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 Weekly Update For the week of September 25, 2009 |
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Dear William,
"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." ~ James Madison, The Federalist Papers #46
I want to thank everyone who was involved with OSPRI's 2nd Annual ATF Party! The turnout was impressive this past Sunday at Addieville East Farm (an absolutely gorgeous club) to enjoy an afternoon at the range, followed by food, beverages, cigars, and lively political discussion. An extra special thanks to Geoff Gaebe, owner of Addieville East Farm, for hosting our event, John Troiono, for donating the cigars, Block Island Beers, for providing the tasty beverages, and Jack Peters, sportsman extraordinaire, for organizing and supervising the range operations. We look forward to seeing you all next year!
OSPRI President Bill Felkner will discuss our continuing battle on the healthcare front in the President's Message
The OSPRI blog has been posting a lot of information, thanks to our new Research Associate Stephen Beale! He will be a regular contributor to the blog, so check back often for great commentary on everything that is taking place in both our state and our country.
Ernest Greco, OSPRI Fellow for Academic and Political Affairs, had an Op-Ed published in the Providence Journal this week. See below for more information. Anchorrising picked up the piece and there is also a link to their commentary in the link below.
A few weeks ago, I included a brief commentary on the current health care debate. A group called the Advocates for Self Government featured my commentary as the "great quote of the day." A link to one of their websites is listed below.
Once again, I am urging all of you to visit our Rhode Island Stimulus Watch website (www.ristimulus.org) and cast your vote for the projects you feel are, or are not, critical at this time. This website was designed for you, the taxpayer, and we need your feedback!
Ten new documents were added to the RI Data website this week; all documents can be found by going to the Transparency Train. The RI Votes database is fully updated for the current legislative session: about 2000 bills were introduced in the House and Senate, and you can find them all through the RI Votes section of the Transparency Train.
As always, OSPRI continues to traverse the state in order to spread the word about our organization and the Transparency Project. We have spoken before neighborhood organizations, taxpayer groups, college students, and local public officials. If you are interested in having Mr. Felkner or one of our scholars and/or associates address your group, please contact us via phone (401-228-6691) or email (info@oceanstatepolicy.org).
Finally, if you have any questions about OSPRI or are interested in getting involved, don't hesitate to contact me!
Best regards,
Parker Lacoste
Assistant to the President
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| President's Message |
Dear Friends,
The Ocean State Policy Research Institute has raised the funding we need to move forward with our study of long-term care reform in Rhode Island. Thanks goes to all of you who helped make this possible. The research and report will be done by Steve Moses, the OSPRI fellow for health care policy and the president of the Center for Long-Term Care Reform in Seattle.
Rhode Island has a unique "global Medicaid waiver" that enables the state to experiment with long-term care (LTC) public policy in ways never before allowed under federal law. RI Medicaid traded a cap on federal matching funds for the flexibility to try new and creative ways to improve long-term care services while constraining explosive costs.
Last July, Moses conducted a site visit to Providence, RI, in order to complete the preliminary report on long-term care reform. OSPRI opened doors to meetings with local health care experts and generally facilitated every step of the way. I attended most of the interviews with state officials and others and helped attract coverage of the project in local and national media.
On September 2 we published our mini-report, "The Ocean State, the Age Wave and Long-Term Care," which focused on the Rhode Island waiver's "dangers and opportunities." We offered numerous recommendations about areas the state Medicaid program should explore further in order to maximize the waiver's opportunities and minimize its dangers. Our report specifically suggested approaches to reduce costs, increase savings, and maximize private LTC financing sources such as insurance and home equity conversion.
Although not agreeing with all of our conclusions in the report, Rhode Island's new Medicaid Director, Elena Nicolella, paid us and the Center for Long-Term Care Reform a high compliment. She wrote a letter asking for our help with "an in-depth research project that would specifically identify areas for potential long-term care reform." She added her hope that "this expression of support will help you secure the appropriate funds to do so."
Our hope was that money would come pouring in to support our proposal to take the next step: a more in-depth study through which we could answer the questions and propose the solutions we had encouraged Rhode Island Medicaid to pursue. Well, our hopes were realized.
We are pleased to announce that OSPRI has raised the needed funds to support the expanded study. Our goal is to present actionable recommendations in time for the opening session of the RI state legislature in January 2010. We'll keep you posted as work plans, scheduling, site visits, and our research/analysis develop.
Onward and upward,
Bill Felkner
President and Founder
PS. You can find our initial report, Age Wave, the Ocean State, and Long-Term Care by clicking HERE.
An Opinion Editorial discussing one of the cost saving measures we discovered can be found by clicking HERE.
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| 2nd Annual ATF Party |
Thank you to everyone who helped organize, supported, or attended OSPRI's 2nd annual ATF Party! It was a huge success, and we are already planning next year's event.
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| OSPRI Blog revived! |
The OSPRI blog has been revived! Stephen Beale, OSPRI's new Research Associate, will be a regular contributor on the blog and already has some great posts, including this one:
State Union Workers Just 'Like Everyone Else'?
September 25, 2009
Although Gov. Don Carcieri has declared negotiations over, the largest state employees union continues to play by its own rules. Today the union is meeting to propose a compromise with the governor. Meanwhile we found the below comment from the executive director of the union interesting, when he was explaining why the union had rejected the governor's proposal for furloughs and a delay in a pay increase.
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| Greco Op-Ed in the Projo |
As mentioned above, Ernest Greco, OSPRI Fellow for Academic and Political Affairs, had an Op-Ed published in the Providence Journal. Here is an excerpt:
MANY AMERICANS were surprised a few months ago when a public opinion poll revealed that 22 percent of Americans, including 33 percent of those under 35, expressed a preference for socialism over capitalism. Another national poll taken at about the same time claimed that an all-time high of 15 percent of Americans claim to belong to no religion.
This growing sympathy for socialism and secularism, coupled with the federal government's takeover of the banking and auto industries, and the proposed creation of a national health-care system, has caused many political commentators, mostly conservative, to warn that the United States is heading toward a European-style social democracy.
Whether alarming or not, this "Europeanization" of our public policies and political ideologies seems undeniable. Our two-party system, however, lags behind Europe, and remains archaically American. More specifically, if the United States, is becoming more like Europe, where are the "Christian Democrats"?
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| Weekly Update gets publicity |
As mentioned above, I was quoted on the Facebook fan page of the Advocates for Self Government. Here is what they wrote:
Great quote for the day on health care
Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 7:23am
From Parker Lacoste of the Ocean State Policy Research Institute: "In many ways, the health care reform debate illustrates the key divide in political philosophies in our country. As individuals, are we more inclined to allow the government to make decisions for us, or would we rather enjoy our freedom and take responsibility for making our own decisions? For many of us, this is an easy choice. However, it is important to remember this basic question as the health care issue is spun in countless directions by reporters, pundits, and politicians: who do you trust most to make your decisions?"
Click Here to see their Facebook fan page.
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| RI Stimulus Watch Update |
WE NEED YOUR VOTE!
The RI Stimulus website is designed to provide a venue for Rhode Islanders to give feedback on proposed stimulus projects. The site allows visitors to place comments, add descriptions, write reasons for or against the projects, and cast a vote. We tally the results and rank the projects as "most critical" and "least critical" depending on how you vote.
So, please visit the site ( www.ristimulus.org or www.ristimuluswatch.org) and let us know what you think about the projects in your backyard.
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| RI Data update |
This week 10 new monthly check registers and documents were uploaded to the RI Data section of the Transparency Train:
West Warwick School Check Register August 2009
Chariho School Check Register July 2009
Portsmouth School Check Register July 2009
South Kingstown School Check Register August 2009
Middletown School Check Register August 2009
South Kingstown Municipal Check Register August 2009
East Greenwich Municipal Check Register August 2009
Little Compton Municipal Check Register August 2009
Middletown Municipal Check Register July 2009
Central Falls Municipal Check Register July 2009
Click Here to find public documents.
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