Jon Greenbaum checks in with the current status of the health care reform bill moving though the House. Not looking good, thanks to Blue Dog efforts:
via OK, Now H.R. 3200 Really Does Suck | Chant Down Babylon.
And worst of all, the Blue Dogs cut my family out of the deal. Whereas the old bill would help median income folks with our premiums, the Blue Dog version says you are on your own after you jump over 400% of poverty. So if your family earns the median income in Monroe County in the low mid 50 grand per year for a family of four, or even quite a bit less, you are on your own buddy.
Thank you Blue Dogs.
On a positive note, the bill does manage to go a long way towards reforming private health insurance policies, eliminating lifetime service caps and denial of service because of pre-existing conditions. But clearly, the Blue Dogs are actively working against the interests of the working poor in this country. Perhaps those who negotiated this bill aught to be called out on it by name?
If you’ve not had a chance to read it, I highly recommend the book The J-Curve for all of you interested in international politics. The book is a great primer on international politics as a function of state stability, and state stability as a curve tracing from totalitarian stability to democratic stability. The book also details a number of case studies including Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, the education of the populace is the job of the Wahabist religious sects. This is why people living in the heart of the land that gave us modern mathematics and a goodly portion of our alphabet can recite whole passages of the Koran but not read or perform basic algebra.
All of this is to say that, in the absence of government works projects, very few in Saudi Arabia are capable of holding down jobs on their own. Unemployment is rampant and so the government is constantly building new soccer stadiums and monuments to themselves as a means to keep the inevitable revolution of millions of starving, uneducated citizens at bay. These public works serve no useful function and generate no revenue of their own, but merely serve as make-busy jobs until the next useless project can be funded.
Here in Monroe County, we have no Wahabist imams forcing religion down our throats. We have no problem with education, in fact our schools are the envy of a majority of the United States. But when Monroe County insists that the Renaissance Square project is a good “shovel ready” project with which to spend our Federal Stimulus dollars, the only reasonable benefit I see is precisely this make-busy idea that keeps Saudi citizens working.
Because while generating jobs to stimulate the economy is a good thing – and I would submit that blue collar jobs are especially important on this point – focusing on the construction industry for economic growth is ultimately self-defeating. Construction jobs are only really useful to the economy as a whole where those jobs are backed up by genuine economic activity. If we worked to build our manufacturing base in Monroe County, the employees of those manufacturing companies would have permanent jobs and the companies would need construction workers to build or repair facilities. But when we focus on construction jobs, once the project is built, what happens next?
Nothing. Which exactly the problem with every monument built in Saudi Arabia and exactly what’s wrong with Renn Square as an economic project. What new jobs will be created by Renn Square after it’s built? I can only think of minimum wage jobs working in stores and restaurants inside the new terminal. . . and not even that if Bob Duffy gets his scaled-down project. What new revenue will Renn Square generate? Nada, which makes it about as useful as a statue of the Prince of Saud.
Better that we should focus on building a new terminal at the site of the current Amtrak station, if we are to build any new bus terminal at all. We can get more bang for the buck if we create a terminal that both serves the Rochester public and advocates for Rochester to the people who travel through here on rail. Better still that we should use the Stimulus money to pave our streets and fix our roads. These things generate revenue and have intrinsic value. Renn Square’s only intrinsic value is as a campaign fund project.
Metro Justice is gathering it’s supporters together this evening to protest Maggie Brooks’ new plan to turn over the day-to-day operations of the Department of Motor Vehicles to Yum! Corporation, the owners of Taco Bell. Monroe Watch, a blog by one of the organizers at MJ, has the story.
They also point out that Yum’s stock price highs of a few years ago are vanishing. That might be one reason for the company’s receptiveness to the plan. And of course, the state budget crunch is probably the reason for Brooks’ interest.
I’m surprised that none of the local media is picking this up yet. We’ll be following the story closely here at DFE.
I’d call this a sign of the times. The Rochester Business Journal is reporting that home sales in Monroe County plummeted 11 percent this month, while automobile sales continued to climb. Unfortunately, the RBJ did not report on what types of cars are being sold. Based on other reports about plummeting SUV sales, I suspect that the answer is “a whole mess of Priuses.”
Rochester Business Journal:
Sales of existing homes in May dropped 11 percent compared with a year ago, the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors Inc. reported Friday. Though May closings, at 928, were up 10.7 percent from April, which posted 838 closings.
Rochester Business Journal:
Sales of new vehicles in Monroe County continued to increase last month, while used-vehicle sales fell in May, the Rochester Automobile Dealers’ Association Inc. reported.
Bob Duffy has gone with the flow quite a bit since taking office, remaining out of direct spotlight whenever partisan issues come up, if possible. I’ve been critical of that many times, especially since the partisanship is actually hitting Rochester and Monroe County where it hurts with things like the FAIR plan.
But apparently, the MCC situation has gotten under his skin. H/T to RochesterTurning for bringing this video to my attention, wherein Duffy lays out in stark terms his displeasure with the nakedly partisan politics – and money grubbing, let’s not lie – of the MCC situation. He even goes as far as to say that the “spirit of cooperation” is cosmetic, which in political terms is quite harsh. Duly so, of course, but harsh nonetheless.
He points out that 25% of MCC students are City residents, and that gives the City a large stake in resolving the issue of the MCC president appointment. Moreover, he goes as far as to threaten that Governor Patterson can even play a role in this by appointing members of the board of the Renn Square project that perhaps the Republicans might not like.
“We’re impacted, I’ve never been asked to submit a name for the board,” he said, “But we have a new governor. And the governor has the ability to put people on the board and Governor Patterson is a true partner with us and I will be in touch with Governor Patterson.”
He says “a lot of things pass through this office,” and that he’ll use as many as he can to change the situation.
I hesitate to use the word “plan” to describe anything which defines the Renaissance Square “project.” Plans do change, its true. But when every six months brings an entirely new concept to your “plans,” well then, they’re not plans. They’re just crap.
Rochester’s RenSquare gets a new look | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle
A revised design concept and new facades for Renaissance SquareRenaissance Square were unveiled Thursday during a public workshop that drew a modest crowd.
They dangle new union jobs in front of us, but so far, the only people making money are the “planning” peeps.
The report issued by Empire Justice on New York’s subprime woes points out that, in fact, about 44% of all subprime mortages in Monroe County (not Rochester, as has been reported on the 13WHAM blog) were in some form of trouble as of October of last year. Those mortgages are either already in foreclosure, behind by more than 30 days and therefore subject to foreclosure, or about to have their rates “reset,” thus potentially increase to dangerous levels. Looking at the map that details where in MC the subprimes concentrate, we see some of the old familiar patterns of poverty and debt. The City NE is particularly hard-hit, as is Gates and Greece, especially where it touches the city.
But another trend is worth noting, which is where the line of suburban sprawl and the line of subprime woes intersect. Notice that the trend of deep red extends straight across route 104, through Webster, at minimum. It would be interesting to see how red it is in Wayne County as well. The subprime troubles seem to skip right over Brighton, then slam back down with force in Pittsford, Perinton and Henrietta.
It’s all part in parcel of the same thing: the focus on fast growth, new home ownership, home construction all lead to people gambling more than they should and getting into trouble. Since 9-11, the sales of homes have been the only feather in the economic cap of this current presidential administration. But as we can see, high growth means high risk. Is it any wonder that the man who has tanked every business he’s ever run now appears to have his hands in his pockets during our economic crisis?
Carla Palumbo is reporting in on her blog to say that the batting down of the F.A.I.R. plan may be much, much worse than I’d thought, because the county may be stuck with the intercept plan without having the benefit of the F.A.I.R. plan’s school tax offset (which is the part that was ruled illegal).
w00t! This could be bad.
Great news that’s being reported throughout the Rochester/Monroe County blogosphere: the F.A.I.R plan was rejected by the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court, and Maggie’s a-poutin’:
For more on the story, RochesterTurning picks it up, as does Monroe Rising.
Most people tend to think of the media as a means to inform the public. Not the D&C. They see themselves as a vehicle for delivering messages they believe we need to hear for our own good. Whether or not that is the truth is irrelevant.
Take the opinions plummed from the local pool of “experts,” that the Bear Stearns deal isn’t going to have any effect on Rochester at all. Oh, heavens, no! We’re all going to be fine, because we all live in the Monroe County Smug Bubble, unlike all those poor bastards that live elsewhere.
Keep in mind that only 2% of the total national mortgage market is in foreclosure. What does 2% of the Rochester/Monroe County market look like? Well, not much at all. Yet 2% of the nation-wide market is enough to cause a recession (“or at least near, a recession,” in the words of the D&C), so what does that same 2% do to our economy here?
Well, that kind of question is just not acceptable to the D&C. I keep trying to answer that question, lacking as I do the resources of the D&C, but they patently refuse to cover the story at all. Rather, they’d prefer to hear from people who speak of “The Market” as though it was some sort of god, rather than the collective actions of fallible men:
Experts: Area has no bubble to burst | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle
“This is the market’s way of letting other (investment) firms know they should avoid the excesses of Bear Stearns,” Conboy said. “They shouldn’t play the way Bear Stearns played.”
