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 Weekly Update For the week of September 18, 2009 |
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Dear William,
"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." ~ Patrick Henry
Yesterday, September 17th, was Constitution Day and it marked the 222nd anniversary of the signing of our Constitution. In recognition of Constitution Day, the Political Theory Project at Brown University sponsored a lecture regarding the Second Amendment case of District of Columbia v. Heller. The featured speakers were Joseph Blocher, who assisted the merits briefing for the District of Columbia, and Alan Gura, who served as lead counsel for the Plaintiffs in District of Columbia v. Heller. Stephen Beale, OSPRI's newest research assistant, will have more on this lecture.
OSPRI President Bill Felkner will discuss a Medicaid conference he recently attended in the President's Message.
September 20th is the date for our Second Annual ATF Party! The event will be held from Noon-5pm at 199 Austin Farms Rd, Exeter, RI. The cost of the event is $20 with RSVP or $25 at the door. See below for more details.
OSPRI Fellow Steve Moses had an Op-Ed regarding Medicaid published in the Providence Journal this week (see below for more details). Moses authored OSPRI's recent report on Long-Term Care Reform, which was featured on the State Policy Network's blog.
We have expanded our staff by hiring Stephen Beale, a Brown graduate, as a research associate. The press release and a paper he wrote recapping the Heller v DC event is linked below. He will also be writing for our blog on a regular basis, so be sure to check it out!
For those of you who may have missed the recent Grover Norquist fundraiser or the South Kingstown Chamber of Commerce's Business Forum, video of both events is now available online (see below for the links).
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!
No new documents were added to the RI Data website this week; other 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,
I keep saying, "It was another busy week" so I'm going to have to re-calibrate our standards. But this was a particularly busy week.
My big day was Thursday, which I spent in DC. Two planes, two trains, six cabs, and seven meetings - you can't fit much more than that into a 20 hour day. And it all centered on healthcare. One of my favorites was meeting with the Gringrich Group on the topic of healthcare fraud.
The Obama Administration has claimed to be able to save $500 million through improving efficiencies and eliminating fraud and waste in Medicare.
The healthcare sector is 17% of America's GDP - $2.4 trillion in 2008. It is estimated to be $4.3 trillion, or 20% of GDP, in 2017. That's a lot of money, and unscrupulous people will want a piece of it. Unfortunately, the lax system of oversight ensures that they will (and are).
On May 20, 2009, Harvard Professor Malcolm Sparrow testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee and among his statements was this: "The units of measure for losses due to healthcare fraud and abuse in this country are hundreds of billions of dollars per year. We just don't know the first digit. It might be as low as one hundred billion. More likely two or three. Possibly four or five."
Oklahoma Senator and physician Tom Coburn estimates that a full one-third of all healthcare spending (approximately $800 billion) is wasted on defensive medicine, paperwork and outright fraud.
Even the Congressional Budget Office said "10 percent, or $32.7 billion, of Medicaid payments made in 2008 were improper."
And they didn't mention Medicare.
This brings up two questions.
- With Rhode Island's reputation for corruption, do you believe we will be on the low or high side of that 10% fraud estimate?
- When the government says it WILL save $500 million by eliminating waste and fraud in the system, do you ask yourself why they aren't already doing it?
I think the public would have more confidence in the idea of government running healthcare if they came forward with a statement like, "We HAVE eliminated $500 million by eliminating waste and fraud," before we trust them with more of our hard earned money (assuming they are even capable of doing it).
If you are looking for more information on healthcare fraud I would suggest a book titled Stop Paying the Crooks, written by Newt Gingrich and James Frogue. It is quite enlightening.
Onward and upward,
Bill Felkner
President and Founder
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| 2nd Annual ATF Party |
* NOTE: NEW LOCATION
What: 2nd Annual ATF Party
When: Sunday, Sept. 20th, Noon-5pm
Where: Addieville East Farm, 200 Pheasant Drive, Mapleville, RI
Why: to celebrate liberty and our individual freedoms!
Cost: $20 donation with RSVP or $25 donation at the door
This event will feature a firing range operated by an NRA-certified instructor. After everyone has had an opportunity to enjoy the range, it will be shut down and drinks will be served to accompany cigars, food, and fun!
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| Moses Op-Ed in the Projo |
As mentioned above, Steve Moses, OSPRI Fellow for Health Care Policy, had an Op-Ed published in the Providence Journal. Here is an excerpt:
"SOCIAL-SAFETY-NET spending consumes 46 percent of Rhode Island's state budget. Most of that money goes for Medicaid, the state/federal health-care program ostensibly for the poor. The Journal reported Aug. 20 that "80 percent of those Medicaid dollars are spent on just 30 percent of Medicaid enrollees." That's because the frail or infirm elderly account for the lion's share of Medicaid costs, especially for long-term care, all across America.
But what do I mean that Medicaid is "ostensibly" for the poor? Isn't Medicaid a means-tested public assistance program, i.e. welfare? Doesn't it enforce strict income and asset limits that allow only the poorest of the poor to qualify?
All true for poor women and children who need preventive, acute or emergency care. But not true at all for people 65 or older who have a medical need for long-term care. The elderly qualify for Medicaid under a totally different set of rules."
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| PR: OSPRI REDUCES BRAIN DRAIN |
HIRES BEALE AS RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
The Ocean State Policy Research Institute announces Stephen Beale as a research associate in education and civil society affairs.
From 2006 to 2009, Stephen was a correspondent for the Union Leader in Manchester, where he covered the 2008 presidential primary campaign as well as crime, education, economic development, and local news. His work has been published on ABCNews.com and MSNBC.com as well as in Parable Magazine and the Providence Journal. Stephen has also appeared as a guest on C-SPAN and The Today Show. Prior to 2006, Stephen was a research consultant with the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research in Indianapolis.
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| DC v. Heller at Brown |
Stephen Beale recaps the Political Theory Project event held at Brown University.
Although most Americans were probably oblivious to the fact that yesterday was Constitution Day, a packed auditorium of Brown University students was not as they listened to the opposing sides rehash DC v. Heller, the landmark 2008 Supreme Court case that confirmed that bearing arms is an individual right protected by the Second Amendment. For those who missed this event, which was hosted by the Janus Forum at the Salomon Center, we offer a brief synopsis below.
Click HERE to read the paper |
| OSPRI LTC Report in SPN Blog |
StateHouseCall.org, a blog run by the State Policy Network, covered the release of OSPRI's report on Long-Term Care Reform in the Ocean State. Here is an excerpt from the post:
"The good news is that Americans are living longer than ever. The bad news is that this fact, combined with laws that encourage dependency on government to pay for long-term care, is putting a great strain on state budgets.
Last year, Rhode Island received a "global waiver" from the U.S. Health and Human Services department, which lets it revamp its Medicaid program. Medicaid is a common way for nursing home residents and others to pay for long-term care."
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| Video of Grover Norquist event |
Here is the link to the video of the speech given by Grover Norquist at the OSPRI reception last week:
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| SK Chamber Business Forum |
Here are the links to the videos from the South Kingstown Chamber of Commerce business forum in which OSPRI participated:
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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 |
Due to the short week and our special guest, Grover Norquist, being in town, there have been no new monthly check registers and documents uploaded since last week. New documents will be uploaded next week.
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