What does Ohio’s 12th tell us about Arkansas’ 2nd?

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

To get an idea of what will transpire in Arkansas this election season, consider what just happened in Ohio.

There, the state’s wealthiest congressional district held a special election Tuesday to fill a vacant seat. Ohio’s 12th had elected Republicans to Congress since the 1980s, and President Trump won it by 11 points.

The election pitted Republican Troy Balderson against Democrat Danny O’Connor, and polls showed it was tight. If the Democrat won, it would be seen as a big sign that the November elections might go that party’s way nationwide. This year is a midterm election, which typically favors the fired up party not in the White House – and Democrats are very fired up. Millions of dollars poured into the race from both sides. President Trump held a big rally there Saturday.  Continue reading →

For now, Arkansas bends the cost curve

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

When policymakers discuss health care, they often talk about “bending the cost curve” rather than “cutting costs.” That’s because costs have increased so much, for so long, and seemingly so inevitably, that anything beyond “bending” sounds unrealistic.

In recent days, Arkansas has made two announcements indicating it actually is bending the cost curve, at least temporarily. In fact, in one way it even cut costs.

On Aug. 3, the Arkansas Insurance Department announced next year’s rate increase requests made by insurers on the insurance exchange. That’s the online marketplace for individuals and small businesses created by the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. It’s where I buy my family’s insurance. Continue reading →

How your newspaper subscription is an investment

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Bell, California, has a population of 37,000 and, until 2010, a town manager making almost $800,000 a year. The police chief, meanwhile, was making $457,000. That’s 50 percent more than the salary made by the police chief of nearby Los Angeles, population 4 million.

What stopped this from continuing? An investigation by the Los Angeles Times. Before that, Bell, a suburb of L.A., had lost its local newspaper in the late 1990s. When the town manager had started working there in 1993, he was making $72,000.

Bell offers one possible example of what three professors say is a larger reality: When newspapers close, the county’s taxpayers suffer. Their study found that local government borrowing costs rose, the number of government employees increased by four people per 1,000 residents, government wages increased by a median of $1.4 million, and tax revenues increased by $85 per person. Continue reading →

Terms-even-more-limited

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Until 2014, Arkansas had one of the strictest legislative term limits laws in the country. After November, it could be even stricter, and the result would be a new state Legislature four-and-a-half years from now.

Those things would happen if voters approve a ballot proposal that would restore limits to levels passed in 1992 – along with a major new one.

That year, voters enacted limits of three two-year terms in the Arkansas House and two four-year terms in the Senate. They also capped the state’s constitutional officers (governor, lieutenant governor, etc.) to two four-year terms and also limited congressional terms, but those were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. Continue reading →

Today’s trade wars and future taxpayers

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

What will be the results of President Trump’s so-called “trade wars”? Maybe they will lead to better deals for Americans, or maybe they will slow the economy, and definitely they will cost future taxpayers $12 billion.

On Tuesday, the Department of Agriculture announced it would borrow that amount from the U.S. Treasury to subsidize producers of various agricultural products, including soybeans. It also will purchase surpluses of other products and distribute them to food banks and other programs.

The move is necessary because tariffs instituted by the Trump administration have been met by tariffs from other countries. The most important was China, which retaliated against Trump’s tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports with tariffs on $34 billion on American goods.

Continue reading →