A new analysis by Wallethub places Hawaii as the No. 3 in the nation for the population most covered by health insurance. Its report highlights the rates of uninsured in each state before and after the implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act, to highlight the difference the law has made between 2010 and 2014. The rates were identified using data from U.S. Census Bureau. The No. 1 and No. 2 rankings went to Massachusetts and Vermont for their overall lowest uninsured rates, approximately…
Reported by bizjournals 10 hours ago.
Hawaii has third lowest rate of uninsured, Wallethub finds
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The Dog Ate My Vote: How Congress Explains Its Absences
On a Monday afternoon in October 2011, West Virginia Democrat Nick J. Rahall II waited at the Charleston airport for a 4:50 p.m. U.S. Airways Express flight to Washington. If the plane left on schedule, the roughly 80-minute flight would allow him to get to the Capitol in time for votes in the House of Representatives that evening.
Things did not go according to plan. The flight didn’t leave Charleston for another four hours, giving Rahall, then the top Democrat on the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, plenty of time to “boil over,” as he later wrote. When he finally arrived in Washington, having missed three votes, he lambasted the airline’s handling of the delay in a statement in the Congressional Record:
“At moments, the arrival/departure information was so confused that the airplane would have had to violate the laws of physics in order to abide by the airline schedule,” Rahall’s statement read. “Needless to say, all passengers were inconvenienced and the airline’s explanations were wholly unsatisfactory. This flight delay prevented me from carrying out my Constitutional duty to represent the people of southern West Virginia: I feel I owe them and this body an explanation about why that was not possible last night.”
Voting is one of the most important duties of a lawmaker, and most miss very few votes. Yet voting attendance has become a topic of discussion in the Republican presidential primary, as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has missed about a third of all votes this year, by far the most in that chamber.In the House, unlike the Senate, lawmakers are given a chance to provide “Personal Explanations” to explain missed votes. These entries filed in the Congressional Record say not only how a Representative came to be absent, but also how they would have voted though they don’t have the effect of adding or changing a vote.
The custom has been in place since at least 1845, according to a 2008 Congressional Research Service report.
In a telephone interview, Rahall said he wanted it on the record that he would have voted in support of the three bills the House considered that day — a measure to convey federal land in Utah to the state, another changing the rules for granting ski area permits on national forest land and a third granting submerged land surrounding the Northern Mariana Islands to the American territory — if only to prevent political opponents from using the missed votes against him.
“They could end up as a 30-second sound bite in a campaign,” he said. (Rahall was defeated in 2014 by Evan Jenkins, a Republican).
ProPublica has collected all of the Personal Explanations filed since 2007 -- some 5,058 in all, covering 21,176 votes -- and created a database that lets readers look up their representatives’ missed votes, as well as their explanations. These statements are by no means required -- only one in six absences are explained -- but they document a little-discussed aspect of the lives and work of lawmakers, and provide hints at the competing priorities and difficulties of a system that, to many, seems chronically dysfunctional.
The reasons lawmakers cite most for missing votes range from the mundane (travel delays, often due to weather, or remaining in their districts for job fairs) to more personal (the birth of a child or a graduation ceremony or illness). Lawmakers have missed more than 2,000 votes for medical reasons, and thousands more for personal and family reasons.The record is full of stories documenting the working lives of Representatives: Marcy Kaptur, a Democratic congresswoman from Ohio, missed a 2008 House vote because she was searching the Capitol for high school students visiting from her district. Jeff Landry, a Louisiana Republican, “completely lost track of time” and missed two votes in 2011. For Ben Ray Lujan, Democrat of New Mexico, an “operational issue” with a House voting machine meant that a 2012 vote wasn’t recorded.
For some, avoiding a vote is a sign of defiance. In 2012, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois was one of 108 Democrats who declined even to vote on a resolution holding then-Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. She was the only one, though, to insert a statement in the Record saying she would have voted no: “I would not participate in what I strongly believe was an abuse of power by the majority.”
Although many explanations are short, lawmakers can be more expansive when a key issue is at stake. When J. Randy Forbes, a Virginia Republican who has missed less than 3 percent of votes since 2007, was absent for a January 2015 vote on a bill to ban federal funding for abortion, his explanation provided no reason, but emphasized his stance on the issue: “I am and always have been pro-life, and throughout my tenure in Congress will continue to be a strong advocate for the unborn.”
The Rules of the House say that “Every Member shall be present within the Hall of the House during its sittings, unless excused or necessarily prevented, and shall vote on each question put, unless having a direct personal or pecuniary interest in the event of such question.” Lawmakers routinely say that they take their voting responsibilities seriously, and in general attendance records bear that out: most lawmakers participate in the overwhelming majority of votes held.
Democrats have missed more votes than Republicans since the beginning of 2007, but they account for an even greater share of the explained missed votes: two of every three since the beginning of 2013.
Luis Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat, has missed nearly one in six votes this year, according to voting records, one of the highest rates among current members of the House. He has been absent for 15 percent of all votes since the beginning of 2007, often due to his work on immigration policy, which frequently has him on the road.
“Congressman Gutierrez prioritizes constituent case work and spending time in the District in Chicago,” said Douglas G. Rivlin, a spokesman for Gutierrez, in a statement emailed to ProPublica. “He also devotes a great deal of time to traveling all over the country to build support for immigration reform. As a national figure, his time is in great demand. He rarely misses substantive votes and when he does, it is because he cannot be in two places at once.”
Gutierrez sporadically explains his absences — a statement for the Record in July gave a clear reason for one: He was attending oral arguments in a federal court case over immigration policy. He also missed votes due to a family medical issue, meetings at the White House and, in 2011, “my participation in a peaceful rally and protest against the current Administration’s enforcement policies against immigrant students and the families of U.S. citizens.”Representatives’ schedules are hardly overstuffed with days spent in the House chamber. In 2014, the members of the House spent only 29 weeks in session, each of which was bookended by long weekends spent doing district work, fundraising or running for re-election. The House is not scheduled to be in session for a five-day week this year.
As lawmakers balance their duties, not every vote is created equal. Both ProPublica’s analysis and research by Eleanor Neff Powell, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, found that lawmakers miss more lopsided votes than ones that are important to either political party.
There have been 20 times when the number of explained missed votes exceeded the final margin of approval or defeat. Half were on amendments. One, a 2011 amendment to a spending bill about labor agreements on federal construction projects was approved by a single vote and had eight explanations from the 25 House members who did not vote, including three Republicans opposed to the amendment.
Bills that have widespread bipartisan support often are considered “under suspension of the rules,” which means they are debated fairly quickly, sometimes in a few minutes, and must have the support of two-thirds of those voting. About four in 10 personal explanations occur on these so-called suspension votes, which often are scheduled on the first day of the week that the House is in session, when travel delays could make it more likely for a member to miss votes. Absences (explained or not) on suspension votes account for 36 percent of all House votes missed between 2007 and October 2015.If personal explanations are optional, why do representatives use them at all? Often, to indicate to constituents that just because they didn’t vote doesn’t mean they don’t have an opinion.
“It shows that you care about what they’re asking about,” said Powell.
For lawmakers facing tight re-election contests, missed votes can be part of a political balancing act. Opponents are quick to make use of a poor voting record. Missing a vote can be a graceful way to dodge votes designed to put lawmakers on the spot. Explanations, in turn, can provide a way to miss the actual vote and still claim that they would have voted the way constituents might have preferred.
In 2013, Brad Schneider, an Illinois Democrat, voted against a Republican spending bill that also delayed the individual health insurance mandate created by the Affordable Care Act. The next year, he missed a vote on a bill to delay the individual mandate but explained that, had he been there, he would have voted in favor of delaying the mandate, as he did on a similar bill in July 2013. Schneider lost his seat in 2014 to Bob Dold, a Republican former congressman who voted against the health care law while in the House, in a race where the health insurance law figured prominently. He is running against Dold again in 2016; Schneider’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Missing potentially controversial votes, then submitting explanations is an example of what researcher Powell calls “strategic abstention”: when a member skips a vote on which her party’s position is incompatible with her constituents’ views. Rather than disappoint either, the Representative can simply miss the vote, later explaining that she would have voted the way her constituents would have wanted, without actually doing so and creating a rift with her party.The ProPublica analysis, which covers a different time period than Powell’s, found some evidence of this: there were 128 votes on bill passage in which a member who missed the vote later registered opposition to his or her party’s majority position. Fifty-six of those contained no clear reason for the absence.
Lawmakers’ explanations cover not only missed votes, but mistaken ones as well. It’s not common — explanations attempting to correct a wrong vote or saying that a member tried to vote but could not — number about 320 during the past eight years. But more than one in five current lawmakers has done it at least once since the beginning of 2007, with John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat and the chamber’s longest-serving member, claiming 12 incorrect votes. The official record of a 2011 vote on an bill to expand offshore oil and gas leases shows Conyers voting in favor, when he meant to vote against the bill. Conyers, who at 86 is also the House’s oldest member, did not respond to several requests for comment made through his office.
A handful of other lawmakers have reported voting incorrectly at least four times, including Adam Smith, a Washington Democrat who is the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee. On at least one of those occasions, on a vote that occurred at 1:53 a.m. on Feb. 18, 2011, Smith voted for an amendment and later explained that he should have voted no. Rebecca Bryant, a spokeswoman for Smith, said that in that case the congressman “had some misinformation” on the nature of the amendment that was only clarified the next morning.
“The key thing is transparency,” said Bryant of the vote explanations. “We wanted to articulate how the congressman felt.”
Occasionally, lawmakers change their minds after a vote and submit a personal explanation about it. In 2008, the House voted to censure Charlie Rangel, a New York Democrat, over ethics violations, and Texas Republican Lamar Smith voted in favor of doing so. Later, in a statement in the Record, Smith reconsidered his vote: “Members had no advance notice of the vote, and I did not familiarize myself with the substance of the motion as much as I would have liked. If the vote were taken again, I would vote present rather than ‘aye’.”
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*Also on HuffPost:*
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 10 hours ago.
Things did not go according to plan. The flight didn’t leave Charleston for another four hours, giving Rahall, then the top Democrat on the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, plenty of time to “boil over,” as he later wrote. When he finally arrived in Washington, having missed three votes, he lambasted the airline’s handling of the delay in a statement in the Congressional Record:
“At moments, the arrival/departure information was so confused that the airplane would have had to violate the laws of physics in order to abide by the airline schedule,” Rahall’s statement read. “Needless to say, all passengers were inconvenienced and the airline’s explanations were wholly unsatisfactory. This flight delay prevented me from carrying out my Constitutional duty to represent the people of southern West Virginia: I feel I owe them and this body an explanation about why that was not possible last night.”
Voting is one of the most important duties of a lawmaker, and most miss very few votes. Yet voting attendance has become a topic of discussion in the Republican presidential primary, as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has missed about a third of all votes this year, by far the most in that chamber.In the House, unlike the Senate, lawmakers are given a chance to provide “Personal Explanations” to explain missed votes. These entries filed in the Congressional Record say not only how a Representative came to be absent, but also how they would have voted though they don’t have the effect of adding or changing a vote.
The custom has been in place since at least 1845, according to a 2008 Congressional Research Service report.
In a telephone interview, Rahall said he wanted it on the record that he would have voted in support of the three bills the House considered that day — a measure to convey federal land in Utah to the state, another changing the rules for granting ski area permits on national forest land and a third granting submerged land surrounding the Northern Mariana Islands to the American territory — if only to prevent political opponents from using the missed votes against him.
“They could end up as a 30-second sound bite in a campaign,” he said. (Rahall was defeated in 2014 by Evan Jenkins, a Republican).
ProPublica has collected all of the Personal Explanations filed since 2007 -- some 5,058 in all, covering 21,176 votes -- and created a database that lets readers look up their representatives’ missed votes, as well as their explanations. These statements are by no means required -- only one in six absences are explained -- but they document a little-discussed aspect of the lives and work of lawmakers, and provide hints at the competing priorities and difficulties of a system that, to many, seems chronically dysfunctional.
The reasons lawmakers cite most for missing votes range from the mundane (travel delays, often due to weather, or remaining in their districts for job fairs) to more personal (the birth of a child or a graduation ceremony or illness). Lawmakers have missed more than 2,000 votes for medical reasons, and thousands more for personal and family reasons.The record is full of stories documenting the working lives of Representatives: Marcy Kaptur, a Democratic congresswoman from Ohio, missed a 2008 House vote because she was searching the Capitol for high school students visiting from her district. Jeff Landry, a Louisiana Republican, “completely lost track of time” and missed two votes in 2011. For Ben Ray Lujan, Democrat of New Mexico, an “operational issue” with a House voting machine meant that a 2012 vote wasn’t recorded.
For some, avoiding a vote is a sign of defiance. In 2012, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois was one of 108 Democrats who declined even to vote on a resolution holding then-Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. She was the only one, though, to insert a statement in the Record saying she would have voted no: “I would not participate in what I strongly believe was an abuse of power by the majority.”
Although many explanations are short, lawmakers can be more expansive when a key issue is at stake. When J. Randy Forbes, a Virginia Republican who has missed less than 3 percent of votes since 2007, was absent for a January 2015 vote on a bill to ban federal funding for abortion, his explanation provided no reason, but emphasized his stance on the issue: “I am and always have been pro-life, and throughout my tenure in Congress will continue to be a strong advocate for the unborn.”
The Rules of the House say that “Every Member shall be present within the Hall of the House during its sittings, unless excused or necessarily prevented, and shall vote on each question put, unless having a direct personal or pecuniary interest in the event of such question.” Lawmakers routinely say that they take their voting responsibilities seriously, and in general attendance records bear that out: most lawmakers participate in the overwhelming majority of votes held.
Democrats have missed more votes than Republicans since the beginning of 2007, but they account for an even greater share of the explained missed votes: two of every three since the beginning of 2013.
Luis Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat, has missed nearly one in six votes this year, according to voting records, one of the highest rates among current members of the House. He has been absent for 15 percent of all votes since the beginning of 2007, often due to his work on immigration policy, which frequently has him on the road.
“Congressman Gutierrez prioritizes constituent case work and spending time in the District in Chicago,” said Douglas G. Rivlin, a spokesman for Gutierrez, in a statement emailed to ProPublica. “He also devotes a great deal of time to traveling all over the country to build support for immigration reform. As a national figure, his time is in great demand. He rarely misses substantive votes and when he does, it is because he cannot be in two places at once.”
Gutierrez sporadically explains his absences — a statement for the Record in July gave a clear reason for one: He was attending oral arguments in a federal court case over immigration policy. He also missed votes due to a family medical issue, meetings at the White House and, in 2011, “my participation in a peaceful rally and protest against the current Administration’s enforcement policies against immigrant students and the families of U.S. citizens.”Representatives’ schedules are hardly overstuffed with days spent in the House chamber. In 2014, the members of the House spent only 29 weeks in session, each of which was bookended by long weekends spent doing district work, fundraising or running for re-election. The House is not scheduled to be in session for a five-day week this year.
As lawmakers balance their duties, not every vote is created equal. Both ProPublica’s analysis and research by Eleanor Neff Powell, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, found that lawmakers miss more lopsided votes than ones that are important to either political party.
There have been 20 times when the number of explained missed votes exceeded the final margin of approval or defeat. Half were on amendments. One, a 2011 amendment to a spending bill about labor agreements on federal construction projects was approved by a single vote and had eight explanations from the 25 House members who did not vote, including three Republicans opposed to the amendment.
Bills that have widespread bipartisan support often are considered “under suspension of the rules,” which means they are debated fairly quickly, sometimes in a few minutes, and must have the support of two-thirds of those voting. About four in 10 personal explanations occur on these so-called suspension votes, which often are scheduled on the first day of the week that the House is in session, when travel delays could make it more likely for a member to miss votes. Absences (explained or not) on suspension votes account for 36 percent of all House votes missed between 2007 and October 2015.If personal explanations are optional, why do representatives use them at all? Often, to indicate to constituents that just because they didn’t vote doesn’t mean they don’t have an opinion.
“It shows that you care about what they’re asking about,” said Powell.
For lawmakers facing tight re-election contests, missed votes can be part of a political balancing act. Opponents are quick to make use of a poor voting record. Missing a vote can be a graceful way to dodge votes designed to put lawmakers on the spot. Explanations, in turn, can provide a way to miss the actual vote and still claim that they would have voted the way constituents might have preferred.
In 2013, Brad Schneider, an Illinois Democrat, voted against a Republican spending bill that also delayed the individual health insurance mandate created by the Affordable Care Act. The next year, he missed a vote on a bill to delay the individual mandate but explained that, had he been there, he would have voted in favor of delaying the mandate, as he did on a similar bill in July 2013. Schneider lost his seat in 2014 to Bob Dold, a Republican former congressman who voted against the health care law while in the House, in a race where the health insurance law figured prominently. He is running against Dold again in 2016; Schneider’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Missing potentially controversial votes, then submitting explanations is an example of what researcher Powell calls “strategic abstention”: when a member skips a vote on which her party’s position is incompatible with her constituents’ views. Rather than disappoint either, the Representative can simply miss the vote, later explaining that she would have voted the way her constituents would have wanted, without actually doing so and creating a rift with her party.The ProPublica analysis, which covers a different time period than Powell’s, found some evidence of this: there were 128 votes on bill passage in which a member who missed the vote later registered opposition to his or her party’s majority position. Fifty-six of those contained no clear reason for the absence.
Lawmakers’ explanations cover not only missed votes, but mistaken ones as well. It’s not common — explanations attempting to correct a wrong vote or saying that a member tried to vote but could not — number about 320 during the past eight years. But more than one in five current lawmakers has done it at least once since the beginning of 2007, with John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat and the chamber’s longest-serving member, claiming 12 incorrect votes. The official record of a 2011 vote on an bill to expand offshore oil and gas leases shows Conyers voting in favor, when he meant to vote against the bill. Conyers, who at 86 is also the House’s oldest member, did not respond to several requests for comment made through his office.
A handful of other lawmakers have reported voting incorrectly at least four times, including Adam Smith, a Washington Democrat who is the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee. On at least one of those occasions, on a vote that occurred at 1:53 a.m. on Feb. 18, 2011, Smith voted for an amendment and later explained that he should have voted no. Rebecca Bryant, a spokeswoman for Smith, said that in that case the congressman “had some misinformation” on the nature of the amendment that was only clarified the next morning.
“The key thing is transparency,” said Bryant of the vote explanations. “We wanted to articulate how the congressman felt.”
Occasionally, lawmakers change their minds after a vote and submit a personal explanation about it. In 2008, the House voted to censure Charlie Rangel, a New York Democrat, over ethics violations, and Texas Republican Lamar Smith voted in favor of doing so. Later, in a statement in the Record, Smith reconsidered his vote: “Members had no advance notice of the vote, and I did not familiarize myself with the substance of the motion as much as I would have liked. If the vote were taken again, I would vote present rather than ‘aye’.”
ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for their newsletter.
*Also on HuffPost:*
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 10 hours ago.
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Carly Fiorina Says Obamacare 'Isn't Helping Anyone'
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina doesn't appear to be keeping up with the news. During the Republican presidential debate Tuesday, Fiorina emphasized her opposition to the Affordable Care Act by declaring it hasn't provided assistance to anyone.
"Obamacare isn't helping anyone," Fiorina said. "Obamacare has to be repealed because it's failing the very people it is intending to help."
The numbers tell a different story. According to survey results published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this month, the number of Americans without health insurance dropped by 16.3 million to 28.5 million, or 9 percent of the population, since the end of 2013, before health benefits from the law took effect last year. These findings are consistent with other surveys, including those from the U.S. Census Bureau and Gallup. A previous CDC survey also found the share of Americans saying they couldn't afford medical care to be the lowest since 1999.Fiorina dismissed the health coverage expansion under Obamacare because the majority of newly covered people have benefits under Medicaid rather than private health insurance, which she suggested is not worthwhile because physicians don't accept Medicaid patients. And while physicians are more likelyto see patients with private insurance or Medicare, 75 percent of Medicaid beneficiaries told Gallup they were satisfied with their coverage, a higher rating than given by people with health plans provided by employers or unions.
"We need to try the free market -- the free market where people actually have to compete," Fiorina said. In place of the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion and health insurance marketplaces where carriers compete for customers who may be eligible for subsidies -- with its strict prohibition against insurers turning away customers with pre-existing conditions -- Fiorina touted state-run programs to provide coverage to people who couldn't get approved for private insurance because of their medical histories.
"The alternative is to allow states to manage high-risk pools for those who really need help. Look, I'm a cancer survivor, OK? I understand you cannot have someone who's just battled cancer just become known as a pre-existing condition. I understand that you cannot allow families to go bankrupt if they truly need help," Fiorina said.
Such programs have existed for years, and have failed to provide a stable, affordable source of coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, largely because they are underfunded. Providing health coverage for the most costly patients is expensive, and states have never devoted the resources necessary to make these high-risk pools work, leading to high premiums, long waiting lists and other shortcomings.
See the latest updates on the GOP debate here.
*Also on HuffPost:*
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 6 hours ago.
"Obamacare isn't helping anyone," Fiorina said. "Obamacare has to be repealed because it's failing the very people it is intending to help."
The numbers tell a different story. According to survey results published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this month, the number of Americans without health insurance dropped by 16.3 million to 28.5 million, or 9 percent of the population, since the end of 2013, before health benefits from the law took effect last year. These findings are consistent with other surveys, including those from the U.S. Census Bureau and Gallup. A previous CDC survey also found the share of Americans saying they couldn't afford medical care to be the lowest since 1999.Fiorina dismissed the health coverage expansion under Obamacare because the majority of newly covered people have benefits under Medicaid rather than private health insurance, which she suggested is not worthwhile because physicians don't accept Medicaid patients. And while physicians are more likelyto see patients with private insurance or Medicare, 75 percent of Medicaid beneficiaries told Gallup they were satisfied with their coverage, a higher rating than given by people with health plans provided by employers or unions.
"We need to try the free market -- the free market where people actually have to compete," Fiorina said. In place of the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion and health insurance marketplaces where carriers compete for customers who may be eligible for subsidies -- with its strict prohibition against insurers turning away customers with pre-existing conditions -- Fiorina touted state-run programs to provide coverage to people who couldn't get approved for private insurance because of their medical histories.
"The alternative is to allow states to manage high-risk pools for those who really need help. Look, I'm a cancer survivor, OK? I understand you cannot have someone who's just battled cancer just become known as a pre-existing condition. I understand that you cannot allow families to go bankrupt if they truly need help," Fiorina said.
Such programs have existed for years, and have failed to provide a stable, affordable source of coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, largely because they are underfunded. Providing health coverage for the most costly patients is expensive, and states have never devoted the resources necessary to make these high-risk pools work, leading to high premiums, long waiting lists and other shortcomings.
See the latest updates on the GOP debate here.
*Also on HuffPost:*
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 6 hours ago.
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AP FACT CHECK: In Republican debate, flubs and funny numbers
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ben Carson botched the economic effect of minimum wage increases. Jeb Bush again pitched a dubious target for economic growth. Marco Rubio, in a tale about plumbers and philosophers, undersold the value of a college education.And Ted Cruz showed just how hard it can be to name government agencies when, just like Rick Perry four years ago in a famously misbegotten moment in a GOP debate, he messed up the list of departments he would close as president.
The fourth debate of the 2016 Republican presidential campaign was thick on economic policy — and with that came a variety of flubs and funny numbers.
Some of the claims Tuesday night and how they compare with the facts:
CARSON: "Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases."
THE FACTS: Actually, that usually doesn't happen. When the minimum wage was increased in 1996 and 1997, the unemployment rate fell afterward. In June 2007, when the first of three annual minimum wage increases was implemented, the unemployment rate was unchanged until the Great Recession began six months later.
Economic research has found that when states raise their minimum wages higher than neighboring states, they don't typically fare any worse than their neighbors.
It's not known, though, what would happen to jobs if the minimum wage were doubled to $15— as many fast-food workers who demonstrated before the debate were demanding.
___
RUBIO: "Welders make more money than philosophers."
Not so, on average.
Rubio is arguing that the U.S. has failed to invest in vocational training — a point also stressed by President Barack Obama's now-defunct jobs council. But Rubio is wrong to suggest that studying philosophy is a waste of money and time.
PayScale, a firm that analyzes compensation, put the median mid-career income for philosophy majors at $81,200 in 2008, with welders making $26,002 to $63,698.
And Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce said in a 2014 analysis that median incomes were $68,000 for people with an advanced degree in philosophy or religious studies.
So knowing Plato and getting a college degree still pays off.
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CRUZ, holding out his hand and unfolding one finger at a time to punctuate his point: "Five major agencies that I would eliminate: the IRS (his thumb), the Department of Commerce (index finger), the Department of Energy (middle finger), uh, the Department of Commerce (ring finger), and HUD (pinkie)."
THE FACTS: He flubbed his own list, naming the Commerce Department twice and leaving out one of the agencies he proposes to close, according to his website: the Education Department.
Perry, then Texas governor, had almost precisely the same problem at a GOP primary debate in November 2011, coming up with the names of only two of the three departments he wanted to close, Commerce and Education. "Oops," he said after failing to name the third agency, Energy, a slip that haunted him for the rest of his campaign.
But Cruz moved on without anyone calling him on the gaffe.
___
BUSH: "We could get to 4 percent growth."
THE FACTS: That's a highly improbable target because of forces in the economy that are beyond the control of any president.
Those forces have been decades in the making: an exodus from the workforce of the huge generation of baby boomers, rising automation and low-wage competition overseas. Those factors and more have limited income growth, which in turn cuts into the consumer spending that drives most economic growth.
Bush frequently holds out hope of 4 percent growth, but even conservative economists who like his fiscal and tax plans consider it a false hope. According to current forecasts, growth is expected to average roughly half that rate.
___
DONALD TRUMP: The Pacific trade agreement signed by President Obama with 11 other nations "was designed for China to come in through the back door and take advantage of everyone. ... China takes advantage (of the U.S.) through currency manipulation."
THE FACTS: The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, signed last month, does not include China and is intended to give the United States more influence in Asia as a counterweight to China's rising economic power. Obama argues that China could join later, but without having any influence on the agreement's terms.
Regarding currency manipulation, Trump is recycling an outdated claim. He has argued that China keeps its currency undervalued by 15 percent to 40 percent, which would make its exports cheaper and more attractive overseas. Yet the Peterson Institute for International Economics, which had criticized China for keeping its currency artificially low, concluded in 2012 that China's currency by then was fully valued. The International Monetary Fund has reached the same conclusion.
___
CARLY FIORINA: "Obamacare isn't really helping anybody."
THE FACTS: President Barack Obama's health care law may or may not be good for the country on balance. But it's clearly helping many people.
In the two years it's been in effect, the share of Americans without health insurance has declined to 9 percent, a historic low. People with pre-existing health conditions can no longer be turned away by insurers, and everyone is required to have coverage or face fines.
While the coverage mandate in Obama's law remains highly unpopular, state-run high-risk health insurance pools like the one Fiorina proposes to replace the law have been tried before and failed to solve the problem.
___
CRUZ: Since 2008, the economy has grown on average only 1.2 percent a year, showing "the Obama economy is a disaster."
THE FACTS: That average is correct as far as it goes, but it masks the fact that Obama inherited a raging recession in his first year, when the economy shrank by 2.5 percent. In the five years since, the economy expanded an average of 2 percent, more than Cruz's figure but still a relatively weak recovery in historical terms.
__
BUSH: "We need to raise the (banks') capital requirements. ... Dodd-Frank has actually done the opposite, totally the opposite. ... Bigger banks have more and more control over the financial assets of this country."
THE FACTS: Actually, the Dodd-Frank legislation, passed in 2010 in the wake of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, has pushed banks to raise more capital — in other words, to obtain more of their funding from investment, rather than debt.
In fact, Dodd-Frank was criticized earlier this year by the right-leaning American Action Forum for effectively forcing banks to raise more capital.
Bush and other Republican candidates suggested that Dodd-Frank sparked bank consolidations, but the mergers actually started in 2008 under George W. Bush. During that year alone, as the market melted down, Wells Fargo took over Wachovia, JP Morgan Chase bought Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns, and Bank of America acquired both Countrywide Mortgage and Merrill Lynch.
___
CARSON: Discussing the presence of Russian troops in Syria, added that "the Chinese are there" as well.
THE FACTS: China has no publicly known deployment of military forces in Syria. In recent days, some news reports have suggested that China would send a warship to Syria, but China's foreign ministry has denied that.
China has used its status as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to block the U.N. from taking action on Syria, citing a commonly heard argument against violating Syrian sovereignty.
___
Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Paul Wiseman and Ken Dilanian contributed to this report.
EDITOR'S NOTE _ A look at political claims that take shortcuts with the facts or don't tell the full story
Join the conversation about this story » Reported by Business Insider 4 hours ago.
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Colorado employers turning to high health-insurance deductibles
Nearly two-thirds of company-sponsored health-insurance plans will include deductibles of $1,000 or more next year as costs continue to rise, according to an annual employer survey from Lockton Mountain West Benefit Group. The projected rate of cost increase for Colorado employers providing health care in 2016 will be 8 percent, the same bump as companies saw this year, according to the survey of 647 businesses. Employers will actually pay about 4.4 percent more, while the rest of the increased…
Reported by bizjournals 3 hours ago.
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Savannah Business Group Partners with Gilsbar, LLC
Gilsbar, LLC to deliver proven TPA management services to members
Covington, LA (PRWEB) November 11, 2015
Gilsbar, LLC is pleased to announce their selection as one of the newest partners of the Savannah Business Group (SBG). The SBG is a coalition that reviews and brings to market in Savannah and the surrounding regions best in class providers. A partnership with the SBG will allow members of the group access to Gilsbar, LLC’s health plan management services in conjunction with the current services provided through the SBG.
"This new relationship with Gilsbar will benefit the Savannah business community," said Gary Rost, Executive Director for Savannah Business Group. "The administration of a health plan needs to function smoothly so businesses can be confident in their decision to self-fund health insurance benefits for their employees."
“The Savannah Business Group is a well-known and effective business group and we are honored to have been chosen by them as a partner,” Gilsbar, LLC’s President of Health & Life, Doug Layman, said. “We are looking forward to serving the Savannah community.”
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About Savannah Business Group
Savannah Business Group (SBG) (http://www.savannahbusinessgroup.com) is a business coalition that group purchases health care services for self-funded employers. SBG negotiates rates, services, and access with medical service providers on behalf of the members of the coalition. SBG serves businesses located in Savannah, The Coastal Empire, and The Low Country; encompassing 21 counties in Georgia and South Carolina since 1982. SBG currently has 20 employers representing over 52,000 lives.
About Gilsbar, LLC
Established in 1959, Gilsbar, LLC® is one of the largest privately-held insurance services organizations in the country. Recognized as a catalyst for creating healthy businesses, Gilsbar, LLC® offers self-funded health plan management services, along with Wellness, Advocacy, and overall Population Health Management. Gilsbar, LLC’s integrated delivery model improves the health and well-being of its members, resulting in savings for its clients.
Gilsbar, LLC® has been honored by Inc. magazine for its sustained growth, Modern Healthcare and Business Insurance magazines as a Best Place to Work, and WELCOA and the American Heart Association for its proven wellness methodology.
For more information, visit http://www.Gilsbar.com. Reported by PRWeb 2 hours ago.
Covington, LA (PRWEB) November 11, 2015
Gilsbar, LLC is pleased to announce their selection as one of the newest partners of the Savannah Business Group (SBG). The SBG is a coalition that reviews and brings to market in Savannah and the surrounding regions best in class providers. A partnership with the SBG will allow members of the group access to Gilsbar, LLC’s health plan management services in conjunction with the current services provided through the SBG.
"This new relationship with Gilsbar will benefit the Savannah business community," said Gary Rost, Executive Director for Savannah Business Group. "The administration of a health plan needs to function smoothly so businesses can be confident in their decision to self-fund health insurance benefits for their employees."
“The Savannah Business Group is a well-known and effective business group and we are honored to have been chosen by them as a partner,” Gilsbar, LLC’s President of Health & Life, Doug Layman, said. “We are looking forward to serving the Savannah community.”
###
About Savannah Business Group
Savannah Business Group (SBG) (http://www.savannahbusinessgroup.com) is a business coalition that group purchases health care services for self-funded employers. SBG negotiates rates, services, and access with medical service providers on behalf of the members of the coalition. SBG serves businesses located in Savannah, The Coastal Empire, and The Low Country; encompassing 21 counties in Georgia and South Carolina since 1982. SBG currently has 20 employers representing over 52,000 lives.
About Gilsbar, LLC
Established in 1959, Gilsbar, LLC® is one of the largest privately-held insurance services organizations in the country. Recognized as a catalyst for creating healthy businesses, Gilsbar, LLC® offers self-funded health plan management services, along with Wellness, Advocacy, and overall Population Health Management. Gilsbar, LLC’s integrated delivery model improves the health and well-being of its members, resulting in savings for its clients.
Gilsbar, LLC® has been honored by Inc. magazine for its sustained growth, Modern Healthcare and Business Insurance magazines as a Best Place to Work, and WELCOA and the American Heart Association for its proven wellness methodology.
For more information, visit http://www.Gilsbar.com. Reported by PRWeb 2 hours ago.
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HealthMarkets consolidates leadership tied to significant growth and its post reform transformation
HealthMarkets insurance agency announces several changes in its senior leadership tied to continued growth in its distribution business and a shift to supplemental products in its insurance business.
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas (PRWEB) November 11, 2015
HealthMarkets Insurance Agency today announced several changes in its senior leadership tied to continued growth in its distribution business and a shift to supplemental products in its insurance business. Patrick O’Toole has assumed the position of executive vice president and chief agency officer; Derrick Duke has been appointed executive vice president and chief financial officer; and Rich Bierman is now the company’s executive vice president and general counsel.
Patrick O’Toole comes to HealthMarkets after 20 years with Humana, where he served as a vice president and segment leader. In this role, O’Toole oversaw all retail insurance product sales for Humana-MarketPoint, the nation’s largest multi-channel health insurance individual distribution system, while managing customer acquisition and retention activities across 4,000 employees and 20,000 contracted agents and partners. Humana sold more than 2.7 million policies in 2014 through channels under his leadership.
Prior to joining Humana, O’Toole spent 11 years in the U.S. Army, responsible for the personal safety of some of the country’s most senior leaders. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas.
Derrick Duke assumes the position of executive vice President and chief financial officer after an 11-year career with HealthMarkets. Duke is a chartered financial analyst with more than 25 years of senior level experience managing insurance company investment portfolios, and also served as an adjunct professor at Dallas Baptist University and a guest lecturer at The University of Texas at Arlington. Duke earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas and a Master of Business Administration from The University of Texas at Arlington.
Additionally, Rich Bierman was promoted to executive vice president and general counsel. Bierman has led the legal department for the past three years, previously serving as senior vice president and general counsel, and has been with HealthMarkets since 2004. Prior to HealthMarkets, Bierman was vice president, general counsel and secretary of Connecticut-based HealthMarket Inc., a pioneer in the consumer-directed health plan space, and was in private practice in New York. He holds bachelor’s and juris doctor degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.
“The demand among consumers for informed counsel has only increased with the advent of health reform,” said Ken Fasola, president and CEO of HealthMarkets. “The changes we announce today strengthen a proven team and position us well to sustain our growth well into the future.”
Stay up to date with the latest in ACA developments and health insurance news by visiting the HealthMarkets blog, and find HealthMarkets on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+.
About HealthMarkets Insurance Agency
HealthMarkets Insurance Agency, a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of HealthMarkets, Inc., is the d/b/a or assumed name of Insphere Insurance Solutions, Inc. Authorized in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and representing more than 180 branded insurance companies, HealthMarkets offers consumers a “one-stop” shopping experience for health insurance, combining around-the-clock phone and online assistance with the personal approach of more than 3,000 licensed, local agents nationwide. It is a leading private health insurance marketplace offering multi-channel flexibility for individuals, families and small businesses. For more information, please visit HealthMarkets.com.
Cautionary Statement Related to Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements regarding Insphere Insurance Solutions, Inc., d/b/a HealthMarkets Insurance Agency, and its affiliates. These forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. Such forward-looking statements can be identified by the words "anticipate,""believe,""estimate,""expect,""intend,""objective,""plan,""possible,""potential" and similar expressions. These statements are based on management’s current beliefs, expectations and assumptions, and actual results may vary materially from those included in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update them, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements made by us. Reported by PRWeb 3 minutes ago.
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas (PRWEB) November 11, 2015
HealthMarkets Insurance Agency today announced several changes in its senior leadership tied to continued growth in its distribution business and a shift to supplemental products in its insurance business. Patrick O’Toole has assumed the position of executive vice president and chief agency officer; Derrick Duke has been appointed executive vice president and chief financial officer; and Rich Bierman is now the company’s executive vice president and general counsel.
Patrick O’Toole comes to HealthMarkets after 20 years with Humana, where he served as a vice president and segment leader. In this role, O’Toole oversaw all retail insurance product sales for Humana-MarketPoint, the nation’s largest multi-channel health insurance individual distribution system, while managing customer acquisition and retention activities across 4,000 employees and 20,000 contracted agents and partners. Humana sold more than 2.7 million policies in 2014 through channels under his leadership.
Prior to joining Humana, O’Toole spent 11 years in the U.S. Army, responsible for the personal safety of some of the country’s most senior leaders. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas.
Derrick Duke assumes the position of executive vice President and chief financial officer after an 11-year career with HealthMarkets. Duke is a chartered financial analyst with more than 25 years of senior level experience managing insurance company investment portfolios, and also served as an adjunct professor at Dallas Baptist University and a guest lecturer at The University of Texas at Arlington. Duke earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas and a Master of Business Administration from The University of Texas at Arlington.
Additionally, Rich Bierman was promoted to executive vice president and general counsel. Bierman has led the legal department for the past three years, previously serving as senior vice president and general counsel, and has been with HealthMarkets since 2004. Prior to HealthMarkets, Bierman was vice president, general counsel and secretary of Connecticut-based HealthMarket Inc., a pioneer in the consumer-directed health plan space, and was in private practice in New York. He holds bachelor’s and juris doctor degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.
“The demand among consumers for informed counsel has only increased with the advent of health reform,” said Ken Fasola, president and CEO of HealthMarkets. “The changes we announce today strengthen a proven team and position us well to sustain our growth well into the future.”
Stay up to date with the latest in ACA developments and health insurance news by visiting the HealthMarkets blog, and find HealthMarkets on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+.
About HealthMarkets Insurance Agency
HealthMarkets Insurance Agency, a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of HealthMarkets, Inc., is the d/b/a or assumed name of Insphere Insurance Solutions, Inc. Authorized in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and representing more than 180 branded insurance companies, HealthMarkets offers consumers a “one-stop” shopping experience for health insurance, combining around-the-clock phone and online assistance with the personal approach of more than 3,000 licensed, local agents nationwide. It is a leading private health insurance marketplace offering multi-channel flexibility for individuals, families and small businesses. For more information, please visit HealthMarkets.com.
Cautionary Statement Related to Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements regarding Insphere Insurance Solutions, Inc., d/b/a HealthMarkets Insurance Agency, and its affiliates. These forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. Such forward-looking statements can be identified by the words "anticipate,""believe,""estimate,""expect,""intend,""objective,""plan,""possible,""potential" and similar expressions. These statements are based on management’s current beliefs, expectations and assumptions, and actual results may vary materially from those included in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update them, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements made by us. Reported by PRWeb 3 minutes ago.
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Why You Need an Emergency Fund
*Why You Need an Emergency Fund*
How healthy is your emergency fund? How long could it protect you if you were sidelined by a health crisis?
Many American households are surprisingly vulnerable. A single financial shock, such as an illness or injury requiring a trip to the hospital, can cause financial hardship lasting months, according to a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Even families with higher incomes can be disrupted by just one financial setback, the report found.
*Why an Emergency Fund Is Crucial*
Most people budget for recurring expenses, like housing, food, and transportation. But a sudden health crisis can throw families for a financial loop.
· More than half of the 7,800 households surveyed struggled to make ends meet after their most expensive financial shocks; six months later, nearly 50 percent still had not recovered.
· After suffering the shock, households had lower savings and higher credit card debt than those that weren’t affected.
· Even among those with incomes of $85,000 or more, 42 percent said they had not recovered financially in the 12-month period covered by the survey.
“Unexpected expenses and income losses cause immediate strain and can also make it difficult to build or rebuild a cushion,” the report notes. The reality, it continues is that “for many households, financial hardship is only one unexpected expense away.”
That’s why building and maintaining an emergency fund is not just important but crucial if you want to protect your family’s finances from a health crisis.
*How Much to Save*
Conventional wisdom is pretty vague on how much to stash in your emergency fund. Recommendations range from three months to almost a year of take-home pay. “It would be great to have six months’ worth of expenses sitting in a savings account along with a month’s expenses in your checking account, so you can pay the bills and not stress about where the next check is coming from,” says Craig Adamson, president of Adamson Financial Planning in Marion, Iowa.
In calculating how big to build your financial umbrella, Adamson points out that a health crisis affecting one member of the family affects the earning power of everyone in the household. “You’re going to be taking time off from work. How many people have more than two or three weeks of personal leave, so they can be at the hospital and do all the things that need taking care of while getting a paycheck before burning through their savings?”
HelloWallet, an online financial wellness service, offers another approach to figuring out the strength of your safety net. Its free website calculator provides personalized guidance about the savings households need to handle three different types of financial emergencies, from minor set-backs to major smack-downs to an extended job loss. In addition to obvious factors, such as your annual gross income and take-home pay, the tool also takes into account the number of cars you own (cars are a frequent trigger for financial crises), your housing situation (homeowners are on the hook for more emergency bills than renters), and your maximum out-of-pocket health insurance coverage.
“Family financial security requires more than just having enough money to pay regular bills and build savings; it also entails being prepared for the unexpected,” the Pew report notes. It’s advice worth taking.
*Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright © 2006-2015 Consumers Union of U.S.*
*Subscribe now!*
Subscribe to *ConsumerReports.org* for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products.
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Reported by Consumer Reports 4 hours ago.
How healthy is your emergency fund? How long could it protect you if you were sidelined by a health crisis?
Many American households are surprisingly vulnerable. A single financial shock, such as an illness or injury requiring a trip to the hospital, can cause financial hardship lasting months, according to a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Even families with higher incomes can be disrupted by just one financial setback, the report found.
*Why an Emergency Fund Is Crucial*
Most people budget for recurring expenses, like housing, food, and transportation. But a sudden health crisis can throw families for a financial loop.
· More than half of the 7,800 households surveyed struggled to make ends meet after their most expensive financial shocks; six months later, nearly 50 percent still had not recovered.
· After suffering the shock, households had lower savings and higher credit card debt than those that weren’t affected.
· Even among those with incomes of $85,000 or more, 42 percent said they had not recovered financially in the 12-month period covered by the survey.
“Unexpected expenses and income losses cause immediate strain and can also make it difficult to build or rebuild a cushion,” the report notes. The reality, it continues is that “for many households, financial hardship is only one unexpected expense away.”
That’s why building and maintaining an emergency fund is not just important but crucial if you want to protect your family’s finances from a health crisis.
*How Much to Save*
Conventional wisdom is pretty vague on how much to stash in your emergency fund. Recommendations range from three months to almost a year of take-home pay. “It would be great to have six months’ worth of expenses sitting in a savings account along with a month’s expenses in your checking account, so you can pay the bills and not stress about where the next check is coming from,” says Craig Adamson, president of Adamson Financial Planning in Marion, Iowa.
In calculating how big to build your financial umbrella, Adamson points out that a health crisis affecting one member of the family affects the earning power of everyone in the household. “You’re going to be taking time off from work. How many people have more than two or three weeks of personal leave, so they can be at the hospital and do all the things that need taking care of while getting a paycheck before burning through their savings?”
HelloWallet, an online financial wellness service, offers another approach to figuring out the strength of your safety net. Its free website calculator provides personalized guidance about the savings households need to handle three different types of financial emergencies, from minor set-backs to major smack-downs to an extended job loss. In addition to obvious factors, such as your annual gross income and take-home pay, the tool also takes into account the number of cars you own (cars are a frequent trigger for financial crises), your housing situation (homeowners are on the hook for more emergency bills than renters), and your maximum out-of-pocket health insurance coverage.
“Family financial security requires more than just having enough money to pay regular bills and build savings; it also entails being prepared for the unexpected,” the Pew report notes. It’s advice worth taking.
*Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright © 2006-2015 Consumers Union of U.S.*
*Subscribe now!*
Subscribe to *ConsumerReports.org* for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products.
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Update your feed preferences
Reported by Consumer Reports 4 hours ago.
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Fact-Checking The Fox Business GOP Debate
The following post first appeared on FactCheck.org.
**Summary**
Republican presidential candidates debated once again on economic issues and offered some misleading takes on jobs, tax plans, immigrants and state budgets.
· Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said that “welders make more money than philosophers.” Actually, those with undergraduate degrees in philosophy earn a higher median income than welders.· Businessman Donald Trump said that President Dwight D. Eisenhower had forced out 1.5 million immigrants who were in the country illegally. The federal government claimed it was 1.3 million, but historians say that’s exaggerated.· Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said the Tax Foundation calculated that his tax plan “costs less than virtually every other plan people have put up here, and yet it produces more growth.” But the foundation said Bobby Jindal’s and Rubio’s plans both would lead to higher gross domestic product growth over a decade.· Cruz also repeated the years-long falsehood that there’s a “congressional exemption” from Obamacare. Members of Congress and their staffs face additional requirements than other Americans, not fewer.· Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said that his state has had “eight credit upgrades,” but two credit rating agencies moved the state to a “negative” outlook in February. And it faces a $117 million deficit in its most recent budget.· Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said he had cut his state budget by 11 percent during the 2001-2003 recession. Over his entire tenure, however, spending went up by 50 percent.· Jindal claimed that there were “more people working in Louisiana than ever before.” That’s wrong. There were fewer Louisianans working in September than there were in December 2014.· Huckabee said that Syrians make up only 20 percent of the refugees arriving in Europe. The figure is actually 52 percent for 2015.
**Analysis**
In the Fox Business News debate held Nov. 10 in Milwaukee, only eight candidates took to the main stage — Donald Trump, Dr. Ben Carson, Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, Sen. Ted Cruz, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Rand Paul.
Four more Republicans debated earlier that evening: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.*Philosophers Better Paid Than Welders*
Rubio proposed increasing vocational education opportunities for high school students, but he went too far when he said that “welders make more money than philosophers.” Typically, they do not.
*Rubio*: For the life of me, I don’t know why we have stigmatized vocational education. Welders make more money than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers.
The Wall Street Journal, a cohost of the debate, published a chart on undergraduate degrees that “pay you back,” and prominently mentioned philosophy majors.
The Journal wrote, “Your parents might have worried when you chose Philosophy or International Relations as a major. But a year-long survey of 1.2 million people with only a bachelor’s degree by PayScale Inc. shows that graduates in these subjects earned 103.5% and 97.8% more, respectively, about 10 years post-commencement” than they had earned right out of college.
PayScale’s latest data, for 2015-16, show that the median starting salary for a worker holding a philosophy degree is $42,200, rising to $85,000 after 10 years. By contrast, the median income for a welder with zero to 5 years experience is $38,728, increasing to $44,498 after 10 years, according to PayScale.
Similarly, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says the median annual wage was $63,630 for a philosophy and religion teacher as of May 2014, and $36,300 for welders, cutters, solders and brazers as of 2012.
-*Trump Invokes ‘Operation Wetback’*-
Trump, defending his promise to deport millions of immigrants in the country illegally, cited the actions of President Dwight D. Eisenhower:
*Trump:* Let me just tell you that Dwight Eisenhower, good president, great president. … Moved a 1.5 million illegal immigrants out of this country. … You don’t get nicer. You don’t get friendlier. They moved a 1.5 million out. We have no choice. We have no choice.
It’s true that during a 1954 effort that was officially known as “Operation Wetback” (a term that many today find offensive), the federal government claimed to have forced as many as 1.3 million people to return to Mexico, but historians consider that number to be exaggerated.
*Texas State Historical Association:* It is difficult to estimate the number of people forced to leave by the operation. The INS [Immigration and Naturalization Service] claimed as many as 1,300,000, though the number officially apprehended did not come anywhere near this total. The INS estimate rested on the claim that most undocumented immigrants, fearing apprehension by the government, had voluntarily repatriated themselves before and during the operation.
Trump also claimed that those forced to return “never came back” after being moved “way down south” rather than just across the border. According to historian Mae M. Ngai, in her book “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America,” many of those deported were simply transported a few miles across the border and left in the desert, but more than 25 percent were transported to the Mexican coastal city of Veracruz on hired cargo ships. A congressional investigation later likened one of the ships to “an eighteenth century slave ship,” Ngai wrote.
Worth noting is that after the operation was concluded, border officials declared that “[t]he so-called ‘wetback’ problem no longer exists,” and that “[t]he border has been secured.” That, of course, turned out to be wishful thinking.
-*Cruz’s Tax Plan Boast*-
Cruz said that according to the Tax Foundation, his tax plan “costs less than virtually every other plan people have put up here, and yet it produces more growth.”
Actually, among the tax plans of seven Republican candidates that it analyzed, the Tax Foundation concluded that the gross domestic product would grow more over the next decade under two other plans — from Bobby Jindal and Marco Rubio. The Tax Foundation also concluded that Rubio’s plan would lead to higher wage and capital investment growth.
Cruz’s tax plan calls for a 10 percent flat tax on individual income, though for a family of four, the first $36,000 would be tax-free. On the business end, the corporate income tax and payroll taxes would be eliminated and replaced with a “business flat tax” of 16 percent.
Cruz correctly noted that the Tax Foundation concluded that under a “static” basis, the plan would reduce revenues by $3.6 trillion over 10 years. But under “dynamic” scoring — accounting for the economic growth the Tax Foundation expects his plan would spur — it estimates the plan would only reduce revenues by about $768 billion. That means it is estimated to cost less than every other Republican plan analyzed by the Tax Foundation,except for Rand Paul’s (which it estimates would increase revenues by $737 billion).
But Cruz was wrong to say the Tax Foundation found his plan produces the most growth.
According to the Tax Foundation, Cruz’s plan would grow the GDP by 13.9 percent over the next 10 years. But the Tax Foundation concluded that Jindal’s plan would grow the GDP by 14.4 percent, and Rubio’s plan would grow the GDP by 15 percent.
The Tax Foundation also found that Cruz’s tax plan would lead to 10-year capital investment growth of 43.9 percent, and to 10-year wage rate growth of 12.2 percent. That’s lower than the projected growth from Rubio’s plan of 48.9 percent for capital investment and 12.5 percent for the wage rate.-Cruz Repeats ‘Exempt’ Whopper-
Cruz repeated the long-running myth that Congress is “exempt” from Obamacare. Lawmakers and their staffs actually face additional requirements that other Americans don’t, thanks to a Republican amendment.
*Cruz:* And, I’ll give you an example of that, which is the Congressional exemption from Obamacare, which is fundamentally wrong, and I’ll tell you this, if I’m elected president, I will veto any statute that exempts members of congress. The law should apply evenly to every American.
Unlike other Americans who get their insurance through their employers, members of Congress are now barred from directly doing so. As of 2014, they can no longer get health coverage through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, as they and other federal employees have done for years. Because of a Republican amendment added to the law, members are required to get their insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces.
Before that amendment, the legislation said that federal employees, employees of large companies, and those who get insurance through Medicare or Medicaid wouldn’t be eligible for the marketplaces, which were designed for individuals buying their own insurance. That gave rise to the false notion that Congress was somehow “exempt” from the law. But lawmakers were being treated just like other workers with employer-provided insurance. And they were required to have insurance or face a penalty, just like everyone else.
But even after the amendment put Congress in the ACA marketplaces, the “exempt” claim lived on.
The federal government had long made premium contributions to pay for part of federal employees’ health insurance, including the insurance of members of Congress and their staffs — just like other employers do. And in August 2013, the Office of Personnel Management, which administers the FEHB Program, said that the federal government could continue to make those premium contributions for Congress, even though members were getting insurance through the marketplaces. OPM said the contribution couldn’t be greater than what’s made under the FEHB Program. Republicans claimed, once again, that this made Congress “exempt” from the law — even though lawmakers were getting the same employer contributions they got before, but faced the requirement of getting new coverage through the marketplaces.
-*Louisiana’s Finances Not So Rosy*-
Jindal painted a rosy picture of his state’s fiscal situation. Attacking New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, he said: “In New Jersey, you’ve had nine credit downgrades, setting a record. We’ve had eight credit upgrades in Louisiana.”
Jindal is right about New Jersey. But Louisiana’s finances are not as good as the governor suggests. According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, two credit rating agencies — Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s — moved Louisiana from a “stable” to a “negative” outlook in February. “Both agencies held off on downgrading the state’s credit rating at this time, but a ‘negative’ outlook does leave the state vulnerable to a future drop,” the newspaper reported.
More recently, the Associated Press reported that the state ended its most recent budget year with a $117 million deficit, which by law must be made up before the next budget year begins. “Louisiana has faced repeated budget shortfalls during Jindal’s two terms in office, a combination of the economic downturn and the cost of tax breaks that have siphoned more dollars away from the state treasury than expected,” the AP reported. “Rather than match state spending to income, the governor and lawmakers have raided savings accounts, sold property and used other short-term fixes to patch together budgets. But that creates new gaps each year.”
-*Huckabee on Cutting Arkansas Budget*-
Huckabee repeated a claim he made during the 2008 presidential campaign, saying that when he was governor of Arkansas “we ended up cutting 11 percent out of the state budget through that [2001-2003] recession.” Jindal countered that “spending in Arkansas went up 65 percent” under Huckabee.
Huckabee cherry-picks from his two terms to make his claim. Jindal is close, but doesn’t adjust for inflation. Spending in Arkansas went up by 50 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars over Huckabee’s time overseeing the state budget.
We checked Huckabee’s 11 percent claim before — way back in January 2008 in a Republican presidential debate. The head of the Arkansas Budget Office told us it was “certainly plausible” that the cuts amounted to 11 percent of the budget in fiscal 2002 — a year for which a glitch in the state record-keeping system made accessing data difficult.
But the better measure of Huckabee’s record is his entire time in office. In inflation-adjusted dollars, spending went from $10.4 billion in fiscal year 1998, the first budget under Huckabee’s responsibility, to $15.6 billion by the end of 2006.
Jindal accurately cited a figure from a Cato Institute commentary piece. But using inflation-adjusted figures, the increase was less than 65 percent.-*Jindal on Job Growth*-
Jindal said that “as we sit here today, we have more people working in Louisiana than ever before” and that “we’ve had 60 months in a row of consecutive job growth in our state.” That’s not accurate.
In fact, there were fewer people working in Louisiana in September than there were in December 2014, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And while there has been a fairly steady increase in employment since the end of the recession, there have been several months with dips.
Trish Regan, a moderator of the Fox Business debate, noted that as governor, Jindal has “pushed Louisiana’s energy resources as a means to grow jobs in your state” but that “as oil prices have plunged in recent months, so has jobs growth.”
Regan correctly stated that Louisiana now has an unemployment rate, 6 percent, above the national average, even though in February 2014 the Louisiana rate (5.4 percent) was more than a percentage point below the national average (6.7 percent). So, she asked, “Will your energy-focused jobs plan for the country be subject to the same market ups and downs?”
Jindal responded, “In Louisiana, we’re actually a top 10 state for job growth. As we sit here today, we have more people working in Louisiana than ever before, earning a higher income than ever before. We’ve had 60 months in a row of consecutive job growth in our state. So the reality is, we have diversified our economy.”
According to the latest available employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 1,990,000 people employed in Louisiana in September. That’s 6,600 fewer jobs than in December 2014, so it is incorrect for Jindal to say, “As we sit here today, we have more people working in Louisiana than ever before.” There has been a dip, and some energy industry experts have attributed that to a drop in oil prices.
In addition, the unemployment rate in Louisiana was at 6 percent in August and September. As Regan said, that’s higher than the national average, which was 5.1 percent in September. The state’s unemployment rate was below the current rate of 6 percent from November 2013 through May 2014.
We’re not sure which 60 months Jindal was referring to when he boasted that Louisiana has had “60 months in a row of consecutive job growth.” But that’s not true of any 60-month period during Jindal’s tenure as governor, which began in January 2008. Although there has been fairly steady job growth in Louisiana since the end of the recession, there have been several setback months interspersed along the way.
As for Louisiana being a top 10 state for job growth, we reached out to the Jindal campaign to see what time period that referenced, and we did not hear back. But looking at the entirety of Jindal’s tenure as Louisiana governor, the rate of job growth, 2.9 percent, slightly lagged the national growth rate of 3.1 percent over the same period.
-*Huckabee Understates Syrian Refugees*-
Huckabee said that Syrians make up only 20 percent of the refugees arriving in Europe. That’s wrong.
*Huckabee:* The idea that we’re just going to open our doors, and we have no idea who these people are — what we do know is that only 1 out of 5 of the so called “Syrian Refugees,” who went into Europe were actually Syrian. Many of them, we had no idea who they were. They weren’t Syrian.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Syrians made up 52 percent of the more than 792,000 refugees who crossed the Mediterranean sea into Europe in 2015.
In September, the Daily Mail, a British tabloid, reported that 4 out of 5 of the refugees arriving in Europe weren’t from Syria. But that analysis only looked at the 213,000 refugees arriving in April, May and June of this year. That’s about one-fourth of the total number of refugee arrivals in 2015.
*Sources*
Needleman, Sarah E. “Ivy Leaguers Big Edge: Starting Pay.” Wall Street Journal. 31 Jul 2008.
“Salary Increase By Major.” Wall Street Journal. 31 Jul 2008.
“Highest Paying Bachelor Degrees by Salary Potential.” PayScale Inc. Undated, accessed 11 Nov 2015.
“Entry-Level Welder Salary.” PayScale Inc. Undated, accessed 11 Nov 2015.
“Mid-Career Welder Salary.” PayScale Inc. Undated, accessed 11 Nov 2015.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2014 25-1126 Philosophy and Religion Teachers, Postsecondary.” 25 Mar 2015.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers.” 8 Jan 2014.
Koestler, Fred L. “Operation Wetback.” Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association. Undated, accessed 11 Nov 2015.
Ngai, Mae M. “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America.” Princeton, NJ. Princeton University Press. 2004. p 156.
U.S. Department of Justice. “Annual Report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service” Table 23. “Aliens Apprehended, Aliens Deported, and Aliens Required to Depart; Years ended June 30, 1892 to 1961.” 1961.
Tax Foundation. “How Do the 2016 Presidential Tax Plans Compare So Far?”
Ted Cruz 2016. “The Simple Flat Tax.”
Borean, Richard. “The Economic Impact of Ted Cruz’s Tax Plan.” Tax Foundation. 29 Oct 2015.
Robertson, Lori. “Obamacare Myths.” FactCheck.org. 16 Sep 2013.
O’Donoghue, Julia. “Louisiana credit outlook moved from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ by two of three rating agencies.” New Orleans Times-Picayune. 13 Feb 2015.
DeSlatte, Melinda. “Louisiana’s budget deficit from last year pegged at $117M,” The Associated Press. 30 Oct 2015.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. State and Metro Area Employment, Hours and Earnings.
Robertson, Campbell. “Louisiana Squeezed as Oil Prices Drop.” New York Times. 31 Jan 2015.
FactCheck.org. “Simi Valley Showdown.” 31 Jan 2008.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 19 hours ago.
**Summary**
Republican presidential candidates debated once again on economic issues and offered some misleading takes on jobs, tax plans, immigrants and state budgets.
· Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said that “welders make more money than philosophers.” Actually, those with undergraduate degrees in philosophy earn a higher median income than welders.· Businessman Donald Trump said that President Dwight D. Eisenhower had forced out 1.5 million immigrants who were in the country illegally. The federal government claimed it was 1.3 million, but historians say that’s exaggerated.· Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said the Tax Foundation calculated that his tax plan “costs less than virtually every other plan people have put up here, and yet it produces more growth.” But the foundation said Bobby Jindal’s and Rubio’s plans both would lead to higher gross domestic product growth over a decade.· Cruz also repeated the years-long falsehood that there’s a “congressional exemption” from Obamacare. Members of Congress and their staffs face additional requirements than other Americans, not fewer.· Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said that his state has had “eight credit upgrades,” but two credit rating agencies moved the state to a “negative” outlook in February. And it faces a $117 million deficit in its most recent budget.· Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said he had cut his state budget by 11 percent during the 2001-2003 recession. Over his entire tenure, however, spending went up by 50 percent.· Jindal claimed that there were “more people working in Louisiana than ever before.” That’s wrong. There were fewer Louisianans working in September than there were in December 2014.· Huckabee said that Syrians make up only 20 percent of the refugees arriving in Europe. The figure is actually 52 percent for 2015.
**Analysis**
In the Fox Business News debate held Nov. 10 in Milwaukee, only eight candidates took to the main stage — Donald Trump, Dr. Ben Carson, Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, Sen. Ted Cruz, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Rand Paul.
Four more Republicans debated earlier that evening: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.*Philosophers Better Paid Than Welders*
Rubio proposed increasing vocational education opportunities for high school students, but he went too far when he said that “welders make more money than philosophers.” Typically, they do not.
*Rubio*: For the life of me, I don’t know why we have stigmatized vocational education. Welders make more money than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers.
The Wall Street Journal, a cohost of the debate, published a chart on undergraduate degrees that “pay you back,” and prominently mentioned philosophy majors.
The Journal wrote, “Your parents might have worried when you chose Philosophy or International Relations as a major. But a year-long survey of 1.2 million people with only a bachelor’s degree by PayScale Inc. shows that graduates in these subjects earned 103.5% and 97.8% more, respectively, about 10 years post-commencement” than they had earned right out of college.
PayScale’s latest data, for 2015-16, show that the median starting salary for a worker holding a philosophy degree is $42,200, rising to $85,000 after 10 years. By contrast, the median income for a welder with zero to 5 years experience is $38,728, increasing to $44,498 after 10 years, according to PayScale.
Similarly, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says the median annual wage was $63,630 for a philosophy and religion teacher as of May 2014, and $36,300 for welders, cutters, solders and brazers as of 2012.
-*Trump Invokes ‘Operation Wetback’*-
Trump, defending his promise to deport millions of immigrants in the country illegally, cited the actions of President Dwight D. Eisenhower:
*Trump:* Let me just tell you that Dwight Eisenhower, good president, great president. … Moved a 1.5 million illegal immigrants out of this country. … You don’t get nicer. You don’t get friendlier. They moved a 1.5 million out. We have no choice. We have no choice.
It’s true that during a 1954 effort that was officially known as “Operation Wetback” (a term that many today find offensive), the federal government claimed to have forced as many as 1.3 million people to return to Mexico, but historians consider that number to be exaggerated.
*Texas State Historical Association:* It is difficult to estimate the number of people forced to leave by the operation. The INS [Immigration and Naturalization Service] claimed as many as 1,300,000, though the number officially apprehended did not come anywhere near this total. The INS estimate rested on the claim that most undocumented immigrants, fearing apprehension by the government, had voluntarily repatriated themselves before and during the operation.
Trump also claimed that those forced to return “never came back” after being moved “way down south” rather than just across the border. According to historian Mae M. Ngai, in her book “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America,” many of those deported were simply transported a few miles across the border and left in the desert, but more than 25 percent were transported to the Mexican coastal city of Veracruz on hired cargo ships. A congressional investigation later likened one of the ships to “an eighteenth century slave ship,” Ngai wrote.
Worth noting is that after the operation was concluded, border officials declared that “[t]he so-called ‘wetback’ problem no longer exists,” and that “[t]he border has been secured.” That, of course, turned out to be wishful thinking.
-*Cruz’s Tax Plan Boast*-
Cruz said that according to the Tax Foundation, his tax plan “costs less than virtually every other plan people have put up here, and yet it produces more growth.”
Actually, among the tax plans of seven Republican candidates that it analyzed, the Tax Foundation concluded that the gross domestic product would grow more over the next decade under two other plans — from Bobby Jindal and Marco Rubio. The Tax Foundation also concluded that Rubio’s plan would lead to higher wage and capital investment growth.
Cruz’s tax plan calls for a 10 percent flat tax on individual income, though for a family of four, the first $36,000 would be tax-free. On the business end, the corporate income tax and payroll taxes would be eliminated and replaced with a “business flat tax” of 16 percent.
Cruz correctly noted that the Tax Foundation concluded that under a “static” basis, the plan would reduce revenues by $3.6 trillion over 10 years. But under “dynamic” scoring — accounting for the economic growth the Tax Foundation expects his plan would spur — it estimates the plan would only reduce revenues by about $768 billion. That means it is estimated to cost less than every other Republican plan analyzed by the Tax Foundation,except for Rand Paul’s (which it estimates would increase revenues by $737 billion).
But Cruz was wrong to say the Tax Foundation found his plan produces the most growth.
According to the Tax Foundation, Cruz’s plan would grow the GDP by 13.9 percent over the next 10 years. But the Tax Foundation concluded that Jindal’s plan would grow the GDP by 14.4 percent, and Rubio’s plan would grow the GDP by 15 percent.
The Tax Foundation also found that Cruz’s tax plan would lead to 10-year capital investment growth of 43.9 percent, and to 10-year wage rate growth of 12.2 percent. That’s lower than the projected growth from Rubio’s plan of 48.9 percent for capital investment and 12.5 percent for the wage rate.-Cruz Repeats ‘Exempt’ Whopper-
Cruz repeated the long-running myth that Congress is “exempt” from Obamacare. Lawmakers and their staffs actually face additional requirements that other Americans don’t, thanks to a Republican amendment.
*Cruz:* And, I’ll give you an example of that, which is the Congressional exemption from Obamacare, which is fundamentally wrong, and I’ll tell you this, if I’m elected president, I will veto any statute that exempts members of congress. The law should apply evenly to every American.
Unlike other Americans who get their insurance through their employers, members of Congress are now barred from directly doing so. As of 2014, they can no longer get health coverage through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, as they and other federal employees have done for years. Because of a Republican amendment added to the law, members are required to get their insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces.
Before that amendment, the legislation said that federal employees, employees of large companies, and those who get insurance through Medicare or Medicaid wouldn’t be eligible for the marketplaces, which were designed for individuals buying their own insurance. That gave rise to the false notion that Congress was somehow “exempt” from the law. But lawmakers were being treated just like other workers with employer-provided insurance. And they were required to have insurance or face a penalty, just like everyone else.
But even after the amendment put Congress in the ACA marketplaces, the “exempt” claim lived on.
The federal government had long made premium contributions to pay for part of federal employees’ health insurance, including the insurance of members of Congress and their staffs — just like other employers do. And in August 2013, the Office of Personnel Management, which administers the FEHB Program, said that the federal government could continue to make those premium contributions for Congress, even though members were getting insurance through the marketplaces. OPM said the contribution couldn’t be greater than what’s made under the FEHB Program. Republicans claimed, once again, that this made Congress “exempt” from the law — even though lawmakers were getting the same employer contributions they got before, but faced the requirement of getting new coverage through the marketplaces.
-*Louisiana’s Finances Not So Rosy*-
Jindal painted a rosy picture of his state’s fiscal situation. Attacking New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, he said: “In New Jersey, you’ve had nine credit downgrades, setting a record. We’ve had eight credit upgrades in Louisiana.”
Jindal is right about New Jersey. But Louisiana’s finances are not as good as the governor suggests. According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, two credit rating agencies — Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s — moved Louisiana from a “stable” to a “negative” outlook in February. “Both agencies held off on downgrading the state’s credit rating at this time, but a ‘negative’ outlook does leave the state vulnerable to a future drop,” the newspaper reported.
More recently, the Associated Press reported that the state ended its most recent budget year with a $117 million deficit, which by law must be made up before the next budget year begins. “Louisiana has faced repeated budget shortfalls during Jindal’s two terms in office, a combination of the economic downturn and the cost of tax breaks that have siphoned more dollars away from the state treasury than expected,” the AP reported. “Rather than match state spending to income, the governor and lawmakers have raided savings accounts, sold property and used other short-term fixes to patch together budgets. But that creates new gaps each year.”
-*Huckabee on Cutting Arkansas Budget*-
Huckabee repeated a claim he made during the 2008 presidential campaign, saying that when he was governor of Arkansas “we ended up cutting 11 percent out of the state budget through that [2001-2003] recession.” Jindal countered that “spending in Arkansas went up 65 percent” under Huckabee.
Huckabee cherry-picks from his two terms to make his claim. Jindal is close, but doesn’t adjust for inflation. Spending in Arkansas went up by 50 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars over Huckabee’s time overseeing the state budget.
We checked Huckabee’s 11 percent claim before — way back in January 2008 in a Republican presidential debate. The head of the Arkansas Budget Office told us it was “certainly plausible” that the cuts amounted to 11 percent of the budget in fiscal 2002 — a year for which a glitch in the state record-keeping system made accessing data difficult.
But the better measure of Huckabee’s record is his entire time in office. In inflation-adjusted dollars, spending went from $10.4 billion in fiscal year 1998, the first budget under Huckabee’s responsibility, to $15.6 billion by the end of 2006.
Jindal accurately cited a figure from a Cato Institute commentary piece. But using inflation-adjusted figures, the increase was less than 65 percent.-*Jindal on Job Growth*-
Jindal said that “as we sit here today, we have more people working in Louisiana than ever before” and that “we’ve had 60 months in a row of consecutive job growth in our state.” That’s not accurate.
In fact, there were fewer people working in Louisiana in September than there were in December 2014, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And while there has been a fairly steady increase in employment since the end of the recession, there have been several months with dips.
Trish Regan, a moderator of the Fox Business debate, noted that as governor, Jindal has “pushed Louisiana’s energy resources as a means to grow jobs in your state” but that “as oil prices have plunged in recent months, so has jobs growth.”
Regan correctly stated that Louisiana now has an unemployment rate, 6 percent, above the national average, even though in February 2014 the Louisiana rate (5.4 percent) was more than a percentage point below the national average (6.7 percent). So, she asked, “Will your energy-focused jobs plan for the country be subject to the same market ups and downs?”
Jindal responded, “In Louisiana, we’re actually a top 10 state for job growth. As we sit here today, we have more people working in Louisiana than ever before, earning a higher income than ever before. We’ve had 60 months in a row of consecutive job growth in our state. So the reality is, we have diversified our economy.”
According to the latest available employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 1,990,000 people employed in Louisiana in September. That’s 6,600 fewer jobs than in December 2014, so it is incorrect for Jindal to say, “As we sit here today, we have more people working in Louisiana than ever before.” There has been a dip, and some energy industry experts have attributed that to a drop in oil prices.
In addition, the unemployment rate in Louisiana was at 6 percent in August and September. As Regan said, that’s higher than the national average, which was 5.1 percent in September. The state’s unemployment rate was below the current rate of 6 percent from November 2013 through May 2014.
We’re not sure which 60 months Jindal was referring to when he boasted that Louisiana has had “60 months in a row of consecutive job growth.” But that’s not true of any 60-month period during Jindal’s tenure as governor, which began in January 2008. Although there has been fairly steady job growth in Louisiana since the end of the recession, there have been several setback months interspersed along the way.
As for Louisiana being a top 10 state for job growth, we reached out to the Jindal campaign to see what time period that referenced, and we did not hear back. But looking at the entirety of Jindal’s tenure as Louisiana governor, the rate of job growth, 2.9 percent, slightly lagged the national growth rate of 3.1 percent over the same period.
-*Huckabee Understates Syrian Refugees*-
Huckabee said that Syrians make up only 20 percent of the refugees arriving in Europe. That’s wrong.
*Huckabee:* The idea that we’re just going to open our doors, and we have no idea who these people are — what we do know is that only 1 out of 5 of the so called “Syrian Refugees,” who went into Europe were actually Syrian. Many of them, we had no idea who they were. They weren’t Syrian.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Syrians made up 52 percent of the more than 792,000 refugees who crossed the Mediterranean sea into Europe in 2015.
In September, the Daily Mail, a British tabloid, reported that 4 out of 5 of the refugees arriving in Europe weren’t from Syria. But that analysis only looked at the 213,000 refugees arriving in April, May and June of this year. That’s about one-fourth of the total number of refugee arrivals in 2015.
*Sources*
Needleman, Sarah E. “Ivy Leaguers Big Edge: Starting Pay.” Wall Street Journal. 31 Jul 2008.
“Salary Increase By Major.” Wall Street Journal. 31 Jul 2008.
“Highest Paying Bachelor Degrees by Salary Potential.” PayScale Inc. Undated, accessed 11 Nov 2015.
“Entry-Level Welder Salary.” PayScale Inc. Undated, accessed 11 Nov 2015.
“Mid-Career Welder Salary.” PayScale Inc. Undated, accessed 11 Nov 2015.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2014 25-1126 Philosophy and Religion Teachers, Postsecondary.” 25 Mar 2015.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers.” 8 Jan 2014.
Koestler, Fred L. “Operation Wetback.” Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association. Undated, accessed 11 Nov 2015.
Ngai, Mae M. “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America.” Princeton, NJ. Princeton University Press. 2004. p 156.
U.S. Department of Justice. “Annual Report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service” Table 23. “Aliens Apprehended, Aliens Deported, and Aliens Required to Depart; Years ended June 30, 1892 to 1961.” 1961.
Tax Foundation. “How Do the 2016 Presidential Tax Plans Compare So Far?”
Ted Cruz 2016. “The Simple Flat Tax.”
Borean, Richard. “The Economic Impact of Ted Cruz’s Tax Plan.” Tax Foundation. 29 Oct 2015.
Robertson, Lori. “Obamacare Myths.” FactCheck.org. 16 Sep 2013.
O’Donoghue, Julia. “Louisiana credit outlook moved from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ by two of three rating agencies.” New Orleans Times-Picayune. 13 Feb 2015.
DeSlatte, Melinda. “Louisiana’s budget deficit from last year pegged at $117M,” The Associated Press. 30 Oct 2015.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. State and Metro Area Employment, Hours and Earnings.
Robertson, Campbell. “Louisiana Squeezed as Oil Prices Drop.” New York Times. 31 Jan 2015.
FactCheck.org. “Simi Valley Showdown.” 31 Jan 2008.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 19 hours ago.
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Health Insurance Literacy Is Key to Reaching Uninsured Populations This Open Enrollment Period
With the enrollment of tens of millions of consumers in health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), our nation has made a significant step toward providing health care for all Americans. Yet, there is still much to do. We have just entered the third open enrollment period under the ACA and it is a perfect time to reexamine strategies for improving consumer access to health insurance.
When we look at the ACA enrollment landscape today, two challenges in particular stand out: first, despite the great progress of the first two open enrollment periods, about 32 million Americans remain uninsured; and, second, many individuals struggle with understanding their health insurance options, especially when faced with selecting a health plan that will provide the coverage they need. This issue is clearly a factor for why some consumers have not yet enrolled in health insurance.
*The widespread impact of the uninsured*
According to a new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), 32.3 million Americans under the age of 65 are currently uninsured. Roughly half of those could acquire subsidized coverage by enrolling in Medicaid or purchasing insurance through an exchange, enabling them to receive more affordable access to the care they need.
Living without health insurance can be both dangerous and expensive for the individual and the overall health care system. A KFF report showed that nearly half of uninsured adults in 2014 went without needed medical care due to cost. Moreover, receiving care without insurance can be financially catastrophic; nearly 36 percent of low- and middle-income uninsured adults said they had problems paying medical bills, and these bills can quickly translate into crippling medical debt and even bankruptcy. Additionally, the 2016 penalties for remaining uninsured will cost individuals and families hundreds of dollars.
*The fundamental importance of health insurance literacy*
One of the obstacles for many consumers is that they cannot understand or act on the health information they receive. As a result, health literacy, and in particular health insurance literacy, need to be addressed to help consumers enroll and use their coverage. Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information to make appropriate health decisions and seek services needed. Health insurance literacy measures the degree to which individuals have the knowledge, ability, and confidence to find and evaluate information about health plans, select the best plan for their financial and health circumstances, and use the plan once enrolled.
Of the 32 million uninsured Americans, many are "hard-to-reach" populations: subsets of the general population that are difficult to communicate with or engage in public health programs. These groups include low-income individuals, immigrants, minorities and the elderly, among others.
Health insurance terminology is difficult for even experienced health care professionals. Nearly half of all American adults - 90 million people - say they cannot understand or act on the health information they receive. So, when you combine this challenge with hard-to-reach populations that often have less access to information through traditional channels and are unable to understand the information they do receive, you can easily see why it has been difficult to enroll many of them.
*Taking steps toward better health literacy*
Through our work with state Medicaid programs that span a diverse range of populations, we have identified four key strategies to help communicate with hard-to-reach consumers:
Know your target audience: Use research to determine the best methods for communication and tailor outreach to their needs.· Ensure standardized treatment: Provide equal services and resources regardless of language, location or socioeconomic status.
· Meet consumers where they are: Provide accessible information in the channels where they live, work and play, such as faith-based organizations, magazines, radio stations, shelters and social media platforms.
· Test all materials: Ensure tools are accessible and easy to navigate through usability testing.
The long-term success of the ACA will depend in large part on the capacity of individuals, families and communities to make informed decisions about their health insurance. Armed with the right tools, they can better manage their health care and lead healthier lives.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 19 hours ago.
When we look at the ACA enrollment landscape today, two challenges in particular stand out: first, despite the great progress of the first two open enrollment periods, about 32 million Americans remain uninsured; and, second, many individuals struggle with understanding their health insurance options, especially when faced with selecting a health plan that will provide the coverage they need. This issue is clearly a factor for why some consumers have not yet enrolled in health insurance.
*The widespread impact of the uninsured*
According to a new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), 32.3 million Americans under the age of 65 are currently uninsured. Roughly half of those could acquire subsidized coverage by enrolling in Medicaid or purchasing insurance through an exchange, enabling them to receive more affordable access to the care they need.
Living without health insurance can be both dangerous and expensive for the individual and the overall health care system. A KFF report showed that nearly half of uninsured adults in 2014 went without needed medical care due to cost. Moreover, receiving care without insurance can be financially catastrophic; nearly 36 percent of low- and middle-income uninsured adults said they had problems paying medical bills, and these bills can quickly translate into crippling medical debt and even bankruptcy. Additionally, the 2016 penalties for remaining uninsured will cost individuals and families hundreds of dollars.
*The fundamental importance of health insurance literacy*
One of the obstacles for many consumers is that they cannot understand or act on the health information they receive. As a result, health literacy, and in particular health insurance literacy, need to be addressed to help consumers enroll and use their coverage. Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information to make appropriate health decisions and seek services needed. Health insurance literacy measures the degree to which individuals have the knowledge, ability, and confidence to find and evaluate information about health plans, select the best plan for their financial and health circumstances, and use the plan once enrolled.
Of the 32 million uninsured Americans, many are "hard-to-reach" populations: subsets of the general population that are difficult to communicate with or engage in public health programs. These groups include low-income individuals, immigrants, minorities and the elderly, among others.
Health insurance terminology is difficult for even experienced health care professionals. Nearly half of all American adults - 90 million people - say they cannot understand or act on the health information they receive. So, when you combine this challenge with hard-to-reach populations that often have less access to information through traditional channels and are unable to understand the information they do receive, you can easily see why it has been difficult to enroll many of them.
*Taking steps toward better health literacy*
Through our work with state Medicaid programs that span a diverse range of populations, we have identified four key strategies to help communicate with hard-to-reach consumers:
Know your target audience: Use research to determine the best methods for communication and tailor outreach to their needs.· Ensure standardized treatment: Provide equal services and resources regardless of language, location or socioeconomic status.
· Meet consumers where they are: Provide accessible information in the channels where they live, work and play, such as faith-based organizations, magazines, radio stations, shelters and social media platforms.
· Test all materials: Ensure tools are accessible and easy to navigate through usability testing.
The long-term success of the ACA will depend in large part on the capacity of individuals, families and communities to make informed decisions about their health insurance. Armed with the right tools, they can better manage their health care and lead healthier lives.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 19 hours ago.
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New eBook Outlines Modern Health Benefits Options for Small Business
As public policy causes the individual health insurance product to improve, innovative methods for delivering health benefits to employees are emerging. Zane Benefits offers this helpful guide to the modern benefits landscape for small businesses.
Salt Lake City, Utah (PRWEB) November 11, 2015
Whether your political leanings make you for or against the Affordable Care Act (A.K.A. Obamacare), the new laws surrounding health insurance are leaving opportunities for improved health benefits in their wake. The two biggest catalysts for these opportunities are tied to the individual mandate (requiring all U.S. citizens to have health insurance) and Guaranteed Issue (requiring insurance carriers to issue coverage to applicants despite health history and pre-existing conditions). The key result of these two components of Obamacare is a massive improvement in the individual insurance product. Add government subsidies to this formula and you get better benefits at a lower cost to the majority of consumers and their employers.
This dynamic is driving important opportunities for large businesses. According to a 2015 study by Accenture, an estimated 6 million members enrolled in individual health insurance policies using a defined-contribution from their employer, and an employer-sponsored private health exchange for 2015 benefits—that’s 600% of the number of active employees that were insured this way just two years ago. The study projects that this number will rise to 40 million by 2018. So, if large businesses are recognizing the value of controlling their benefits costs while providing employees access to the perks and value of the individual market, what about small businesses?
Zane Benefits has been leading the effort to improve health insurance for small businesses since 2006, and recently published an eBook titled Modern Benefits for Modern Business. This solution-focused guide helps small business owners explore the option of using a health reimbursement plan (HRP) to supplement individual health insurance for their employees—as an alternative to traditional group insurance.
In addition to providing an arguably better alternative for small businesses already offering health benefits to their employees, this eBook provides a valuable resource to the millions of small businesses who do not currently provide health benefits of any kind.
According to Zane Benefits CEO, Rick Lindquist, “Most small businesses face a dilemma – they want to offer health benefits to recruit and retain key employees, but traditional group health insurance is out of reach. The Zane Benefits HRP levels the playing field for companies facing this dilemma.” Reported by PRWeb 19 hours ago.
Salt Lake City, Utah (PRWEB) November 11, 2015
Whether your political leanings make you for or against the Affordable Care Act (A.K.A. Obamacare), the new laws surrounding health insurance are leaving opportunities for improved health benefits in their wake. The two biggest catalysts for these opportunities are tied to the individual mandate (requiring all U.S. citizens to have health insurance) and Guaranteed Issue (requiring insurance carriers to issue coverage to applicants despite health history and pre-existing conditions). The key result of these two components of Obamacare is a massive improvement in the individual insurance product. Add government subsidies to this formula and you get better benefits at a lower cost to the majority of consumers and their employers.
This dynamic is driving important opportunities for large businesses. According to a 2015 study by Accenture, an estimated 6 million members enrolled in individual health insurance policies using a defined-contribution from their employer, and an employer-sponsored private health exchange for 2015 benefits—that’s 600% of the number of active employees that were insured this way just two years ago. The study projects that this number will rise to 40 million by 2018. So, if large businesses are recognizing the value of controlling their benefits costs while providing employees access to the perks and value of the individual market, what about small businesses?
Zane Benefits has been leading the effort to improve health insurance for small businesses since 2006, and recently published an eBook titled Modern Benefits for Modern Business. This solution-focused guide helps small business owners explore the option of using a health reimbursement plan (HRP) to supplement individual health insurance for their employees—as an alternative to traditional group insurance.
In addition to providing an arguably better alternative for small businesses already offering health benefits to their employees, this eBook provides a valuable resource to the millions of small businesses who do not currently provide health benefits of any kind.
According to Zane Benefits CEO, Rick Lindquist, “Most small businesses face a dilemma – they want to offer health benefits to recruit and retain key employees, but traditional group health insurance is out of reach. The Zane Benefits HRP levels the playing field for companies facing this dilemma.” Reported by PRWeb 19 hours ago.
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What Veterans Want, and Why the GOP Avoids It
Another GOP Debate, and another GOP debate that didn't delve into the issue of veterans care in America.
Should we be shocked about that? A new poll from the Vet Voice Foundation suggests that we shouldn't be.
In short, the poll finds that veterans hate the ideas that Republicans have put forth for veterans care. Not only that, but the poll shows that veterans will vote against politicians who back the extreme GOP-Koch agenda for privatizing veterans care.
What agenda is that? It's the agenda that Jeb Bush is talking about, when he says he would begin privatizing parts of the veterans' health system. It's the agenda that Ben Carson is talking about when he says he would shut down the Department of Veterans Affairs. It's the agenda Marco Rubio backs, when he appears with the Koch-funded group "Concerned Veterans For America," to unveil their proposal to migrate veterans to a system of vouchers and private insurance.
Right on down the line, conservatives in the race for President and in Congress, are on the march to end the pact we've made with veterans, to provide them with care - not vouchers - when they need it.
Polling finds that veterans, overwhelmingly, abhor that agenda. So, it's no wonder that Republicans avoid talking about it.
The poll of 800 veterans was performed jointly by a Democratic polling firm and Republican firm, and the sample leaned Republican. Even still, the results came out unfavorable to Republicans.
· Veterans oppose a proposal in Congress that would have the real effect of leading to privatized VA hospitals. Sixty-four percent oppose, and only 29% support.
· Overall, 57% of veterans would be less likely to vote for a candidate who supported privatizing the VA health care system. Even a majority of Republicans indicate they would be more likely to vote against a candidate who supported privatization. This opposition extends across parties: 67% of Democratic, 57% of Independent/don't know, and 53% of Republican veterans say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate for high-elected office if they supported privatization of the VA health care system.
· Fifty-nine percent of veterans rate their impression of VA hospitals as favorable. When only asked about VA hospitals in their area, 61% of veterans rate their impression as favorable.
· In comparison, only 25% of veterans when asked if they have a favorable impression of for-profit health insurance corporations. And only 12 percent believe that VA hospitals should be run more like private hospitals.
· So what do veterans want? Although veterans think that changes need to be made to the VA hospitals, their biggest want is more doctors. Forty-two percent of veterans think that "needs more doctors" describes VA hospitals in their area very well. That is the most frequently-given prescription for helping the VA perform more efficiently.
Hillary Clinton took a lot of heat for trying to say that despite the issues at the VA, veterans still very much like the system and want it to thrive. But this poll backs her up. Not only do veterans have positive feelings about the veterans' health system, overall, but they have extremely negative feelings about the private system that conservatives want to force them into. She further showed that she understood what veterans want, when she unveiled her plan for veterans care yesterday, which focused on bolstering the system of care, not privatizing it.
Likewise, Bernie Sanders has long showed that he "gets it." Senator Sanders responded to the VA wait times scandal by proposing a massive influx of funds, so that the VA could hire more staff, including doctors and nurses, to ensure that veterans got the quality and timely care they earned.
As always, this Veterans Day, politicians across the spectrum will post pictures of flags and troops on their social media, every one of them trying to show they're pro-veteran. But social media pictures and platitudes don't make one pro-veteran. Listening, and heeding the call of veterans makes someone pro-veteran. When it comes to that, this poll shows that some politicians are a lot more pro-veteran than others.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 17 hours ago.
Should we be shocked about that? A new poll from the Vet Voice Foundation suggests that we shouldn't be.
In short, the poll finds that veterans hate the ideas that Republicans have put forth for veterans care. Not only that, but the poll shows that veterans will vote against politicians who back the extreme GOP-Koch agenda for privatizing veterans care.
What agenda is that? It's the agenda that Jeb Bush is talking about, when he says he would begin privatizing parts of the veterans' health system. It's the agenda that Ben Carson is talking about when he says he would shut down the Department of Veterans Affairs. It's the agenda Marco Rubio backs, when he appears with the Koch-funded group "Concerned Veterans For America," to unveil their proposal to migrate veterans to a system of vouchers and private insurance.
Right on down the line, conservatives in the race for President and in Congress, are on the march to end the pact we've made with veterans, to provide them with care - not vouchers - when they need it.
Polling finds that veterans, overwhelmingly, abhor that agenda. So, it's no wonder that Republicans avoid talking about it.
The poll of 800 veterans was performed jointly by a Democratic polling firm and Republican firm, and the sample leaned Republican. Even still, the results came out unfavorable to Republicans.
· Veterans oppose a proposal in Congress that would have the real effect of leading to privatized VA hospitals. Sixty-four percent oppose, and only 29% support.
· Overall, 57% of veterans would be less likely to vote for a candidate who supported privatizing the VA health care system. Even a majority of Republicans indicate they would be more likely to vote against a candidate who supported privatization. This opposition extends across parties: 67% of Democratic, 57% of Independent/don't know, and 53% of Republican veterans say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate for high-elected office if they supported privatization of the VA health care system.
· Fifty-nine percent of veterans rate their impression of VA hospitals as favorable. When only asked about VA hospitals in their area, 61% of veterans rate their impression as favorable.
· In comparison, only 25% of veterans when asked if they have a favorable impression of for-profit health insurance corporations. And only 12 percent believe that VA hospitals should be run more like private hospitals.
· So what do veterans want? Although veterans think that changes need to be made to the VA hospitals, their biggest want is more doctors. Forty-two percent of veterans think that "needs more doctors" describes VA hospitals in their area very well. That is the most frequently-given prescription for helping the VA perform more efficiently.
Hillary Clinton took a lot of heat for trying to say that despite the issues at the VA, veterans still very much like the system and want it to thrive. But this poll backs her up. Not only do veterans have positive feelings about the veterans' health system, overall, but they have extremely negative feelings about the private system that conservatives want to force them into. She further showed that she understood what veterans want, when she unveiled her plan for veterans care yesterday, which focused on bolstering the system of care, not privatizing it.
Likewise, Bernie Sanders has long showed that he "gets it." Senator Sanders responded to the VA wait times scandal by proposing a massive influx of funds, so that the VA could hire more staff, including doctors and nurses, to ensure that veterans got the quality and timely care they earned.
As always, this Veterans Day, politicians across the spectrum will post pictures of flags and troops on their social media, every one of them trying to show they're pro-veteran. But social media pictures and platitudes don't make one pro-veteran. Listening, and heeding the call of veterans makes someone pro-veteran. When it comes to that, this poll shows that some politicians are a lot more pro-veteran than others.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 17 hours ago.
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United States: New FAQs On Preventive Services, Wellness Program Rewards And Mental Health And Substance Use Treatment - McGuireWoods LLP
As used in this article, "plan" means both a non-grandfathered group health plan and a health-insurance issuer.
Reported by Mondaq 17 hours ago.
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100 Million People Use GovDelivery -- And Most Probably Don't Realize It
If you've ever gotten an email from a government agency in the United States, the odds are good that GovDelivery sent it.
This private tech company isn't trying to clog up your inbox with newsletters or ads telling you to buy the latest gadget. Instead, GovDelivery wants to connect you to important services or programs offered by your city, state or federal government -- from renewing your driver's license to shopping for health insurance. Governments around the globe know they need simple, easy ways to connect with constituents via new technologies and are partnering with GovDelivery to do so.
The company hit a big milestone on Tuesday: 100 million people worldwide now subscribe to electronic updates from the 1,000 or so services that use GovDelivery.
"When people see that government can work and remind you to pay your tax as easily as Amazon reminds you to buy a book, it changes how they think,"GovDelivery CEO Scott Burns told The Huffington Post this week. "We talk a lot about 'we-government,' but I'm more focused on me-government, making that work one person at a time, then scaling it to 100 million."
What does that look like in practice? The picture below is a screenshot of an email I received in April 2014 from the District of Columbia Department of Motor Vehicles, clarifying some confusion about when hundreds of thousands of D.C. residents, myself included, would need to go get a new driver's license. That was news I could use:Burns told HuffPost that his firm is the "number one source of referral traffic to many government websites." GovDelivery sends a whopping 700 million emails every month on behalf of its clients and has expanded to offer updates via text and social media. So far this year, GovDelivery has sent more than 6.3 billion emails and 174 million text messages, according to company figures.
But Burns emphasized the need for governments to focus less on the raw number of messages delivered and more on how these updates impact services and the people who use them. Those outcomes range from increasing pet adoptions and revenues from hunting and fishing licenses to people getting flu shots or health insurance. (The U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which operates Healthcare.gov, is one of GovDelivery's customers.)
"I've never been excited about a new social media site or webpage," Burns said.
"It's the service that I care about. To have an impact on citizens and government's ability to serve public, you need to build connections and stop focusing on functionality," he added. "How can we make sure government reaching as many people as possible, in the ways that matter most, in the times that matter most?" This graphic, which displays a time lapse of over 50,000 new subscribers joining GovDelivery's network around the world over the course of 24 hours, shows the company's increasingly global reach.
Founded in 2001, the company is backed by Actua, a publicly traded investment firm that specializes in cloud computing. In recent years, GovDelivery has quietly expanded through three key acquisitions: Govloop, or "Facebook for Feds," in September 2009; NuCivic, an open-source, cloud-based platform, in December 2014; and Textizen, a civic tech startup that built software for citizen engagement, in July 2015.
Moving forward, Burns hopes to cut through the noise of modern media to help regular people tap even more into what's happening in their government.
"I think we're on the cusp of a real, measurable transformation of citizen experience," he said.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 16 hours ago.
This private tech company isn't trying to clog up your inbox with newsletters or ads telling you to buy the latest gadget. Instead, GovDelivery wants to connect you to important services or programs offered by your city, state or federal government -- from renewing your driver's license to shopping for health insurance. Governments around the globe know they need simple, easy ways to connect with constituents via new technologies and are partnering with GovDelivery to do so.
The company hit a big milestone on Tuesday: 100 million people worldwide now subscribe to electronic updates from the 1,000 or so services that use GovDelivery.
"When people see that government can work and remind you to pay your tax as easily as Amazon reminds you to buy a book, it changes how they think,"GovDelivery CEO Scott Burns told The Huffington Post this week. "We talk a lot about 'we-government,' but I'm more focused on me-government, making that work one person at a time, then scaling it to 100 million."
What does that look like in practice? The picture below is a screenshot of an email I received in April 2014 from the District of Columbia Department of Motor Vehicles, clarifying some confusion about when hundreds of thousands of D.C. residents, myself included, would need to go get a new driver's license. That was news I could use:Burns told HuffPost that his firm is the "number one source of referral traffic to many government websites." GovDelivery sends a whopping 700 million emails every month on behalf of its clients and has expanded to offer updates via text and social media. So far this year, GovDelivery has sent more than 6.3 billion emails and 174 million text messages, according to company figures.
But Burns emphasized the need for governments to focus less on the raw number of messages delivered and more on how these updates impact services and the people who use them. Those outcomes range from increasing pet adoptions and revenues from hunting and fishing licenses to people getting flu shots or health insurance. (The U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which operates Healthcare.gov, is one of GovDelivery's customers.)
"I've never been excited about a new social media site or webpage," Burns said.
"It's the service that I care about. To have an impact on citizens and government's ability to serve public, you need to build connections and stop focusing on functionality," he added. "How can we make sure government reaching as many people as possible, in the ways that matter most, in the times that matter most?" This graphic, which displays a time lapse of over 50,000 new subscribers joining GovDelivery's network around the world over the course of 24 hours, shows the company's increasingly global reach.
Founded in 2001, the company is backed by Actua, a publicly traded investment firm that specializes in cloud computing. In recent years, GovDelivery has quietly expanded through three key acquisitions: Govloop, or "Facebook for Feds," in September 2009; NuCivic, an open-source, cloud-based platform, in December 2014; and Textizen, a civic tech startup that built software for citizen engagement, in July 2015.
Moving forward, Burns hopes to cut through the noise of modern media to help regular people tap even more into what's happening in their government.
"I think we're on the cusp of a real, measurable transformation of citizen experience," he said.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 16 hours ago.
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How The Fight For $15 Could Affect Your Kids
It was a triumphant day for low-wage workers' Fight for $15 campaign. Hundreds of marches in cities across the country on Tuesday were rewarded with major, day-of policy announcements and even a question at the Republican presidential debate.
But what may have gotten missed within the ranks of a fast-food worker-dominated movement is a rising contingent of child care workers demanding dignity as well.
Dozens of child care workers and the families they serve joined other low-wage workers in Fight for $15 marches, arguing that the well-being of American children is at stake in their struggle for higher wages and union representation.
The caregivers and their supporters call their particular crusade the “Child Care Fight For $15.” In cities like Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta, they walked out of work to advocate for a union and a $15 per hour minimum wage. The entire workforce of at least six child care centers in Chicago participated in the protest, prompting four of those centers to close for the day, the SEIU-backed Fight for $15 reported.
The workers said their low pay and lack of benefits affect the children they supervise and instruct.
LiAnn Flakes, who cares for infants and toddlers in a Head Start-funded care center in Tampa, Florida, marched with fellow low-income workers to Tampa City Hall and other public institutions on Tuesday. After working as a child care provider for 22 years, she recently got a raise to $12.50 an hour. It's still not enough to make ends meet.
Flakes said a raise would make her a "more effective" caretaker and teacher. She'd have more money to spend on her ongoing professional training and supplies for her day care room -- expenses she already pays for using her own income.
"It is difficult," she said. "I believe in giving my job 110 percent."
Flakes' employer does not provide health insurance, and she can't afford to buy it on her own, so she goes without coverage. For a time, she bought coverage through a plan on the Affordable Care Act exchange, but found the monthly premiums too onerous.
Since Flakes doesn't have insurance, her asthma often lands her in the emergency room, sidelining her from the job she loves.
“I spend a lot of time ill, because I am not able to get the medical care I need, because I cannot afford it,” she said. Flakes estimated that she owes $11,000 in outstanding hospital bills as a result.
All of the groups responsible for funding professional child care centers -- the federal government, state governments and the private sector -- can afford to pay child care workers $15 an hour, Flakes said.
“We’re doing what’s required of us,” she said. “They should do what is required of them.”
Child care workers are among the country’s lowest-paid workers, despite the fact that the cost of child care services is prohibitively expensive for the typical American family. The median wage for child care workers is nearly 40 percent below the median wage for workers in other fields, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute that was released last Thursday.
As a result, the percentage of child care workers living below the federal poverty level is more than twice the percentage of those in other fields. According to EPI's report, 14.7 percent of child care workers live in poverty, versus 6.7 percent of other workers.
The majority of the child care workers who demonstrated on Tuesday are employed by care centers that rely on federal or state government funding, either directly or indirectly through payment assistance for low-income parents.
In fact, because the state and federal governments provide the lion’s share of many of these child care centers' funding -- funding that helps to cover workers' salaries -- child care center owners are among the Child Care Fight For $15’s staunchest backers. Some owners joined their employees at demonstrations on Tuesday.
Edie Reichard, director of the state-funded Sleeping Giant Day Care in Hamden, Connecticut, was unable to join the protests, but she vehemently supports workers' demand for a $15 minimum wage.
Connecticut provides Sleeping Giant Day Care with a grant of $8,000 per child, Reichard said. That allows her to pay her teachers $13-$14 an hour, and her teaching assistants $12 an hour. State funding per child would have to double to enable her to pay her employees at least $15 an hour, she estimated.
Meanwhile, there is a high turnover rate for teaching assistants at her care center because of the relatively low pay, Reichard said. Teaching assistants who have kids often miss work, since they can't afford child care for their own school-age children.
Reichard became active in the Fight for $15 after the Connecticut chapter of SEIU asked owners of publicly-funded child care centers to get involved, citing their shared interests.
Like SEIU, which is funding and organizing the Fight for $15, the care center owners want the state to increase payments to child care centers, which they say will allow centers to pay workers at least $15 an hour.
But Reichard’s alliance with the SEIU-backed campaign has its limits. While she supports workers’ demands for $15 an hour, she does not support their efforts to unionize, a key component of the Fight for $15’s demands. Her child care center couldn't afford to manage collective bargaining with a union, she said.
She stopped short of saying she would actively oppose a union-organizing drive if it were to gather steam.
“I am not really sure,” Reichard said. “I am kind of neutral on it.”
*Also on HuffPost:*
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 16 hours ago.
But what may have gotten missed within the ranks of a fast-food worker-dominated movement is a rising contingent of child care workers demanding dignity as well.
Dozens of child care workers and the families they serve joined other low-wage workers in Fight for $15 marches, arguing that the well-being of American children is at stake in their struggle for higher wages and union representation.
The caregivers and their supporters call their particular crusade the “Child Care Fight For $15.” In cities like Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta, they walked out of work to advocate for a union and a $15 per hour minimum wage. The entire workforce of at least six child care centers in Chicago participated in the protest, prompting four of those centers to close for the day, the SEIU-backed Fight for $15 reported.
The workers said their low pay and lack of benefits affect the children they supervise and instruct.
LiAnn Flakes, who cares for infants and toddlers in a Head Start-funded care center in Tampa, Florida, marched with fellow low-income workers to Tampa City Hall and other public institutions on Tuesday. After working as a child care provider for 22 years, she recently got a raise to $12.50 an hour. It's still not enough to make ends meet.
Flakes said a raise would make her a "more effective" caretaker and teacher. She'd have more money to spend on her ongoing professional training and supplies for her day care room -- expenses she already pays for using her own income.
"It is difficult," she said. "I believe in giving my job 110 percent."
Flakes' employer does not provide health insurance, and she can't afford to buy it on her own, so she goes without coverage. For a time, she bought coverage through a plan on the Affordable Care Act exchange, but found the monthly premiums too onerous.
Since Flakes doesn't have insurance, her asthma often lands her in the emergency room, sidelining her from the job she loves.
“I spend a lot of time ill, because I am not able to get the medical care I need, because I cannot afford it,” she said. Flakes estimated that she owes $11,000 in outstanding hospital bills as a result.
All of the groups responsible for funding professional child care centers -- the federal government, state governments and the private sector -- can afford to pay child care workers $15 an hour, Flakes said.
“We’re doing what’s required of us,” she said. “They should do what is required of them.”
Child care workers are among the country’s lowest-paid workers, despite the fact that the cost of child care services is prohibitively expensive for the typical American family. The median wage for child care workers is nearly 40 percent below the median wage for workers in other fields, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute that was released last Thursday.
As a result, the percentage of child care workers living below the federal poverty level is more than twice the percentage of those in other fields. According to EPI's report, 14.7 percent of child care workers live in poverty, versus 6.7 percent of other workers.
The majority of the child care workers who demonstrated on Tuesday are employed by care centers that rely on federal or state government funding, either directly or indirectly through payment assistance for low-income parents.
In fact, because the state and federal governments provide the lion’s share of many of these child care centers' funding -- funding that helps to cover workers' salaries -- child care center owners are among the Child Care Fight For $15’s staunchest backers. Some owners joined their employees at demonstrations on Tuesday.
Edie Reichard, director of the state-funded Sleeping Giant Day Care in Hamden, Connecticut, was unable to join the protests, but she vehemently supports workers' demand for a $15 minimum wage.
Connecticut provides Sleeping Giant Day Care with a grant of $8,000 per child, Reichard said. That allows her to pay her teachers $13-$14 an hour, and her teaching assistants $12 an hour. State funding per child would have to double to enable her to pay her employees at least $15 an hour, she estimated.
Meanwhile, there is a high turnover rate for teaching assistants at her care center because of the relatively low pay, Reichard said. Teaching assistants who have kids often miss work, since they can't afford child care for their own school-age children.
Reichard became active in the Fight for $15 after the Connecticut chapter of SEIU asked owners of publicly-funded child care centers to get involved, citing their shared interests.
Like SEIU, which is funding and organizing the Fight for $15, the care center owners want the state to increase payments to child care centers, which they say will allow centers to pay workers at least $15 an hour.
But Reichard’s alliance with the SEIU-backed campaign has its limits. While she supports workers’ demands for $15 an hour, she does not support their efforts to unionize, a key component of the Fight for $15’s demands. Her child care center couldn't afford to manage collective bargaining with a union, she said.
She stopped short of saying she would actively oppose a union-organizing drive if it were to gather steam.
“I am not really sure,” Reichard said. “I am kind of neutral on it.”
*Also on HuffPost:*
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 16 hours ago.
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This U.S. City Is Welcoming Veterans With An Innovative New Program
Fred Johnson is effusive.
After a 29-year career in the Army, including three combat tours, he has moved on to a dream job as a fundraiser for a nonprofit -- in Louisville, Kentucky, a city he loves.
I can hear the excitement in his voice as he tells me I must visit Louisville.
“You’ve gotta come, dude -- it’s awesome,” Johnson told me. “This is an up-and-coming town.”
But Johnson might not have been able to find the job and community of his dreams were it not for Where Opportunity Knox, an innovative new veterans re-integration program.
Last year, Johnson was one of more than 100,000 soldiers leaving active duty Army service. Every single one of them passes through Fort Knox before re-entering the civilian world.
Those Army veterans are looking for jobs and communities where they can begin a new life as civilians. The greater Louisville, Kentucky, area where Fort Knox is located has a vibrant cultural scene and growing economy in need of capable workers and young families.Until recently, however, there was no coordinated effort to connect the soon-to-be civilians in Fort Knox with job opportunities and communal life in Louisville.
So in September 2014, three regional chambers of commerce launched Where Opportunity Knox to try to change that.
The program has the enthusiastic backing of the U.S. Army, but it does not take a dime from the government. It relies exclusively on funding from philanthropic foundations. And it has already racked up some impressive numbers.
Where Opportunity Knox claims credit for connecting 1,500 veterans to jobs in the region already. And it has the goal of navigating 10,000 veterans to jobs in the greater Louisville area by 2017.
*Filling A Void*
The transition to civilian life for soldiers being processed at Fort Knox has two stages, according to retired Col. Walter Herd, the director of the Army’s Transition Assistance Program: preparation for a career outside the Army and connection to opportunities in the civilian world.
The Army spends two weeks on the first part, Herd said, helping soldiers with “everything from their own personal and psychological understanding, to their budgetary needs, culminating with a résumé and job preparation.”
Connecting those soldiers to a career and community is how Where Opportunity Knox complements the Army’s work. Representatives of the group are often on premises at training sessions in Fort Knox to assess soldiers' needs and answer questions. They advertise their availability to talk by email or phone on RallyPoint, an internal military professional networking site.
Where Opportunity Knox emphasizes that it is not a job placement program. It just gives veterans the personal support, insight and connections to the employer community that they are less likely to find on, say, Monster.com.
In addition to a team of several permanent staff members, Where Opportunity Knox uses a proverbial army of “regional veteran connectors” -- 35 trained volunteers -- to help veterans identify job opportunities in the region, and a local community to live in that meets their needs. The latter component means helping veterans identify everything from a quiet neighborhood to buy a home to educational services for children with disabilities to adult recreational sports leagues.
I’m excited about Where Opportunity Knox because it connects them not just to a job, but to a community.
Retired Col. Walter Herd, director, Army Transition Assistance Program
Herd said there is no veterans reintegration program in the United States as comprehensive as Where Opportunity Knox.
“The Army does not owe it to a soldier to get them a job, but we believe we do owe it to a soldier to get them ready and get ‘em introduced to something on the outside so they can at least begin that conversation,” Herd said. “The preparation piece is the easy part, the hard part is the connection piece. I’m excited about Where Opportunity Knox because it connects them not just to a job, but to a community.”
The feeling is mutual. For Kentucky’s business community, Where Opportunity Knox is a portal to a pool of reliable, skilled workers that they say would otherwise be lacking.
“As economic developers, workforce is a challenge,” said Eileen Pickett, an economic consultant and co-founder of Where Opportunity Knox. “We have this ongoing problem and certainly now since we’ve gotten past the recession, we’re starting to see growth and we need people with the right skills.”
The population of the greater Louisville area has grown 2.8 percent since 2010 -- in no small part due to its relatively successful recovery from the Great Recession.
Unemployment in the Louisville metropolitan area went from a peak of 11.9 percent in February 2010 to 4 percent today. That is a better record than the country as a whole, which went from a peak official jobless rate of 10 percent in October 2009 to 5 percent today.The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis points to the greater Louisville area as a model for successful diversification of what was once a primarily industrial economy. The city and surrounding areas now also boast a thriving service sector.
Louisville proper is home to UPS’ Worldport air hub, as well as two Ford production plants and the corporate headquarters of health insurance giant Humana. And while the city is known for its bourbon distilleries -- think Maker’s Mark, Woodford Reserve and Evan Williams -- it is also the base of Yum! Brands, parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
Army veterans are ideal candidates for the mid- and high-skill jobs that make the region’s businesses tick, Herd and Pickett insist.
For one thing, a person must be healthy, free of a criminal record and have completed high school to get into the Army in the first place.
Soldiers then learn concrete skills in the Army that often translate into civilian occupations -- everything from truck driving to supply chain management to computer science.
But more valuable than the skills the Army teaches soldiers are the “attributes” that service instills, Herd said. Soldiers are virtually guaranteed to develop discipline, a collaborative spirit and an ability to think on their feet before they emerge from Fort Knox’s walls to return to the civilian world.
And those are often the intangible qualities that make people reliable employees and innovators.
“The military is pretty much a pre-screening event for employers, because all employers want the same people, right? They graduated school, they’re healthy, they stay out of trouble,” Herd said. “So we take those people and we train them and discipline them and mature them and we steal them for a few years and then we give them back to society.”
The military is pretty much a pre-screening event for employers, because all employers want the same people, right? They graduated school, they’re healthy, they stay out of trouble.
Retired Col. Walter Herd, director, Army Transition Assistance Program
*The Visit To An Army Base That Inspired A New Initiative*
Pickett got the idea for the program after taking a group tour of Fort Irwin, the Army’s training center in California. There she saw the life-size replicas of entire towns in Afghanistan and Iraq that soldiers trained in before being deployed to war zones overseas.
It is the crucible that turns young high-school graduates into hardened adults, ready to face unknown physical and mental challenges in a foreign nation.
“What was so striking to me -- this was really my first kind of up close with the military -- I remember this captain who told us, their job is to make every soldier that comes through there have their worst day in the service happen at Fort Irwin so it doesn’t happen somewhere else,” Pickett said.
To Pickett, it was obvious that any soldiers that underwent training at that base -- let alone the experiences that followed -- would make for terrific employees and members of the community. If they could make it through Fort Irwin, wouldn’t they make a superb supply chain manager for UPS?
“I wish every American could go through there,” Pickett said. “I was just inspired by it.”*Translating “Army-Speak” To “Corporate-Speak”*
Given how intuitively appealing these veterans sound as employees, one would think veterans would have a relatively low unemployment rate.
But unemployment among young, post-9/11 veterans has been higher than among their non-veteran peers.
In 2014, the unemployment rate among post-9/11 veterans was 7.2 percent, compared with 6 percent among non-veterans. For post-9/11 veterans ages 18 to 24, the jobless rate was 16.2 percent, compared with 12.5 percent among non-veterans of the same age. (The figures have since declined, but on the advice of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we are using annual data here for greatest possible accuracy.)
The reasons are complicated. The high incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury among returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans no doubt plays a role -- though that may be more due to employers’ stigmas about the conditions than their actual effects.
There are other factors, however, that have more to do with the military’s separation from civilian society. The networks that soldiers rely on to advance in the military often do not extend into the civilian world. As a result, it is hard to make professional connections with peers in the civilian world that are so essential to finding a job in today’s economy.
Herd believes that departing soldiers are also sometimes unsure how to present the broader attributes they acquire in the military as professional assets in the civilian world.
The hard part comes in translating those skills from Army/Navy-speak to corporate-speak, and explaining how military service-specific skills are universally applicable.
Kathy Robinson, founder, Turning Point
Kathy Robinson, founder of TurningPoint, a Boston-based career counseling firm, and a former human resources executive, has worked alongside veterans, recruited them to work for companies and advised them on finding work.
“Veterans bring a lot to the table when it comes to collaboration, ability to assess a vision and execute on that vision. When I was working with veterans they were often the most effective people in their jobs,” Robinson said. “The hard part comes in translating those skills from Army/Navy-speak to corporate-speak, and explaining how military service-specific skills are universally applicable.”
In fact, those with the most easily translatable skills often have a harder time realizing the value of the attributes they have honed in the military -- let alone communicating them in terms employers can easily grasp. Herd notes that machine gunners and infantrymen, who worked in positions that do not exist in the civilian world, are less likely to be unemployed than Army truck drivers, who can easily become civilian truck drivers.*“You Can Actually See The Community Change.”*
Johnson, the Army vet, sees another challenge in the transition to civilian life. Like many veterans, Johnson wanted a job that provided him with a sense of purpose like the kind he enjoyed in the Army.
Given Johnson’s worries about the applicability of his Army skills in the civilian world altogether, he did not think he would have the luxury of finding a job that fit that description.
That was before he met with the folks at Where Opportunity Knox.
They told him about an opening at Fund for the Arts, a Louisville nonprofit that raises money for arts supplies and programs in Louisville’s underprivileged schools. Johnson is now the organization’s director of workplace giving.
“I had a certain idea in mind for what I wanted to do and they helped me work through that,” Johnson said. “They helped me learn how to go through the civilian interview process. I knew what I wanted and they helped me articulate that in a way that made sense.”
Through his work at Fund for the Arts, Johnson sees himself as part of a process of community building in the underserved west side of Louisville. He compares it to the reconstruction work he did in the Iraqi city of Baquba after the Army brigade he led helped conquer it.
I tell them, 'Follow your heart, not the money.' You can actually see the community change.
Fred Johnson, Army veteran and director of workplace giving, Fund for the Arts
“When we attacked that city it was like a wasteland,” Johnson said. “Then we helped rebuild the city. We are trying to do that here in Louisville. On the west side, it is almost barren -- it almost reminds me of Baquba.”
In addition to the Army instilling in him a desire to be a part of something greater than himself, Johnson said his service equipped him with communication skills and a comfort with diversity of all kinds. Both of those characteristics are assets to him in his fundraising work.
“The vast majority of people in the Army -- unless you don’t do your work, who cares? Same thing with a female, a gay person, or any ethnic or racial minority,” Johnson added. “The west side [of Louisville] is very poor and racially diverse. I fit in as well there as at Humana or Brown-Forman where everybody is wearing suits.”
But Johnson said he was also fortunate that Fund for the Arts was willing to give him an opportunity to prove himself despite his lack of formal fundraising experience -- and struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I told [Fund for the Arts CEO] Christen Boone, this is what [my PTSD] means and this is what I am doing to overcome it,” Johnson said. “I said I am bringing more positive baggage than negative. She took a chance on me. I wish more CEOs and executives had the courage.”
And prove himself Johnson has. Local magazine Business First recently named him one of Louisville’s top 20 veterans in business.
Now Johnson is using his experience to help younger returning veterans find their way. He volunteers with a joint civilian-military initiative called Arts and Healing. The group uses art to help veterans cope with PTSD.
“I tell them, ‘Follow your heart, not the money,” Johnson said. “You can actually see the community change.”
Where Opportunity Knox helped give Johnson the confidence that the skills he acquired in the Army had prepared him well for a civilian career. He explains to younger veterans that they too have attained those skills, even if they do not yet know it.
“A lot of time the younger kids do not realize what they’ve learned,” he observed. “They are 21 years old -- I say, ‘No, dude, you experienced a lifetime in that short span. You just don’t realize how many tools you have.’”
*Also on HuffPost:*
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 16 hours ago.
After a 29-year career in the Army, including three combat tours, he has moved on to a dream job as a fundraiser for a nonprofit -- in Louisville, Kentucky, a city he loves.
I can hear the excitement in his voice as he tells me I must visit Louisville.
“You’ve gotta come, dude -- it’s awesome,” Johnson told me. “This is an up-and-coming town.”
But Johnson might not have been able to find the job and community of his dreams were it not for Where Opportunity Knox, an innovative new veterans re-integration program.
Last year, Johnson was one of more than 100,000 soldiers leaving active duty Army service. Every single one of them passes through Fort Knox before re-entering the civilian world.
Those Army veterans are looking for jobs and communities where they can begin a new life as civilians. The greater Louisville, Kentucky, area where Fort Knox is located has a vibrant cultural scene and growing economy in need of capable workers and young families.Until recently, however, there was no coordinated effort to connect the soon-to-be civilians in Fort Knox with job opportunities and communal life in Louisville.
So in September 2014, three regional chambers of commerce launched Where Opportunity Knox to try to change that.
The program has the enthusiastic backing of the U.S. Army, but it does not take a dime from the government. It relies exclusively on funding from philanthropic foundations. And it has already racked up some impressive numbers.
Where Opportunity Knox claims credit for connecting 1,500 veterans to jobs in the region already. And it has the goal of navigating 10,000 veterans to jobs in the greater Louisville area by 2017.
*Filling A Void*
The transition to civilian life for soldiers being processed at Fort Knox has two stages, according to retired Col. Walter Herd, the director of the Army’s Transition Assistance Program: preparation for a career outside the Army and connection to opportunities in the civilian world.
The Army spends two weeks on the first part, Herd said, helping soldiers with “everything from their own personal and psychological understanding, to their budgetary needs, culminating with a résumé and job preparation.”
Connecting those soldiers to a career and community is how Where Opportunity Knox complements the Army’s work. Representatives of the group are often on premises at training sessions in Fort Knox to assess soldiers' needs and answer questions. They advertise their availability to talk by email or phone on RallyPoint, an internal military professional networking site.
Where Opportunity Knox emphasizes that it is not a job placement program. It just gives veterans the personal support, insight and connections to the employer community that they are less likely to find on, say, Monster.com.
In addition to a team of several permanent staff members, Where Opportunity Knox uses a proverbial army of “regional veteran connectors” -- 35 trained volunteers -- to help veterans identify job opportunities in the region, and a local community to live in that meets their needs. The latter component means helping veterans identify everything from a quiet neighborhood to buy a home to educational services for children with disabilities to adult recreational sports leagues.
I’m excited about Where Opportunity Knox because it connects them not just to a job, but to a community.
Retired Col. Walter Herd, director, Army Transition Assistance Program
Herd said there is no veterans reintegration program in the United States as comprehensive as Where Opportunity Knox.
“The Army does not owe it to a soldier to get them a job, but we believe we do owe it to a soldier to get them ready and get ‘em introduced to something on the outside so they can at least begin that conversation,” Herd said. “The preparation piece is the easy part, the hard part is the connection piece. I’m excited about Where Opportunity Knox because it connects them not just to a job, but to a community.”
The feeling is mutual. For Kentucky’s business community, Where Opportunity Knox is a portal to a pool of reliable, skilled workers that they say would otherwise be lacking.
“As economic developers, workforce is a challenge,” said Eileen Pickett, an economic consultant and co-founder of Where Opportunity Knox. “We have this ongoing problem and certainly now since we’ve gotten past the recession, we’re starting to see growth and we need people with the right skills.”
The population of the greater Louisville area has grown 2.8 percent since 2010 -- in no small part due to its relatively successful recovery from the Great Recession.
Unemployment in the Louisville metropolitan area went from a peak of 11.9 percent in February 2010 to 4 percent today. That is a better record than the country as a whole, which went from a peak official jobless rate of 10 percent in October 2009 to 5 percent today.The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis points to the greater Louisville area as a model for successful diversification of what was once a primarily industrial economy. The city and surrounding areas now also boast a thriving service sector.
Louisville proper is home to UPS’ Worldport air hub, as well as two Ford production plants and the corporate headquarters of health insurance giant Humana. And while the city is known for its bourbon distilleries -- think Maker’s Mark, Woodford Reserve and Evan Williams -- it is also the base of Yum! Brands, parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
Army veterans are ideal candidates for the mid- and high-skill jobs that make the region’s businesses tick, Herd and Pickett insist.
For one thing, a person must be healthy, free of a criminal record and have completed high school to get into the Army in the first place.
Soldiers then learn concrete skills in the Army that often translate into civilian occupations -- everything from truck driving to supply chain management to computer science.
But more valuable than the skills the Army teaches soldiers are the “attributes” that service instills, Herd said. Soldiers are virtually guaranteed to develop discipline, a collaborative spirit and an ability to think on their feet before they emerge from Fort Knox’s walls to return to the civilian world.
And those are often the intangible qualities that make people reliable employees and innovators.
“The military is pretty much a pre-screening event for employers, because all employers want the same people, right? They graduated school, they’re healthy, they stay out of trouble,” Herd said. “So we take those people and we train them and discipline them and mature them and we steal them for a few years and then we give them back to society.”
The military is pretty much a pre-screening event for employers, because all employers want the same people, right? They graduated school, they’re healthy, they stay out of trouble.
Retired Col. Walter Herd, director, Army Transition Assistance Program
*The Visit To An Army Base That Inspired A New Initiative*
Pickett got the idea for the program after taking a group tour of Fort Irwin, the Army’s training center in California. There she saw the life-size replicas of entire towns in Afghanistan and Iraq that soldiers trained in before being deployed to war zones overseas.
It is the crucible that turns young high-school graduates into hardened adults, ready to face unknown physical and mental challenges in a foreign nation.
“What was so striking to me -- this was really my first kind of up close with the military -- I remember this captain who told us, their job is to make every soldier that comes through there have their worst day in the service happen at Fort Irwin so it doesn’t happen somewhere else,” Pickett said.
To Pickett, it was obvious that any soldiers that underwent training at that base -- let alone the experiences that followed -- would make for terrific employees and members of the community. If they could make it through Fort Irwin, wouldn’t they make a superb supply chain manager for UPS?
“I wish every American could go through there,” Pickett said. “I was just inspired by it.”*Translating “Army-Speak” To “Corporate-Speak”*
Given how intuitively appealing these veterans sound as employees, one would think veterans would have a relatively low unemployment rate.
But unemployment among young, post-9/11 veterans has been higher than among their non-veteran peers.
In 2014, the unemployment rate among post-9/11 veterans was 7.2 percent, compared with 6 percent among non-veterans. For post-9/11 veterans ages 18 to 24, the jobless rate was 16.2 percent, compared with 12.5 percent among non-veterans of the same age. (The figures have since declined, but on the advice of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we are using annual data here for greatest possible accuracy.)
The reasons are complicated. The high incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury among returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans no doubt plays a role -- though that may be more due to employers’ stigmas about the conditions than their actual effects.
There are other factors, however, that have more to do with the military’s separation from civilian society. The networks that soldiers rely on to advance in the military often do not extend into the civilian world. As a result, it is hard to make professional connections with peers in the civilian world that are so essential to finding a job in today’s economy.
Herd believes that departing soldiers are also sometimes unsure how to present the broader attributes they acquire in the military as professional assets in the civilian world.
The hard part comes in translating those skills from Army/Navy-speak to corporate-speak, and explaining how military service-specific skills are universally applicable.
Kathy Robinson, founder, Turning Point
Kathy Robinson, founder of TurningPoint, a Boston-based career counseling firm, and a former human resources executive, has worked alongside veterans, recruited them to work for companies and advised them on finding work.
“Veterans bring a lot to the table when it comes to collaboration, ability to assess a vision and execute on that vision. When I was working with veterans they were often the most effective people in their jobs,” Robinson said. “The hard part comes in translating those skills from Army/Navy-speak to corporate-speak, and explaining how military service-specific skills are universally applicable.”
In fact, those with the most easily translatable skills often have a harder time realizing the value of the attributes they have honed in the military -- let alone communicating them in terms employers can easily grasp. Herd notes that machine gunners and infantrymen, who worked in positions that do not exist in the civilian world, are less likely to be unemployed than Army truck drivers, who can easily become civilian truck drivers.*“You Can Actually See The Community Change.”*
Johnson, the Army vet, sees another challenge in the transition to civilian life. Like many veterans, Johnson wanted a job that provided him with a sense of purpose like the kind he enjoyed in the Army.
Given Johnson’s worries about the applicability of his Army skills in the civilian world altogether, he did not think he would have the luxury of finding a job that fit that description.
That was before he met with the folks at Where Opportunity Knox.
They told him about an opening at Fund for the Arts, a Louisville nonprofit that raises money for arts supplies and programs in Louisville’s underprivileged schools. Johnson is now the organization’s director of workplace giving.
“I had a certain idea in mind for what I wanted to do and they helped me work through that,” Johnson said. “They helped me learn how to go through the civilian interview process. I knew what I wanted and they helped me articulate that in a way that made sense.”
Through his work at Fund for the Arts, Johnson sees himself as part of a process of community building in the underserved west side of Louisville. He compares it to the reconstruction work he did in the Iraqi city of Baquba after the Army brigade he led helped conquer it.
I tell them, 'Follow your heart, not the money.' You can actually see the community change.
Fred Johnson, Army veteran and director of workplace giving, Fund for the Arts
“When we attacked that city it was like a wasteland,” Johnson said. “Then we helped rebuild the city. We are trying to do that here in Louisville. On the west side, it is almost barren -- it almost reminds me of Baquba.”
In addition to the Army instilling in him a desire to be a part of something greater than himself, Johnson said his service equipped him with communication skills and a comfort with diversity of all kinds. Both of those characteristics are assets to him in his fundraising work.
“The vast majority of people in the Army -- unless you don’t do your work, who cares? Same thing with a female, a gay person, or any ethnic or racial minority,” Johnson added. “The west side [of Louisville] is very poor and racially diverse. I fit in as well there as at Humana or Brown-Forman where everybody is wearing suits.”
But Johnson said he was also fortunate that Fund for the Arts was willing to give him an opportunity to prove himself despite his lack of formal fundraising experience -- and struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I told [Fund for the Arts CEO] Christen Boone, this is what [my PTSD] means and this is what I am doing to overcome it,” Johnson said. “I said I am bringing more positive baggage than negative. She took a chance on me. I wish more CEOs and executives had the courage.”
And prove himself Johnson has. Local magazine Business First recently named him one of Louisville’s top 20 veterans in business.
Now Johnson is using his experience to help younger returning veterans find their way. He volunteers with a joint civilian-military initiative called Arts and Healing. The group uses art to help veterans cope with PTSD.
“I tell them, ‘Follow your heart, not the money,” Johnson said. “You can actually see the community change.”
Where Opportunity Knox helped give Johnson the confidence that the skills he acquired in the Army had prepared him well for a civilian career. He explains to younger veterans that they too have attained those skills, even if they do not yet know it.
“A lot of time the younger kids do not realize what they’ve learned,” he observed. “They are 21 years old -- I say, ‘No, dude, you experienced a lifetime in that short span. You just don’t realize how many tools you have.’”
*Also on HuffPost:*
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 16 hours ago.
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5 Common Myths About Veterans and Military Families
This week we celebrate 22 million living veterans who span generations, conflicts and all U.S. states and territories. Less than eight percent of our country's population, though, has ever worn a uniform, leaving millions of civilians to get to know vets and military families through the news and through interactions in our communities.
Veterans Day seems the right time to educate and inform the American people about who we are by refuting the myths about what veterans and military families are not.
*1. Myth: Enlisted vets are less skilled.*
All men and women, especially our military's non-commissioned officers (NCOs), have the capacity for greatness. NCOs know how to problem-solve, operate under deadlines (often in the throes of crises) and manage large teams of varying ages and skills while ensuring that multi-million dollar equipment is in fighting order. Skills in the military come not from large lecture halls or specific degrees but from practical application.
My sergeants in Iraq would coordinate deliveries of humanitarian supplies, negotiate with village elders and make sure their troops were combat ready, all while under the threat of enemy contact. And for hiring managers who insist on degrees, in 2010, 93.6 percent of enlisted soldiers had at least a high school diploma, compared to 59.5 percent of America. I'd stake my reputation on the opinion that enlisted soldiers are better educated and more skilled than the U.S. civilians they protect.
*2. Myth: Military spouses don't need to work.*
This myth dates back to the 1970s, when wives of military service members were far less likely to work outside the home. Rising cost of living, low service member pay and the rising cost of benefits have led to a resurgence in military spouses seeking work. The Department of Defense estimates that 65 percent of military spouses are employed.
Even so, the Military Officers Association of America estimates that 90 percent of female military spouses are underemployed, meaning they possess more education and experience than needed for their jobs. Further, their paychecks are about 38 percent lower than their civilian counterparts By short-selling military spouses, employers overlook the assets that they bring to the table. Chief among them are an ability to establish relationships quickly as well as resiliency and comfort in the face of transition.
*3. Myth: The job market for veterans remains bright.*
Corporate America and the White House have pledged more than one million jobs for veterans - about two pledged jobs for every unemployed service member of any generation. So why were 573,000 veterans unemployed in 2014? While the job outlook for veterans has notably improved, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a sky-high unemployment rate for young veterans (ages 18-24). Last year 16 percent were unemployed, about one-third more than the rate for their civilian peers.
The opposite end of the spectrum is equally challenging. Those over 55 represent 37 percent of the veteran population yet nearly five percent, or 213,000, were unemployed in 2014. If the job market for veterans were truly bright, those numbers would be very different.
*4. Myth: Vets and their families have access to free health care.*
Like their civilian counterparts, many veterans struggle to secure affordable healthcare for themselves and their families. Approximately 40 percent of veterans qualify to receive healthcare through the Veterans Administration (VA) system. But while many vets are covered, VA hospitals do not serve family members or families of the fallen. Another 5-10 percent of eligible retirees, their families and survivor families get coverage through TriCare, the military's health insurance program. Yet one in 10 veterans under age 65 is uninsured, according to an analysis of the American Community Survey. And the Affordable Care Act, through Medicaid, only covers about half of them.
The rest? They're left to hope that a catastrophic accident or severe illness doesn't come along -- and that's simply an unfair ask of someone brave enough to have worn a uniform for this country.
*5. Myth: The end of the wars equates to diminishing needs.*
Right now there are about 150,000 members of the military deployed in nearly 150 countries around the world, carrying out missions and safeguarding freedom. Even as the United States draws down its presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, deployment numbers remain high and will not be going down.
What does this mean? The needs of veterans and military families are evolving, and they are most certainly not disappearing. Take, for example, the wife whose spouse was disabled in Afghanistan at age 26. As one of 5.5 million caregivers of veterans in the United States, this spouse will be supporting his or her veteran for another 50-plus years -- and both of them will need assistance. The tails on any wars, especially the post-9/11 ones, are very long.
We simply cannot afford to allow the sea of goodwill for our veterans turn into an ocean of apathy.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 16 hours ago.
Veterans Day seems the right time to educate and inform the American people about who we are by refuting the myths about what veterans and military families are not.
*1. Myth: Enlisted vets are less skilled.*
All men and women, especially our military's non-commissioned officers (NCOs), have the capacity for greatness. NCOs know how to problem-solve, operate under deadlines (often in the throes of crises) and manage large teams of varying ages and skills while ensuring that multi-million dollar equipment is in fighting order. Skills in the military come not from large lecture halls or specific degrees but from practical application.
My sergeants in Iraq would coordinate deliveries of humanitarian supplies, negotiate with village elders and make sure their troops were combat ready, all while under the threat of enemy contact. And for hiring managers who insist on degrees, in 2010, 93.6 percent of enlisted soldiers had at least a high school diploma, compared to 59.5 percent of America. I'd stake my reputation on the opinion that enlisted soldiers are better educated and more skilled than the U.S. civilians they protect.
*2. Myth: Military spouses don't need to work.*
This myth dates back to the 1970s, when wives of military service members were far less likely to work outside the home. Rising cost of living, low service member pay and the rising cost of benefits have led to a resurgence in military spouses seeking work. The Department of Defense estimates that 65 percent of military spouses are employed.
Even so, the Military Officers Association of America estimates that 90 percent of female military spouses are underemployed, meaning they possess more education and experience than needed for their jobs. Further, their paychecks are about 38 percent lower than their civilian counterparts By short-selling military spouses, employers overlook the assets that they bring to the table. Chief among them are an ability to establish relationships quickly as well as resiliency and comfort in the face of transition.
*3. Myth: The job market for veterans remains bright.*
Corporate America and the White House have pledged more than one million jobs for veterans - about two pledged jobs for every unemployed service member of any generation. So why were 573,000 veterans unemployed in 2014? While the job outlook for veterans has notably improved, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a sky-high unemployment rate for young veterans (ages 18-24). Last year 16 percent were unemployed, about one-third more than the rate for their civilian peers.
The opposite end of the spectrum is equally challenging. Those over 55 represent 37 percent of the veteran population yet nearly five percent, or 213,000, were unemployed in 2014. If the job market for veterans were truly bright, those numbers would be very different.
*4. Myth: Vets and their families have access to free health care.*
Like their civilian counterparts, many veterans struggle to secure affordable healthcare for themselves and their families. Approximately 40 percent of veterans qualify to receive healthcare through the Veterans Administration (VA) system. But while many vets are covered, VA hospitals do not serve family members or families of the fallen. Another 5-10 percent of eligible retirees, their families and survivor families get coverage through TriCare, the military's health insurance program. Yet one in 10 veterans under age 65 is uninsured, according to an analysis of the American Community Survey. And the Affordable Care Act, through Medicaid, only covers about half of them.
The rest? They're left to hope that a catastrophic accident or severe illness doesn't come along -- and that's simply an unfair ask of someone brave enough to have worn a uniform for this country.
*5. Myth: The end of the wars equates to diminishing needs.*
Right now there are about 150,000 members of the military deployed in nearly 150 countries around the world, carrying out missions and safeguarding freedom. Even as the United States draws down its presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, deployment numbers remain high and will not be going down.
What does this mean? The needs of veterans and military families are evolving, and they are most certainly not disappearing. Take, for example, the wife whose spouse was disabled in Afghanistan at age 26. As one of 5.5 million caregivers of veterans in the United States, this spouse will be supporting his or her veteran for another 50-plus years -- and both of them will need assistance. The tails on any wars, especially the post-9/11 ones, are very long.
We simply cannot afford to allow the sea of goodwill for our veterans turn into an ocean of apathy.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 16 hours ago.
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↧
KindHealth: Britishness You Can Trust
AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Don't you want someone who sounds British to help you with health insurance? Of course you do. https://www.kindhealth.co/kindhealth-britishness-you-can-trust To view the original version on PR Newswire,...
Reported by PR Newswire 15 hours ago.
↧
Why Company Perks Are Important
Why is it beneficial for companies to provide employees with so many perks? originally appeared on Quora: The best answer to any question.*Answer by Kyle Olson, software engineer at Synegen, Inc., on Quora.*1) Many perks are tax deductible for an employer but not for an individual. Health insurance and college reimbursement are examples of this. Some of these perks therefore have the effect of raising an employee's wages by $1000 while only costing the company $800.
2) Employers can save money based on scale. They can buy a soft drink machine where the drinks are pennies per cup, instead of 40 cents per can. They can shop at Costco / Sams Club to buy snacks in bulk instead of employees buying them at a gas station.
3) Employees don't do a good job of recognizing the value of perks. Therefore they will stay at a company with great health care without calculating the true value of that perk. I recently left a job with great perks for a job with lousy ones. When I discuss this with people they can't understand why I would do that. But I calculated the cost of the better healthcare, more PTO days, better 401k matching, and free snacks / drinks was worth $12k in pre-tax earnings. I set my target salary at 10% above my previous position + $12k, and got it.
4) Showing employees you value them has a benefit all by itself. If you treat your employees like a commodity, they are more likely to treat your company as a stepping stone towards something better. Employee loyalty and job satisfaction have a lot of value. After a really tough deployment I was instrumental in "saving", my boss gave me two extra PTO days and a $100 gift card. Considering I am highly paid and it is expected that I don't work just 40 hours every week, it was still a great gesture that helps make me more willing to put in that level of effort next time.
5) Many perks reduce stress on employees, which increases productivity. An employee whose kid gets sick and costs them $20k in medical bills will be far more stressed than if their bill was just $500. Many studies show employees with more vacation time (by US standards) are more productive overall than employees that work 48+ weeks per year.This question originally appeared on Quora. Ask a question, get a great answer. Learn from experts and access insider knowledge. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
More questions:
· Employee Perks: What are all the perks that Facebook employees get?· Companies: What are some entrepreneurial stories of resilience?· Jobs and Careers: What are the worst interview mistakes you've seen as recruiter?
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 15 hours ago.
2) Employers can save money based on scale. They can buy a soft drink machine where the drinks are pennies per cup, instead of 40 cents per can. They can shop at Costco / Sams Club to buy snacks in bulk instead of employees buying them at a gas station.
3) Employees don't do a good job of recognizing the value of perks. Therefore they will stay at a company with great health care without calculating the true value of that perk. I recently left a job with great perks for a job with lousy ones. When I discuss this with people they can't understand why I would do that. But I calculated the cost of the better healthcare, more PTO days, better 401k matching, and free snacks / drinks was worth $12k in pre-tax earnings. I set my target salary at 10% above my previous position + $12k, and got it.
4) Showing employees you value them has a benefit all by itself. If you treat your employees like a commodity, they are more likely to treat your company as a stepping stone towards something better. Employee loyalty and job satisfaction have a lot of value. After a really tough deployment I was instrumental in "saving", my boss gave me two extra PTO days and a $100 gift card. Considering I am highly paid and it is expected that I don't work just 40 hours every week, it was still a great gesture that helps make me more willing to put in that level of effort next time.
5) Many perks reduce stress on employees, which increases productivity. An employee whose kid gets sick and costs them $20k in medical bills will be far more stressed than if their bill was just $500. Many studies show employees with more vacation time (by US standards) are more productive overall than employees that work 48+ weeks per year.This question originally appeared on Quora. Ask a question, get a great answer. Learn from experts and access insider knowledge. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
More questions:
· Employee Perks: What are all the perks that Facebook employees get?· Companies: What are some entrepreneurial stories of resilience?· Jobs and Careers: What are the worst interview mistakes you've seen as recruiter?
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 15 hours ago.
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Musicians Struggle To Buy Insurance In A City That Thrives On Music
The music industry generates $1.6 billion a year for Austin, Texas. But many musicians can't afford the basics, including health insurance. The Health Alliance for Austin Musicians steps in to help.
Reported by NPR 14 hours ago.
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