The Democratic Senate is on the verge of going along and passing their version of Obamacare Healthcare reform. The Democrats in the House passed their version of historic healthcare reform in November 2009. The reconciled bill and all of its implications for 1/6 of the US GDP and millions of Americans will one day be sent to President Obama’s desk for signature. This Centrist is forecasting that that day will be MLK’s birthday in 2010. Against the backdrop of possible higher premiums, cuts to Medicaid and certainly higher taxes for yet to be defined or finalized demographics the following will be occurring in the states which will also have to deal with the implications of Obamacare:
Jobless Benefits To Run Out In 40 States By 2011
Via WaPO
December 22, 2009
The recession’s jobless toll is draining unemployment-compensation funds so fast that according to federal projections, 40 state programs will go broke within two years and need $90 billion in loans to keep issuing the benefit checks.
The shortfalls are putting pressure on governments to either raise taxes or shrink the aid payments.
Debates over the state benefit programs have erupted in South Carolina, Nevada, Kansas, Vermont and Indiana. And the budget gaps are expected to spread and become more acute in the coming year, compelling legislators in many states to reconsider their operations.
Currently, 25 states have run out of unemployment money and have borrowed $24 billion from the federal government to cover the gaps. By 2011, according to Department of Labor estimates, 40 state funds will have been emptied by the jobless tsunami.
State unemployment-compensation funds are separated from general budgets, so when there is a shortfall, only two primary solutions are typically considered — either cut the benefit or raise the payroll tax.
Federal Medicaid Matching Aid To States To End December 2010
Via CBPP
December 18, 2009
States face a serious fiscal problem that could force them to institute additional deep budget cuts and tax increases in 2010, weakening the fragile economic recovery and harming vulnerable children, seniors, and people with disabilities, among others. The federal assistance that states received for their Medicaid programs under this year’s economic recovery legislation is scheduled to end with a “cliff” on December 31, 2010, and the assistance states received for education and other services also will be largely exhausted by then. Although that date is more than a year away, the problem is coming to a head now.
That’s because states — which continue to face huge budget shortfalls that they must close — are taking steps now to plan their budgets for state fiscal year 2011, which starts on July 1, 2010 in most states. Governors will send their budget proposals to their legislatures between next month and February 2010 in almost all states. The legislatures will have to pass budgets as early as March or April in some states and by the end of June in almost all states. If states do not know they will receive additional federal fiscal relief, they will begin implementing new budget cuts and tax increases by this summer, at the latest.
Presuming they will get no more fiscal relief, states will have to take steps to eliminate deficits for state fiscal year 2011 that will likely take nearly a full percentage point off the Gross Domestic Product. That, in turn, could cost the economy 900,000 jobs next year. [1] Mark Zandi, Chief Economist of Moody’s Economy.com, recently warned that these state budgetary actions “will be a serious drag on the economy at just the wrong time.”
Stimulus Aid For Budget Shortfalls In States Will End
State Gov’s Use Stimulus $$ To Cover Billions In Budget Shortfalls. Gov. Palin Had it Right ‘REFORM, REFORM, REFORM’
Posted By Centrist on July 1, 2009
The Centrist is reading on the worsening situation for state budgets across the nation. Many of the 48 states have used Stimulus dollars to cover billions in budget gaps. These billions in stimulus dollars were approved by the Democratic Congress and three Republicans to create jobs and get America out of the recession. But instead,since according to VP Biden ‘everybody guess wrong’ on the unemployment numbers the stimulus dollars are being used to cover budget shortfalls into 2011.
So here is where it stands America:
- A total of 48 states have addressed or are facing billions in budget shortfalls for the upcoming year.
- Those billions in stimulus dollars for shovel ready jobs are going to be used instead to cover the short falls. No benefit to mainstream there.
- There is not momentum for the states to reform their systemic and structural problems that contribute to the shortfalls. States are spending way more than the revenue that is brought in.
-Blame Bush and blame Bush again for the economic situation and what Obama inherited. I agree with you there. Obama was dealt a really bad deck of cards.
HOWEVER:
- The economic recovery package is a creature of a Democratic Congress (and three Repubs). Quite simply that money is being used to to cover state budget gaps that were occurring before President Obama was elected. His stimulus package is being used to mask state government problems instead of fix them.
- Why didnt President Obama and Congress put the same stringent conditions on the states to restructure/reform before getting federal monies as they did on the private sector auto companies? THAT IS PRESIDENT OBAMA’s and Congress’s Failure to date. NOT REQUIRING STRUTURAL REFORM OF State Governments.
-Mainstream media and the extreme promoters of Obama’s vision during his campaign really need to suck it up and give Gov. Palin some credit for her consistent and continued calls for Government reform during the campaign. She may have not been a lot of things to many voters BUT WHERE IT SHOULD HAVE MATTERED NO ONE LISTENED. She always expounded REFORM on the campaign trail. If only President Obama and Congress would have built REFORMS into the stimulus package. Blame Bush and the Repubs for the mess but blame Congress for not requiring government reform when the stimulus package was passed.
The state and federal leadership that is or will be in place between 2010 and 2017 really needs to forecast the devastating impact of the following on their respective citizenry:
Jobless Benefits To Run Out In 40 States By 2011
Federal Medicaid Matching Aid To States To End December 2010
Stimulus Aid For Budget Shortfalls In States Will End
Implementation of Obamacare
The need for services will be overwhelmed by a non-existent or otherwise exhausted revenue stream to the states. Is anyone taking into account that their are limits to taxation yet still be required to provide essential services? How is this all going to play out against the backdrop of a midterm election in 2010.
Stay tuned….
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