Free Republic

Legislation that would require health insurers to provide coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions was introduced in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday by Democratic lawmakers. The measure is not expected to pass on its own, but its language or something similar could be folded into a sweeping healthcare overhaul expected to come before the House of Representatives and Senate by this summer. "This is central part of healthcare reform," Senator Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee's subcommittee on health care, said in a conference call. He noted that President Barack Obama supports eliminating exclusions based on pre-existing...

GOP governors turn down $66M in aid for jobless. MONTGOMERY - Despite Alabama's rising jobless rate, Gov. Bob Riley on Monday rejected $66 million in the federal economic stimulus funds earmarked to help states fund unemployment benefits. Riley made the announcement after returning from a National Governors Association meeting in Washington, where he and other governors met with President Barack Obama Sunday night. An influential legislator accused Riley of playing politics, along with other Republican governors in the South. But Riley said the stimulus law requires states to change their laws to expand jobless benefits to those who don't normally...

The state's budget deficit -- an estimated $40 billion over the next 18 months -- just got a little worse, thanks to a San Diego Superior Court ruling. The court declared that when the Legislature appropriated just $1,000 to repay school districts for the 38 programs that the state mandates they implement, it violated the state constitution. The California School Boards Association, which was a lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, said it means the state owes schools another $160 million a year for mandates that the constitution says the state must finance when it imposes them on school districts are...

On its way out of town for summer vacation, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an energy bill that would require, among other things, that electric utility companies produce 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. In addition, the House energy bill directs the Department of Energy to set new energy efficiency appliance standards, outlaws 100-watt incandescent light bulbs after 2012, and requires that all bulbs be 300 times more efficient than ordinary bulbs are today by 2020. The measure also provides $3.5 billion in subsidies to install E-85 (fuel that is 85 percent ethanol and 15...

School districts and local governments are entitled to be repaid for the cost of running programs the state Legislature requires them to operate, a Sacramento County Superior Court judge ruled in a decision published Monday. The California School Boards Association, the city of Newport Beach, Sweetwater Union High School District in San Diego County and the counties of Fresno and Los Angeles sued the state over a bill passed in 2005. They objected because it allowed the state to avoid reimbursing school districts for the costs associated with operating state mandated-programs. In a ruling dated March 13 but published Monday,...

You'd never know this by reading the news, but yesterday 3,500 emergency physicians showed up on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in white lab coats to petition the Congress for some relief from what ails them. They have some serious concerns, some of which impact all of us in various ways. While hospitals are required by law to provide emergency care to anyone regardless of ability to pay, hospitals do not receive reimbursement from the government for those who cannot pay. It might surprise you to learn that in many cases, neither do the doctors. Many emergency room physicians...

WASHINGTON, July 3 - States are openly resisting a provision of the Medicare law that requires them to pay billions of dollars a year to the federal government to help finance the cost of the new Medicare drug benefit. Texas is leading the charge against the requirement, which states see as more onerous than the mandates imposed on them by the 2002 education law, the No Child Left Behind Act. Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, has vetoed a $444 million appropriation covering the Texas contribution for the next two years. In his veto message and in a letter to other...

Washington reaps benefits of No Child Left Behind By Jennifer Dunn Special to The Times As public servants — and more importantly parents and grandparents — we have few greater priorities than ensuring a quality education for our children. Just over two years ago, President Bush signed into law the bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act. This landmark legislation has not only resulted in sweeping increases in federal education funding throughout the nation, but also produced educational progress and opportunities for students in our schools. Washington state has benefited greatly as a result of this legislation, receiving more than $1.6...

States will wind up paying at least $30 billion this year to cover the costs of programs and initiatives handed down by the federal government — from education to homeland security — as Washington leaves an increasingly large burden for states, according to a new report. The National Council of State Legislators, a bipartisan group based in Washington, D.C., documented the costs in a report released yesterday. It said the biggest burdens come from special education requirements, President Bush’s new No Child Left Behind education law, and prescription drugs. The report, dubbed the “Mandate Monitor,” does not list findings on...

Hancock - Amendment could 'undo' guns law JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Former U.S. Rep. Mel Hancock believes Missourians should have the right to carry concealed guns, but also thinks the state amendment bearing his name that forbids unfunded mandates "very well could undo" the law. Enacted when legislators overrode Democratic Gov. Bob Holden's veto Sept. 11, the law allows Missourians age 23 and older to receive concealed gun permits from their local sheriffs after passing criminal background checks, firearms training courses and paying a fee of up to $100. The law also entitles Missourians age 21 and older to conceal...

Posted on the Propaganda thread at YourTurn.NPR.org By Bill Wilkerson: Conservatives are generally thought to favor: 1) States rights (see 2000 election, where Supreme Court overrides a state's election laws) 2) Less government interference in citizen's lives (see Patriot Act and Total Information Awareness program) 3) Reducing the size of government (see Homeland Security Act) 4) No nation-building or policing the world (see Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea) 5) Fiscal responsibility (see 2002 and 2003 budgets) 6) No unfunded Federal mandates (see Leave No Child Behind Act) 7) Truth and honesty in government (see Dividend Tax Elimination proposal and the "possible"...