Better Oklahoma Government

Is China Lending Us Our Money?

2011-07-17T11:35:00.000-07:00

It's amazing to me that so many people are oblivious to the pending trauma that may occur if we default on our national debt by not raising the debt ceiling. Interest rates will rise for everyone and the cost of everything will go up. How will that help us achieve a balanced budget? Tea Party advocates repeatedly claim that we need to grow our economy to increase government revenue and the only way to do that is to lower taxes and government regulations.

Let's look at the world's current most successful economy and see how they manage things. That economy is China, both the largest creditor of the U. S. and now the manufacturing base for many of the products used by Americans. They are not even a Capitalistic society. They are a totalitarian regime with rigid control by the central government and that rigid control keeps working conditions abysmal and wages low. That totalitarian regime is able to lend America trillions of dollars because the Chinese government has lots of money.

Where do they get that money? Do you think the successful manufacturers in China just share their money with the government because they love it or do you realize that China has taxes too? The Chinese government controls everything that Chinese business does if you don't realize that, I fear for your sanity. Check out http://www.taxrates.cc/index.html to see how much the Chinese system demands in taxes. This site shows that they have a progressive income tax system that requires their richest citizens to pay 45% far above the 35% our richest citizens pay. They do have a lower corporate rate of 25% compared to our 39.2% but if you continue reading you will see they have a VAT,aka sales tax of 17% while the U. S. leaves the sales tax issue to the states and none have higher than 7% for the state and probably no more than 3% for the lower levels of government. Keep reading on this site and you will see that they also have a multitude of other business taxes which evidently rake in enough money to make China able to lend money to the rest of the world. Their tax rates also have several lower rates for industries they want to encourage like high tech and yes green industries.

Some day the Tea Party folks are going to realize that government services are not free and different governments use different forms of taxation to get to the same place and that place is where ever they decide will give them enough money to run their country. I don't know about the rest of you but I think that when an American company would rather pay taxes to China they should have to move there. Now their CEOS use the slave labor available there and lower Chinese corporate rate along with the lower U. S. rate on income to milk both systems.

They keep telling us America is the greatest country in the world while they do everything possible to bring the wages down of American workers and get an even better income tax rate for themselves. It just seems basically Unamerican for a company to pay taxes to another country that turns around and lends it to America. This is a grand scam and the American people are the suckers.

Wake Up Call

2011-05-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

All four of Oklahoma’s Republican Congressmen got their wake-up call on Tuesday, May 24. That long-distance call came from upstate New York where a stunning upset occurred. Kathy Hochul, a Democratic challenger, defeated Jane Corwin, a well-financed Republican insider, in deeply red Congressional District 26.

Medicare became the defining issue in that campaign and, most likely, will define numerous 2012 elections as well.

Regarding Medicare, Oklahoma’s Republican Congressmen agree with defeated Jane Corwin’s position. In fact, Congressmen John Sullivan, Frank Lucas, Tom Cole, and James Lankford, voted “yes” for Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget bill (HCR 34) which ends Medicare as we know it.

Today’s Medicare would end for people now under 55 when they become elderly. Instead of Medicare,they would get a voucher as partial payment on health insurance from a private company. One person
at a time trying to buy health insurance would greatly increase the price and a lone individual could easily be denied coverage because of age.

If these four Oklahoma congressmen prevail, good luck to granny, who is supposed to enjoy her “freedom” from the “bonds of the mean old government” with its guaranteed health coverage.

Wanda Jo Stapleton

Smaller Government Phooey!

2011-02-04T10:05:00.000-08:00

Every time I pick up the paper there is news of another ethically challenged appointment by one of our new Republican state wide office holders. First it's the governor appointing Glenn Coffee, term limited and now former state senator as Secretary of State. The former Secretary of State pulled in about 94K. It will be interesting to see what Coffee ends up making.

Next John Doak, the Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner, appointed 3 former Republican legislators who lost in the primaries to now serve as deputy insurance commissioners. The Democratic Commissioner had only 4 deputies but now we need 7? Their credentials are outstanding too, one was a wholesale air-conditioning distributor, another a realtor, and the third a banker. How any of those disciplines are relevant to the insurance commission beats me.

The Superintendent of Education has hired lobbyists and campaign workers to be her assistants. Jobs that have a regulatory requirement for personnel to have at least a masters in education. It seems obvious that in this instance, who you know is more important that what you know.

Many of these people were hired despite the fact that our state Constitution prohibits hiring legislatures with appropriated funds for two years after they leave office. All were hired in agencies that claim to be predominately funded with fees instead of appropriations. I wonder how they keep that money separate.

According to the state finance office website, salaries for deputy commissioners range from $67,900 to $92,000. This will be a hefty raise for legislators who only make about $50,000 a year when you include their per diem and other benefits. If they work for the state for only three more years at the higher salary, it will literally double their retirement benefits.

That's okay though, our state pension fund is the most underfunded in the U. S. and is scheduled to be unable to pay full benefits by 2020. I wonder if these newly appointed state employees remembered all the money they borrowed for other expenses with these funds when they decided to work on a larger pension?

Coffee's Mexican Vacation

2009-04-22T05:47:00.000-07:00

According to a 14 April Tulsa World article, Republican Senate President Pro Tem, Glen Coffee, and former State Representative, Fred Morgan, took a little vacation to Mexico with Brett Robinson, a lobbyist for GEO, a private prison company.

Information provided for fiscal year 2008 by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections shows that the state spent slightly more than $78 million to house inmates in private prisons. Of that amount, slightly more than $41 million was spent with GEO.

Was this cozy little friendship between GEO and Coffee the reason that Coffee requested an analysis from the State Board of Corrections of what it would cost to close 3 state prisons?

Oklahoma has one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation. When the private prison industry is sure we have no other alternatives to house our prison population, they will jack up the cost per inmate and Oklahoma will be at their mercy. That's exactly what they did in New Mexico. Yes, today, they do it slightly cheaper, but when we put ourselves in a position where there is no competition for the private prisons, they will gouge us big time. Those trips to Mexico are not cheap.
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DRIBBLE DOWN ECONOMICS

2008-10-10T07:46:00.000-07:00

The Oklahoma legislature again followed lobbyist money instead of the interests of their constituents when they voted to give the owners of the Sonics a 60 million dollar tax break by passing HB1819 last session. To see how much your legislator received from Sonic lobbyists, check out this website (http://davidhglover.googlepages.com/reverserobinhood)

Overall lobbyists for the tax credit gave about $600,000.00 in campaign contributions to legislators while encouraging them to vote for a 60 million dollar tax break. I sure wish I could get even half that on my investments. If you do an in depth calculation on the voting patterns; it shows that Representatives voting YES on the bill received an average of $3,167 in contributions while legislators voting No on the bill only received $1820. Senators voting YES were a little more expensive. They received an average of $7,100.00 while Senators voting no only received $3950. .

Meanwhile the infrastructure in our state is falling apart. The ASCE web site, http://www.asce.org/reportcard/2005/page.cfm?id=76, calculated in 2005 that the total bill to bring our bridges, roads, water and sewage systems up to par would be over 2.34 billion dollars. I have a feeling it is going to be very hard to get there if our legislature continues to let the lobbyists run our state.

Taxing Necessities and Giving Special Interests a Pass

2008-05-20T15:38:00.000-07:00

Oklahoma is one of only seven states that still taxes groceries at the same rate as other purchases. Recently the Oklahoma Legislature had an opportunity to repeal the sales tax on groceries but it failed by only one vote. Did your Representative vote yes or no? Check out the votes on HB 3103 at http://www.okhouse.gov/51LEG/Leg_Votesxx.aspx?include=inetvote2008.htm

We are experiencing a time of runaway inflation for fuel and basic necessities. If the legislature had passed this bill it would have helped every person in the state rich and poor alike. Meanwhile, during the same week, they passed another 60 million dollar tax exemption to bring the Super Sonics to Oklahoma City, added another 22.1 million in tax breaks for the oil industry to the 159.7 million they gave them last year. They even found that they could afford to help investors in gold and precious coins, making their profits non taxable.

I didn't look at every bill so I have a feeling there are a lot more special breaks that I didn't list. It's unfortunate that the working people of Oklahoma can't afford a lobbyist to work with the legislature on behalf of their interests because it appears that the majority of our legislators can only support tax relief suggested by lobbyists. Pleas for relief from everyday folks are just not loud enough to rise above the constant din of gimme this and gimmee that they listen to every day from the special interests.

I know one thing for sure, I need a Representative with better hearing, because mine didn't listen to me on this bill.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE FOR OKLAHOMA CHILDREN

2007-09-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

I've finally found something our Oklahoma legislators did right. Last session with bi-partisan support they passed SB 424, titled the All Kids Act. This act will enable over 40,000 additional Oklahoma kids to have health insurance through the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). NO NEW TAXES WERE PASSED TO FUND THIS ACT! The All Kids Act will use 8 million dollars in already collected tobacco taxes and bring in an additional 30 million dollars in federal funds.

Passage of this act means families who are self employed or working for employers who do not provide group health insurance will be able to have health insurance for their kids even if some of them suffer from chronic illnesses like asthma or diabetes which makes many of them uninsurable in today's insurance market.

Working families paying ALMOST $3 a gallon for gas to get to work and $4 a gallon for milk often don't have the resources to pay $1000 a month for family health insurance which is what the average non group policy costs in the state of Oklahoma for a family of four.

Our state Insurance Commissioner, Kim Holland recently stated that the uninsured increase the costs of health insurance to both businesses and families by $1781.00 a year. The high cost of health care in general is impacted to a great extent by the millions of families who end up unable to pay their medical bills. Hospitals and doctors end up having to add this to their cost of doing business so they have to increase their prices. Spiraling medical and insurance costs are costing each and every one of us lots of money and I appreciate any action that can help with that.

When children do not make regular visits to the doctor, or receive medical attention when it is needed, they risk minor illnesses becoming major ones. Adequate health care can mean the difference between a child growing and thriving and one who misses a lot of school, falls behind, and can even eventually end up needing state aid. Healthy children are better prepared to learn in school and better equipped to succeed in life. Children are our state's most important asset, and we should do everything we can to ensure that they succeed.

Oklahoma Tied For Last Place

2007-06-30T17:06:00.000-07:00

I just added a new link under Healthcare for a great article that a medical professional sent me from the 7 June 07 issue of Business Week called "The Sorry States of Health Care".

Sadly but not surprisingly Oklahoma is tied with Mississippi for the title of the worst healthcare in the United States.

The article explains that under current Federal law, states have full authority over how health care is delivered, paid for and monitored. States regulate insurers and hospitals. They run the public health systems and most importantly they decide who is and who isn't covered by Medicaid and SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program). To me that means that Oklahoma can do better if they work at it.

During the last legislative session, the Governor was able to increase the number of insured Oklahoma children in SCHIP by 40,000. He was able to accomplish this despite strong opposition from Lance Cargill, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

One would think that the state legislature would have been eager to fund this new initiative considering that they are always saying how important children are to the future of Oklahoma. They also say education is important, but again education funding was finalized too late for the school administrations to effectively budget for the coming year. Most people realize that healthy children learn better and the only way Oklahoma can ever help all children learn better is to be sure they are healthy enough to learn.

Well, our state legislature barely passed the bill. The Speaker of the House, Lance Cargill voted against the bill and also tried to have it killed in committee. His kids have good insurance so I guess that's all that counts to him.

I am convinced that the only way we will ever have Better Oklahoma Government is if we start electing better Oklahoma legislators.

Taxpayer Abuse by the Legislature

2007-05-04T07:56:00.000-07:00

Since Republicans have become the majority in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, there has been a marked increase in the passing of unconstitutional bills which have resulted in outside organizations suing the state to stop the legislation.

Guess who pays for those lawsuits? It's the Oklahoma taxpayer who foots the bill for the defense regardless of who wins and if the plaintiff wins they pay their costs too. Sadly the legislator who introduced the offending legislation goes on their happy way without any penalty.

We maintain that all legislation introduced should be screened by the legislative staff for federal and state constitutional validity and if the legislation shows any indication of not being up to constitutional muster, it should be mandated that the Rules Committee in the legislature must review it before it can go to a vote of the legislature. The Rules Committee must then provide debate on both sides of the constitutional issue and can only send the bill forward if it receives a two thirds vote by that committee. This legislative rules change would save Oklahoma taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Legislative action of any kind already costs the taxpayer thousands of dollars for hearings, paperwork, and documentation. When constitutionally suspect legislation is adopted and signed into law, hundreds of thousands of dollars will be spent by government attorneys defending the measure before the Courts strike it down. If the courts strike it down, the state most usually pays for the attorney fees of the plaintiff as well.

Changing the rules to require a two thirds vote of the Rules Committee would avoid silly partisan debate over proposals which are beyond the power of the Legislature. This would also avoid grandstanding by partisan legislators who's only real purpose is to beef up their base.

Frankly it might also be wise to even penalize lawmakers who introduce unconstitutional bills that fail to obtain the necessary support in the Rules Committee. Perhaps by reducing the limit on the number of bills they are allowed to introduce each session by 5 for ever 1 denied by the Committee?

Oklahoma legislators spend way too much time debating and passing legislation that really has no relationship to legislative responsibility. If this rule was implemented, it would be a lot easier for them to get their business completed by the mandatory May 25th adjournment date. Instead of getting BOGGED down in issues that are really out of their scope of responsibility.

Grandstanding Again

2007-05-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

Our great legislature is again grandstanding instead of taking care of business. They have sent a bill on illegal immigration to the Governor which will be a great vehicle for bankrupting the state as well as creating general havoc.

The bill requires all illegal immigrants who have been arrested under the many new Oklahoma immigration laws to be held in jail until the Feds pick them up. Oklahoma already has overflowing prisons and jails. Additional prisoners will mean lots more prisoners in an already crippled system. If this bill passes and is enforced, our prisons will soon be under federal oversight again for overcrowding and a large portion of my taxes will be going to fix the problem created by a bunch of yahoos who only want to grandstand instead of work on the problems for which they have real responsibility.

Illegal immigration is a federal problem. There are lots of federal problems that need fixing, but most of us are smart enough to know they are out of our realm of possibility or responsibility. Oklahoma could try to solve the problem of not enough troops to send to Iraq by initiating a state wide draft. Obviously that would be illegal (as this new immigration bill may well be), costly, and basically ineffective because of the vast numbers needed versus what the state could contribute.

If our legislators are too dumb to realize the repercussions of their latest effort, we are in a world of hurt. If they are too cynical and self serving to care, we're not much better off.

Oklahoma Government Continually Bogged Down

2007-04-30T18:25:00.000-07:00

It's almost May and the Oklahoma's legislature still doesn't have a budget completed. The Republicans are fighting the Democrats and the Governor is fighting both parties in the Senate but only the Republicans in the House.

The Republican controlled House won't even hear a Democratic bill even if they agree with it. The Senate won't hear any bill unless it has a sponsor from both parties. They all act more like adolescents than statesmen.

As usual the Republicans vote as a block and goose step to the commands of the party leadership. About two thirds of the Democrats vote with the Republicans so in essence they are the ones running the state.

The Republicans want to again cut taxes for big business and big pocketbooks in a state that can't raise taxes without a vote of the people.

They are also determined to run every abortion doctor out of the state and this year they even went so far as to have the legislature write a set of rules for what emergencies would truly qualify as ones that would endanger a pregnant woman's life and qualify her to legally have an abortion. The state medical association came out in droves to object to the bill and the governor vetoed it . The holier than thou folks are screaming to high heaven and calling him and anyone who voted to uphold the veto baby killers and worse.

The governor also vetoed the latest so called tort reform bill which was another favorite of the Republicans. The Republicans are determined to make sure that poor people who can't afford a lawyer don't get their day in court. They have convinced the doctors, who should be smart enough to realize that lawsuits are not the only thing that affects the price of their malpractice insurance, that greedy lawyers are their nemesis. It seems obvious to me that someone should be looking at the continually increasing and huge profits of the insurance companies but so far, they are still operating completely without oversight.

The governor didn't veto the bill that protects animal waste from ever being classified as toxic waste even though our eastern Oklahoma lakes and rivers have already been polluted by the large concentration of poultry farms in that area. Other sections of the state have also lost water quality because of corporate hog farms. If you check out the campaign contributions of the corporate farms and their management, it is a little easier to understand why this sorry bill was passed without much opposition.

The majority of the press in Oklahoma is so far to the right, they would sink a ship if they were on one. That means they only report good things about our radical Republican controlled legislature.

The vast majority of legislation in Oklahoma is now being pushed forward by the big business interests that forked up the 70 to 100 thousand dollars now needed to run for the legislature. Meanwhile, most of Oklahoma is watching their 100 channels of entertainment and sports and completely oblivious to the really bad government we are getting.

The fruits of some of that bad government are becoming apparent even to people who have had their eyes glued to a TV set for the last few years. In an effort to educate and energize Oklahoma Citizens about what is really happening in the legislature, we have formed the organization, Better Oklahoma Government (BOG).

We hope that bogged down will soon have a new meaning.