billion.  A billion of those dollars are already earmarked for General Fund relief and existing programs, but that still leaves a lot to work with. We know the funds must be spent to meet the goals of AB32—making California less carbon-intensive—but we don’t know exactly what that will mean in practice.

Which brings me to a new report about the vast potential for new rooftop solar projects in California.  According to the research, conducted by Energy and Environmental Economics for the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC), the state could add 15 GW of new local solar – we’re talking about rooftops, not utility-scale installations—to the grid by 2020, making the state’s electricity system more diverse and saving utilities the cost of transmission infrastructure and maintenance to boot. You can find a great synopsis of the report here.

So how do the auction and these solar projects relate to one another?  Well, ideally, if we have all this solar potential in California, one great use for auction revenues would be to somehow use them to dramatically scale up distributed solar across the state.

There are a number of ways to do this, but one I’ve been noodling on ever since the cleantech CEO retreat I went to 2 weeks ago is to give solar project developers the upfront capital they need to overcome what’s been the most major barrier to solar development: inability to find tax equity partners.  The Federal Investment Tax Credit could be a great solar financing tool, but many of these developers are small and scrappy, and don’t have high enough taxes that a tax credit is meaningful to them. What they need is up front capital to do their projects, which they can they pay back through consumer energy savings once the solar system is up.  For them, a state revolving loan fund might be a great use of AB32 revenues – a fund that, because it would be constantly replenished, would be a smart use of government resources to boot.

These are the kinds of issues that my team at The Center for the Next Generation will be thinking about over the coming months. We’d love your thoughts, as always.

This piece was cross-posted from the AB32 Digest, the Center for the Next Generation’s weekly roundup of news on California’s landmark climate change law.  To read the AB32 Digest or subscribe, visit www.tcng.org/ab32.

NEWS FLASH

Bill Kristol: Obama Has Turned Around The Financial Meltdown ‘Pretty Well’ | The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol advised the Mitt Romney to avoid making the election about the last four years, noting that the Obama administration inherited the crisis from Bush and has handled it well. “If this election is just about the last four years, that’s a muddy verdict. Bush was president during the financial meltdown. The Obama team has turned that around pretty well. Bill Clinton’s speech at the convention was very important in that way,” he said. Romney “has go to make it a choice about the next four years and explain what obama would do that would be bad for the country and what he would do to be good.” Watch it:

Economy

Adviser Admits Romney’s Tax Plan Would Redistribute Wealth

By Igor Volsky on Sep 23, 2012 at 10:12 am

Mitt Romney economic adviser Emil Henry tripled down on the GOP presidential candidate’s claim that 47 percent of Americans are “dependent upon government” and see themselves as “victims” because they don’t pay federal income taxes, during an appearance on MSNBC’s Up with Chris Hayes on Sunday. “You have a president who errs towards, in the very least, an entitlement society, a society of hand downs, a society of 46 million people on food stamps,” Henry said, adding that Romney opposes Obama’s efforts to “redistribute” wealth to those with lower incomes.

He then advocated for Romney’s tax reform plan — which he likened to a flat tax — of lowering the marginal rates by 20 percent across the board and limiting exemptions and deductions for the richest Americans, while providing the middle class with tax relief. “I have heard him say this 100 times and I know this for a fact, he says taxes on rich folks are not going to go down because of the elimination of exemptions,” Henry added.

But when Hayes pointed out the inconsistency of the charge, noting that taxes on wealthy people would have to come down substantially if Romney seeks to eliminate the “redistribution” inherent in America’s progressive tax code, Henry conceded that Republicans would also transfer wealth from one group to another:

HAYES: There is a tension with the nonredistributed thing. Taxes on wealthy people have to go down. If he doesn’t believe in that, he has to reduce the burden of wealthy people. We have a barely, but progressive income tax. If he doesn’t believe in redistribution, he has to cut it for the wealthy. It’s not the case he is flattening the tax code and not lowering them for rich people. [...]

HENRY: If your point is that a progressive tax code, which is what the United States of America has and it’s the right thing, and it’s about fairness and fairness of opportunity, your point is there’s a technical element of redistribution by virtue of hiring –

HAYES: Not just technical — that’s redistribution. You are paying for it!

HENRY: Let’s be real about it. Let’s be real about this. When President Obama talks about redistribution, Chris, you know this is true, when he talks about redistribution, he is talking about a massive difference from the Romney plan, which is about simpler, lower marginal rates, getting rid of exemptions and lowering the corporate tax rate to attract business in America.

Watch it:

In fact, Romney’s economic plan does provide substantial tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and would redistribute wealth to the already wealthy. According to a Tax Policy Center analysis, the GOP presidential candidate’s proposal would increase after-tax income for those making more than $200,000 annually, while lowering it for everyone else:

“Taxpayers with incomes over $1 million would see their after-tax income increased by 8.3 percent (an average tax cut of about $175,000), taxpayers with incomes between $75,000 and $100,000 would see somewhat smaller increases of about 2.4 percent (an average tax cut of $1,800), while the after-tax income of taxpayers earning less than $30,000 would actually decrease by about 0.9 percent (an average tax increase of about $130).”

Romney, however, is arguing that he will raise enough revenue through the elimination of tax loopholes that benefit the rich to totally offset the tax cut he provides them, though an analysis from the Tax Policy Center found that to be a mathematical impossibility. There simply isn’t enough revenue to be generated through the closure of those loopholes to offset the massive cost of Romney’s plan.

NEWS FLASH

Libya Says Unauthorized Militias Will Be Disbanded | Libyan officials said late Saturday that any illegitimate armed groups and militias not sanctioned by the government will be disbanded. The order comes after thousands of Libyans infuriated by the attack on the U.S. Consolate in Benghazi that killed four Americans stormed the compounds of Islamist militias in that city and driving them out. Two main Islamist groups, Abu Slim and Ansar al-Sharia, withdrew from their five bases on Saturday and announced they were disbanding. “It is a clear message to all armed groups, especially Salafists,” said Sami Khashkhusha, a political science professor at Tripoli University. “The Libyan people will not accept the hijacking of our revolution or the dictating of the shape of our institutions.”

Climate Progress

Honest Buildings: How Social Networks Can Improve Building Energy Performance

By Climate Guest Blogger on Sep 23, 2012 at 9:45 am

by Jim Marston, via EDF’s Energy Exchange

Is your office building on LinkedIn?  Can you find user reviews of your high-rise on Yelp?  Probably not, but the chances are good that you’ll be able to do both on HonestBuildings.com.

Since launching in beta on March 20, 2012, the fast growing real estate network has already aggregated detailed information on over 700,000 buildings across the U.S. From architects to brokers, thousands of real estate, construction and service companies have joined the platform, posting their portfolio of work and connecting with building owners and managers to find new business opportunities.

Honest Building’s co-founder and CEO Riggs Kubiak says that the real estate market is primed for the convergence of data and community, which will lead to more transparency for all stakeholders and accelerate the adoption of high performance buildings.

“Greater transparency about building performance increases the demand for energy efficiency as tenants can make better, informed decisions about where they lease,” said Kubiak. “This accelerates the adoption of all sorts of best practices by building owners and managers in order to command the best leasing rates. From energy efficiency to leasing to design to management, buildings will have to get better, faster. This also gives the best building service providers and vendors the opportunity to scale faster, as the services and technologies with the best track record can leverage a network effect to capture more and more business.”

And when it comes to important energy innovations, tackling the building sector is vitally important.  Cars and trucks carry a lot of the blame for climate change.  But in the U.S., the building sector is responsible for nearly half of CO2 emissions, compared to a third for the transportation sector. Three-quarters of the electricity produced in the U.S. is used just to operate buildings, and that percentage is even higher globally.

There’s a massive amount of factual, verifiable data about how homes and buildings operate.  This data includes square footage, energy costs, walkability – all things that people care about now more than ever.  But all this information is very hard for consumers to find and for building professionals to promote.  And there is no venue for people — designers, buyers or sellers — to interact.

“The purpose of Honest Buildings is to merge the hard facts with human interaction,” Riggs said. “You can see the data on a building and weigh it against what the community is saying about it.”

In San Francisco, the Honest Buildings platform is using energy benchmarking compliance data to bring together building owners, service providers and local government to create new business opportunities and more efficient buildings.  Working with the city’s department of the environment, they’ve created a custom map of all the buildings that have and have not complied with the city’s energy benchmarking ordinance, and helped building owners connect with energy efficiency companies and consultants that can help these building go above and beyond compliance.

“The introduction of real-time energy data for buildings will provide an incredible insight into how they perform,” Riggs said.  ”Our expectation is that developers and property managers will want to highlight their best performers and create an element of competition that will increase efficiency and sustainability.  And the better the technology, the faster that will happen.”

But according to Riggs, data alone isn’t enough.  ”As with all great services, there has to be a human element,” he said.  ”People need to be able to weigh in with their voice, and the social network aspect of our service will be just as important as detailed, trustworthy data.  Information may help us make better buildings, but people make the decisions.”

Jim Marston is the founding director of the Texas office of Environmental Defense Fund. This piece was originally published at EDF’s Energy Exchange and was reprinted with permission.

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