Sacramento Bee

Sacramento Bee | California Assembly Panel Passes State-run IRA Proposal

A proposal to open California's retirement system to private sector workers prompted questions Wednesday about government competing with investment firms and the pension system's ability to handle the unique program.

"We just don't know if it's going to work yet," Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, R-Lake Elsinore, said of the proposal to have the California Public Employees' Retirement System offer IRA accounts to workers whose employers don't offer retirement savings… more

Dems Intend to Spend, But With What? (The article appears in the Sacramento Bee, CA and the Youngstown Vindicator, OH)

"It is getting a little bit discouraging that promises that are on the wrong side of the ledger … are starting to add up. It gets more and more difficult to see how any of the candidates can meet the full portfolio of promises" they've made, said Maya Macguineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a… more

FCC auction may reshape telecom field (Sacramento Bee) Unlike traditional cell phone or Wi-Fi signals, the 700-MHz spectrum can sneak through concrete walls, foliage, heavy rain and other barriers to wireless reception. "It's why you can get TV in your basement with rabbit ears," said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think tank. ...

As Ward Connerly prepares initiatives to abolish race-based affirmative action in five more states, New America Foundation fellow Gregory Rodriguez, no fan of Connerly's movement, has published an eye-opening book that nonetheless reinforces deep questions about the nation's racial assumptions and categories.

Connerly is the Sacramento businessman and ex-regent of the University of California who drove the successful campaigns overturning race-based preference policies in public education, employment and contracting in California, Washington and Michigan. He's now planning similar campaigns in Arizona,… more

President Bush's veto of a bill that would have allowed California to achieve near-universal health care for children comes at a critical juncture in the state.Employer-based coverage is decreasing, enrollment in the state's Healthy Families program is increasing and efforts by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrats to overhaul the health care system have not yielded a solution a month into a special legislative session.Moreover, new Bush administration rules would make it harder for California to enroll… more

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislative leaders Fabian Núñez and Don Perata have found common ground on the central goal of health care reform: to cover the millions of California workers and their families who don’t get health insurance through their jobs and can’t afford to buy it themselves. The harder part, to no one’s surprise, is agreeing on a way to pay for it.

The governor set out this year to take a big step closer toward universal health coverage… more

Here's an interesting factoid to ponder on Labor Day. The vast majority of working Americans pay a greater share of their federal taxes as payroll taxes, not income taxes. In fact, 86 percent of wage earners pay more in payroll taxes than income taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center.

Why should this matter?

First, the payroll tax, which pays for Social Security and Medicare, is regressive -- that is, lower- and middle-income workers pay a higher share of their income in… more

A debate winding to a close in Washington could undermine ambitious health care proposals by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrats in the Legislature that would provide coverage to every uninsured child in California.The State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, a bipartisan compromise created a decade ago from the embers of the Clinton universal health care plan, expires on Sept. 30.As federal lawmakers prepare to leave this week for a monthlong summer recess, the U.S. Senate… more

The Bush administration seems to be reeling from policy failure to scandal.

Key administration officials have resigned, President Bush’s approval ratings are in the high 20s, with support dwindling even among Republicans and high-ranking military officers. Ed Rollins, a Republican strategist who ran Ronald Reagan’s 1984 presidential campaign, has said, "The country doesn’t believe George W. Bush, it doesn’t trust him, and with 19 months to go it’s only going to get worse." The government of George W. Bush clearly has… more

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, legislative leaders and a coalition of business executives presented a united front Thursday, calling for an overhaul of California's health care system.But midway through the legislative session that ends Sept. 14, Democrats and Republicans remain divided on how to reduce costs and the ranks of the more than 6.5 million Californians without insurance."Everyone is in sync that we need health care reform," the governor said at a Capitol news conference to tout the… more