Welcome to Progressive North Carolina: A Poorer and Unequal State

I have to admit, I enjoy reading the opinion pages in our state’s regional rags.  There isn’t an Observer in North Carolina that doesn’t reek of progressivism.  But hey, these people are objective professionals looking after the best interest of the citizens of North Carolina.  Yeah, right.

I especially get a kick when these rags quote studies from nonprofit organizations and try to pass it off as nonpartisan, as though we’re incapable of looking up these organizations on the internet and see who is running them.  What is surprising is how many progressive nonprofits there are in this state.  I believe the Civitas Institute mapped around 170 at last count.  I only know of two conservative think tanks in North Carolina and I just cited one of them.

Think First NC is a new progressive organization.  I’m not exactly sure who is funding them, but we shouldn’t be surprised if Z Smith Reynolds Foundation and George Soros’s Open Society is involved along with a few other suspects.  Money is fungible when it comes to these organizations.  Only the mob is more creative.

Think First NC sponsored a study that was presented by one of their minions in the News and Observer entitled, What Carolina Comeback?  NC a Poorer, More Unequal State.  Here is an excerpt:

Take what should be the central feature of any recovery: widespread improvements in the income levels and living standards of ordinary households. In 2014, the last year with data, the typical (median) household in the state had an inflation-adjusted annual income that was significantly lower than when the recession started in 2007. Over that period, inflation-adjusted median household income fell by $4,449, dropping from $51,005 to $46,556. The income of the typical household fell by $2,814 during the recession and then dropped another $1,635 during the recovery. In short, the typical household lost ground during the recession and then kept losing ground even after the recovery took hold.

The fall in median household income levels has affected every major racial and ethnic group, all of which were, at a minimum, no better off in 2014 than in 2007. Specifically, the typical non-Hispanic white, African-American and Hispanic households all saw their incomes fall significantly over that period. And place has provided no protection against falling median household income levels, which currently are statistically unchanged or lower than their pre-recessionary values in 98 of 100 counties.

This is supposed to be an indictment on Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration and the republican General Assembly.  However, one cannot separate the policies of the Obama administration with the economy in general.  No state has escaped the machinations of Washington D.C.  As a matter fact, North Carolina has improved its economic standing in spite of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party’s power grab.

The decisions Gov. McCrory and the republicans in the General Assembly made improved the state’s fiscal solvency.  The Mercatus Institute noted the only state in the Union to improve its service-solvency ranking was North Carolina.  We were also ranked 8^th in budget solvency and trust fund solvency.  That wouldn’t have happened under a Democratic administration.  Had they taken over we would’ve ended up like Puerto Rico.

Progressives love to talk about median income while failing to discuss the purchasing power in individual states.  The Tax Foundation mapped the price levels of goods and services throughout the United State and contrasted that with per capita-income, adjusted for taxes and prices.  As of 2015, North Carolina had a 35^th ranking a 4+ improvement in ranking.

Another factor progressives don’t consider is state to state migration.  North Carolina always ranks in the top 5 as we did in 2015.  If North Carolina is a poorer and unequal state maybe somebody should tell all these people who are moving here.

Source:

 http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article95371847.html#storylink=cpy

http://costonscomplaint.blogspot.com/2016/06/north-carolina-named-big-mover-in.html

 http://www.nationalreview.com/article/435093/barack-obama-economy-jobs-ugly-truth

http://www.aei.org/publication/adjusting-state-incomes-for-taxes-and-price-levels-may-change-our-perceptions-of-which-us-states-are-poor-or-rich/

http://teammovemortgage.com/2016/01/05/reasons-for-influx-of-buyers-moving-to-north-carolina/

Gov. Pat McCrory Decries Obama's Illegal Alien Smuggling

Remember when Democrats decried the imperial presidency of George W. Bush?  What a load of crap.  I don’t recall junior aiding and abetting illegal aliens in their quest for family reunification.  That is what Barack Obama is doing.  His majesty is smuggling women and children from Central America into states without the consent, or knowledge of our governors and local officials.  And guess who’s paying for this free coyote service?  We are!

North Carolina has one of the biggest diasporas in the country.  The Tar Heel State is a magnet for illegals; therefore, we are a target for this invasion.  Governor Pat McCrory demands accountability from the Obama administration.  Of course, he's not getting it.

Close to 1,200 children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border during the first six months of this year have been placed with sponsors – many times relatives – in North Carolina, and the governor said he expects that number to increase "fairly dramatically" when July numbers come in. Already, the state has seen twice the number of immigrant children as it does in an average year, he said.

"This is not just a border issue any longer," McCrory said at a news conference, where he was joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Aldona Wos, Public Safety Secretary Frank Perry and Division of Emergency Management Director Mike Sprayberry.

"If the numbers continue to increase at this rate, if could have a severe impact on the current resources that we have to take care of North Carolina children," McCrory said.

There was a time when the federal government couldn’t have violated states’ sovereignty like this.  The Democratic Party no longer hides their contempt for the American people.  They openly flout the law and laugh at our exasperation.

Source:  http://www.wral.com/mccrory-demands-details-from-feds-on-immigrant-children/13868471/#3hpSPzxeyGxtIUDC.99

Libtards Lament Deep Red, North Carolina

North Carolina was supposed to be the crown jewel for the national Democratic Party.  Their aspiration to make inroads into the South seemed promising when Obama won the Old North state in 2008.  They thought North Carolina was going to become a Northeastern outpost.  But what was once considered purple turned deep red.  Now the teat squawkers are screaming about the state’s legislative session.  Here is an excerpt from the New York Times:

 But with Republicans controlling all branches of the state government for the first time in more than a century, the legislature pushed through a wide range of conservative change. The Republicans not only cut taxes and business regulations, as many had expected, but also allowed stricter regulations on abortion clinics, ended teacher tenure, blocked the expansion of Medicaid, cut unemployment benefits, removed obstacles to the death penalty, allowed concealed guns in bars and restaurants, and mandated the teaching of cursive writing.

Just this week, Mr. McCrory signed into law strict voter identification requirements, prohibiting same-day registration and cutting early voting. “Many of those from the extreme left who have been criticizing photo ID are using scare tactics,” he said in a video on his Web site. “They’re more interested in divisive politics than ensuring that no one’s vote is disenfranchised by a fraudulent ballot.”

Lawsuits have been filed — including one on Monday by the N.A.A.C.P. — and protests are taking place almost weekly in Raleigh, the capital, and other cities, leaving North Carolinians across the political spectrum worried that the state’s often-hailed political pragmatism may have given way to the ideological warfare of Washington.

“This is a definite break from what I would consider normal behavior for North Carolina,” said David French, 27, who is looking for a job in industrial design here in rural Rockingham County. “The whole political system nowadays is becoming more extreme.”

I find it strange that people consider what the Democrats are doing as “normal behavior.”  And as far as North Carolina, I believe the people had enough of the corruption and bad policies that have put this state and its citizens in financial straits.  Here is a pontification of another clueless libtard :

 “It shocked everybody,” said Sam Hummel, a 76-year-old retired investment adviser who was arrested last month in Raleigh wearing an Uncle Sam costume and taking part in the protests that have come to be known as “Moral Mondays.”

This guy was shocked?  Well, it was no surprise to those of us who were paying attention.  The past two election cycles are a direct response to the policies of the Progressives.  Gov. Pat McCrory and the Republican controlled General Assembly are reinstituting values that ensures the integrity of a republican form of government:  fiscal responsibility, accountability, and restoring confidence in the electoral process.  Values that Democrats are determined to undermine.

Source:   http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/14/us/north-carolinians-fear-the-end-of-a-middle-way.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

 http://www.governor.state.nc.us/videos/20130812/governor-mccrory-signs-popular-voter-id-law

Medicaid is North Carolina's Second Biggest Budgetary Item

North Carolina’s General Assembly received all sorts of attention during their last legislative session.  Liberal rags such as the Charlotte Observer and the New York Times criticized the republican’s budget that was deemed hostile to the poor.  A group of teat squawkers gathered in Raleigh on Mondays to protest, some were arrested.  Most of those were public employees.  One of their contentions as an outrage is the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid.  They would have you believe this program is a miniscule budgetary item.  It’s not.  As a matter of fact, it is the second biggest item that our government has to deal with.  To give you an idea of how large this program is, here is an excerpt from a Civitas Institute article:

·         A small program? Try this experiment: Walk down the street and think of every fifth person as a Medicaid recipient. That’s because nearly one in five North Carolinians is enrolled in the program.

·         Limited? Imagine that over eight years one city the size of Greensboro and another the size of Durham were added to North Carolina. Well, that’s how many people were added to the Medicaid rolls in one recent eight-year span.

·         Impoverished? Someone with a $490,000 house, jewelry, a good retirement account, a nice car and a business can still qualify for long-term care under Medicaid.

·         And good care?  Care may be good quality – if you can get it. Poorly designed cost-cutting measures have significantly reduced the availability of care to Medicaid patients.

The above was written in September of 2012.  However, libtards would have us believe that Republicans are cutting Medicaid spending in the coming fiscal year, when in fact it is being expanded, thanks to Obamacare.  Here is an excerpt from a Carolina Journal article:

RALEIGH — The new state budget includes a provision creating an advisory panel to rewrite the way the state delivers Medicaid services. It’s part of the Partnership for a Healthy North Carolina reforms championed by the McCrory administration. The budget adds more than $1 billion to Medicaid spending to cover what legislative leaders called cost overruns. 

The additional spending also accounts for mandates from the federal government as the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, takes effect. One mandate is the so-called woodwork effect. Thousands of residents eligible for Medicaid who never enrolled now will sign up because of the mandate for individual insurance coverage. Another is the transfer of 51,000 participants from Health Choice, the subsidized program for low-income children, to Medicaid

You also won’t here from these liberal editorial boards the reforms being made to control the cost of Medicaid.

In addition, 11 components are mandated for inclusion in the advisory panel’s report to the General Assembly. 

Several of those include defining methodologies used to increase efficiency and reduce cost growth. DHHS also must detail how any pilot programs will improve current operations, setting forth the methodologies to show they are scientifically valid. 

The report must show how financial risks will be allocated and how private contractors will be held accountable for implementing the plan. 

The McCrory administration envisions three or four competing private managed care organizations would deliver Medicaid services, replacing the monopolistic Community Care of North Carolina model now in place.

The advisory panel further is tasked with developing Medicaid State Plan Amendments, Medicaid waivers, amendments to state law, and any other actions necessary to implement the reforms.

“What’s in the budget looks pretty much like what we came up with,” said State Rep. Marilyn Avila, R-Wake, who served on one of the House subcommittees working to negotiate with Senate counterparts to develop the Medicaid budget.

Medicaid reform is vital, and experiences in other states that already have gone that route demonstrate the need, she said.

“If you look at the numbers and the results, you have to say it’s got to be the direction to move in when you look at dollar savings,” Avila said.

“But to me, as important as the dollar savings are the outcomes. You look at the data where they’re doing those comparisons of outcomes for people on Medicaid versus other programs, people who are on self-pay, and things of that nature, and the Medicaid outcomes are really, really bad,” Avila said.

“And when you’re spending that kind of money, you would expect a much higher, positive outcome for your patients,” she said. Better outcomes are “to me, just as critical as the fact that they’re showing savings.”

Though criticisms are abound about NC republicans, no one mentions the role of the federal government. States have to negotiate with bureaucrats from Washington D.C.  But you’ll never hear a peep from the statist about that. 

Source:  http://www.nccivitas.org/2012/medicaid-reform/

http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=10388

Gov. Pat McCrory Treats All North Carolinians the Same

North Carolina is setting an example that the rest of the country should heed:  treat all citizens the same.  How many times have liberals declared our nation’s strength is our diversity?  Well it’s not.  When government entities pander to subset groups, they create resentment, suspicion and hate.  And how does that strengthen our republic?

Governor Pat McCrory has the right idea when it comes to treating all citizens as equals. 

North Carolina GOP Gov. Pat McCrory is under fire for eliminating the state’s Office of Hispanic/Latino affairs.

“The message from Raleigh is that Latinos in North Carolina don’t matter,” Jess George, executive director of the Latin American Coalition, told the Charlotte Observer.

“Despite movement with the Republican Party at the national level towards more bipartisan solutions around comprehensive immigration reform, North Carolina conservatives don’t seem to have gotten the same memo.”

McCrory spokesman Thomas Stith told the newspaper the duties of the office were being folded into the office of community and constituent affairs.

“We don’t segment our constituents by race or cultural background any more than we separate them by age or gender,’’ he said.

Of course the “Latino community” isn’t happy about the closing of their one-manned office, and neither is the statist at the Charlotte Observer, who published this cartoon:

Source:   http://www.newsmax.com/US/McCrory-Latino-Carolina-closure/2013/03/29/id/496965#ixzz2P8DtxGeX

N.C. Advocacy Groups Throwing Tantrum Over McCrory Regulator Picks

Leftist advocacy groups are losing their minds.  Governor Pat McCrory was just sworn into office and they are already demanding he recuse himself from making appointments to the N.C. Utility Commission:

North Carolina advocacy groups want Governor Pat McCrory to leave selection of new state utilities regulators to others because of his nearly 30 years at what is now the country's largest electric company.

The clean energy group N.C. WARN and the state branch of the AARP said Friday they're asking McCrory to recuse himself from selections of several members of the North Carolina Utilities Commission.

The groups say McCrory faces an unprecedented conflict of interest since his former employer is Duke Energy Corp., which provides electricity to the vast majority of the state's consumers.Charlotte-based Duke Energy last summer took over Raleigh-based Progress Energy and grew into the country's largest electric company.

McCrory spokesman Chris Walker said the incoming governor plans to execute the powers of his office.

This is laughable.  By law, the Governor picks the regulators.  If Gov. McCrory recuses himself, who will then make the appointments?  N.C. Warn and the AARP?  I'm sure they're all for it.  

Here is a brief history and description of the oldest regulatory agency in North Carolina:

History

The North Carolina Utilities Commission is an agency of the State of North Carolina created by the General Assembly to regulate the rates and services of all public utilities in North Carolina. It is the oldest regulatory body in state government. The present Commission evolved from the Railroad Commission which was created in 1891 and given authority to regulate railroad, steam boat, and telegraph companies.

Today, the Commission regulates electric, telephone (including payphone service and shared tenant service), natural gas, water, wastewater, water resale, household goods transportation, busses, brokers, and ferryboats. To a limited degree, the Commission regulates electric membership corporations, small power producers, and electric merchant plants. The Commission is also responsible for administering programs in North Carolina to ensure the safety of natural gas pipelines. The Commission does not regulate telephone membership corporations, cable TV, satellite, commercial mobile radio service, cellular, pagers, or data and internet service providers.

Description

The Commission has seven members who serve eight-year terms. Appointments are made by the Governor, subject to confirmation by the General Assembly by joint resolution. The Governor also designates a Chairman to serve a four-year term. The Chairman serves as the chief executive and administrative officer of the Commission and as a member of the Agency for Public Telecommunications Board and the Geographic Information Coordinating Council. The standards of judicial conduct provided for judges in Article 30 of Chapter 7A of the General Statutes apply to members of the Commission. Members of the Commission are prohibited by law from engaging in any other employment, business, profession, or vocation while in office.

So, should the General Assembly recuse themselves as well, because they’re Republicans?  What should happen if the General Assembly passes energy legislation?  Should Gov. McCrory recuse himself as well?  These libtards are hilarious!

Source: http://www.witn.com/home/headlines/NC-Groups-McCrory-Energy-Past-Tilts-To-Utilities-185761462.html

http://www.ncuc.commerce.state.nc.us/overview/ucdesc.htm

Obamacare Exchanges are a Trojan Horse Filled with Deception

Governor-elect Pat McCrory will officially take office on January 5, 2013.  He has yet to decide if North Carolina will continue the Obamacare exchanges that his predecessor imposed upon the citizens of this state without the consent of the General Assembly.  These exchanges are a Trojan horse that will cost the citizens of this state dearly.  Carolina Journal reported the following:
 
“The majority of the Medicaid expansion is expected to happen through the exchanges,” she said. Some exchanges may cost a state like New Jersey between $10 million and 15 million a year to operate, and could cost California up to $300 million annually, she said.

“The way that they’re going to find these people is that they’re going to enroll online and people will actually be forced into Medicaid” if they meet a set of criteria, including earning incomes as high as 138 percent of the federal poverty level, Brase said.

“Obamacare requires insurance companies to take everyone,” even those with terminal illnesses who had no health coverage, Brase said. Rather than insurance, she calls Obamacare a third-party payment system with the government which insurance carriers will get preferential treatment.

“The biggest ones win,” she said “They will get all the money from the government and they will be doling it out, but they won’t be private entities anymore,” but more like regulated utilities.

And here is a revealing detail about these state-federal partnerships:

“These so-called state-federal partnerships are nothing more than a facade,” Brase said. “In addition to having states provide funding for these exchanges that has not yet been approved by Congress, pursuing a partnership authorizes insurance premium subsidies to be allocated to the state, threatening employers with penalties if employees receive subsidies on the exchange.”

“At the core, state-federal partnership exchanges are stealthy and deceptive,” Brase said. “Pursuit of such exchanges is another way that the federal government is attempting to control health care without footing the bill. In the end, such exchanges cost states and employers millions in operating expenses and penalties, and still invade the privacy of public citizens by sharing their health data with multiple government agencies.”

So far only 14 states have opted for state based Obamacare exchanges; 22 have declined.  Hopefully, Mr. McCrory won’t be so foolish as to believe he can be a partner with the statist in the Obama administration.

Source:  http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=9743

http://www.nationaljournal.com/healthcare/health-exchanges-a-tough-sell-with-many-states-20121214

Gov.-Elect Pat McCrory Unsure About Implementing N.C. Obamacare Exchange

Gov.-elect Pat McCrory hasn’t decided if he is for or against an N.C. state run Obamacare exchange.

RALEIGH — Amid growing sentiment by conservatives that states can derail Obamacare by refusing to create health care exchanges, Gov.-elect Pat McCrory says he has not decided whether to join other Republican governors in following that path.

“He’s going to work with the General Assembly in determining the best course for North Carolina going forward,” said Chris Walker, communications director for the McCrory transition team.

As it stands, Walker said, “there is a lack of clarity from Washington” on specifics of implementing the exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Obamacare’s official title.

Hopefully, North Carolina’s General Assembly which is dominated by Republicans, aren’t foolish enough to fall for this statist canard.  But apparently, there is one moron in the Senate who believes the state of North Carolina will have a say in how this exchange is going to run:

 

McCrory is not sold on that model and could choose another option after he is sworn in. In addition, State Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, has said the General Assembly must have a voice in how the state approaches the exchanges.

“What [McCrory] won’t do is have a federally run state program” that leaves decisions to the feds and pushes costs to the state, Walker said.

“There’s a lot of unanswered questions,” Walker said. “The federal government isn’t even prepared for implementation at this point.”

Well State Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, I’m sure you have to be aware of the rule changes in Medicaid for the mentally ill.  Those rules were changed by the feds.  Now look at the problems this state has in finding funds to house these people.  Do you truly believe that you’ll have any say when an HHS bureaucrat imposes new rules and regulations through these exchanges?  Wake up, fool!

 

 

 

Source:  http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=9729

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/11/12/2480017/2000-could-lose-their-lodging.html#storylink=cpy