Health Care Compact (HB 227) Passes out of OH House Committee

From State Rep. Wes Retherford --

Health Care Compact Bill Passes From Committee, Awaits Vote In House

Proposal will give Ohio more control over costs and health care outcomes

April 02, 2014

Columbus - State Representative Wes Retherford (R-Hamilton) has announced that House Bill 227—legislation that would enter Ohio into a multi-state health care compact—has passed from the House State and Local Government Committee.

A multi-state health care compact would allow Ohio to have full control over the federal health care dollars spent within the state, which in Ohio alone would equate to $35 billion annually. 

Additionally, states within the compact have the authority to craft their own health care systems and regulations to best suit their individual needs, rather than relying on centralized control by the federal government.

“In terms of health care, I do not believe that the current ‘one size fits all’ ideology used by the federal government works,” said Rep. Retherford, who jointly sponsored House Bill 227 with State Representative Terry Boose (R-Norwalk). “Instead, I think that each state deserves to decide what is needed. Ohio knows what’s best for Ohioans. That is the bottom line and that is what we are trying to do with this bill.”

Eight states have passed health care compact legislation. The compact would go into effect with the approval of the U.S. Congress.

House Bill 227 now awaits a vote by the full House.

Obama's Deportation Rate Hits Record Low - NOT Record High!

From Ernest Istook --  

Although the Obama administration claims deportations have hit an all-time high, they’ve actually hit record lows, covered-up by a shell game of phony numbers, said Jessica Vaughan, the Center for Immigration Studies’ director of Policy Studies.

Ms. Vaughan’s report went viral Monday morning about how 68,000 convicted criminals were released by immigration officials last year rather than deported. She revealed the bigger bombshell about phony deportation numbers during her interview on my talk radio show Monday afternoon on The Washington Times Radio Network.

The true number of deportations in 2013 was 135,000, the lowest since 1973, she told me — only one third of the 400,000 that is often claimed.

“These numbers show that the president is hardly the deporter-in-chief as so many of the ethnic advocacy groups have tried to paint him,” she told me. “A better title would be releaser-in-chief … because ICE is now releasing more illegal aliens than they are trying to deport when their agents find them in the interior of the country.”

How do they manipulate the numbers?

She described a cover-up that substitutes numbers from the Border Patrol — which apprehends those who have newly crossed our borders — and using them to pump up ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), which is supposed to apprehend and deport violators from the interior. Those apprehended by the Border Patrol are transferred to ICE custody just before being returned to their country of origin, enabling ICE to claim a statistic but without having to enforce the laws in the heartland.

“It’s really just a shell game of numbers,” Ms. Vaughan said. “But the kind of enforcement that most people would notice, which is in our communities, has gone down very dramatically in the last couple of years”

And how about the 68,000 convicted criminals who ICE had in their custody — but then released last year?

“Crime is not a job Americans won’t do,” she said. Yet, “people who have committed crimes here are being sent back to our communities when they should be sent home to their countries. These policies create real victims.”

ICE’s official internal reports unfortunately do not detail the specific offenses involved, but Ms. Vaughan said ICE chooses to treat as lesser offenses certain assaults, vandalism, sex crimes, and DUI’s. She described those drunken drivers as “a serious hazard on the roadways but not being taken seriously by immigration officials … until you get to three convictions or more.”

For someone killed or injured by a drunk driver, that’s three convictions too late.

The entire interview with Jessica Vaughan is available in the podcast of my March 31st show, and is on The Washington Times’ radio page: http://www.washingtontimes.com/radio/

Ernest Istook spent 25 years in public office, including 14 years in Congress. He was rated one of the top 25 conservatives in the U.S. House of Representatives. Then was a Heritage Foundation fellow and a fellow at Harvard’s Insitute of Politics, where he led a study group on Propaganda in American Politics Today.

Ohio Early Voting: 2014 Election

Click to get your Vote by Mail Application

Early voting for the May 6, 2014 Primary Election has started. To get your Vote by Mail Application, please click here.

Voters have until 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, to register to vote or make address changes. Voters who have a driver’s license or an official state ID can make address changes online at the secretary of state’s website.

We would also like to note that, as usual, in this primary election we again see the Democrats, this time joined by the black pastors in the Cleveland area, purposely misleading voters with false information claiming voter suppression over recent changes to early voting in Ohio.  

To counter this shameful attempt to mislead voters we have included this link to arm you the facts regarding these false claims of voter suppression and to help educate the public.

For a Voter Guide created by the League of Women Voters and the N/E Ohio Media Group (Plain Dealer) please click here.

Below is the list of candidates running in GOP Primary Races in the Cuyahoga County area.

Issues

Issue 7 (Sin Tax Extension)  --  Vote No  (Click here to follow and help Anti-Sin Tax Coalition)

Congressional Races

Congress District 9

Richard May  (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Richard-May-for-Congress)

Robert Horrcocks  (http://www.horrocksforcongress.com)

Congress District 14 

Matt Lynch  (http://www.mattlynch.com/)

Dave Joyce (http://joyceforcongress.com) 

OH Senate Races

Senate District 23

Harry Ristmae

Tom Haren (http://haren2014.com)

OH House Races

House District 76

Linda O'Brien  (Write-In)  (http://lindajobrien.us)

Sarah LaTourette   (http://sarahlatourette.com/)

OH Republican Party State Central Committee

Senate District 21 (Male)

Joe Miller

Dave Gunning

Senate District 24 (Male)

Jack Boyle

Jeff Dean

Senate District 24 (Female)

Nancy Suhadolnick

Cynthea Sabolich

Senate District 25 (Female)

Brittany Williams

Denise Verdi

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections is in the need for Republican Poll Workers.  Click below to become a poll worker and do your part to keep integrity in the election process.

Join the Counter Rally against Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants

On Monday March 31, 2014 a new national amnesty organization, Fast for Families, will roll into Painesville, OH for a rally in support of amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Painesville is one of the stops on the Fast for Families Bus Tour for Immigration Reform & Citizenship targeting the 14th Congressional District as they have/will done in over 100 other districts across the country.

Some of the sponsors of Fast for Families Bus Tour include America's Voice, National Council of La Raza and SEIU to name only a few.

To stand as a voice of opposition to this event please join our friends the Grassroots Rally Team of Ohio in a counter protest as they stand against Amnesty and in solidarity supporting our existing immigration laws being enforced and our borders secured.

Date: Monday March 31, 2014

Time: 5:00 P.M. - 7:00 P.M.
Where: 1 Victoria Square, Painesville, OH
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/A8VVU

Please bring your flags and appropriate signs if you wish, such as “No Amnesty”, “Enforce Our Immigration Laws”, etc..

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It should also be noted while this pro-amnesty event is being held in Painesville - a Sanctuary City - the Grassroots Rally Team played a vital role in helping to defeat a Pro-Amnesty Resolution being considered by the City of Painesville.

Yes - you read that right! A resolution in support of amnesty was defeated in a Sanctuary City by a conservative group(s) and individuals.  You can help continue this fight and join the Grassroots Rally Team of Ohio & other Patriots this Monday!

Alert: College Board’s Advanced Placement U.S. history course

The 6^th rule of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals is:

Education – Take control of what people read and listen to – take control of what children learn in school. 

Americans have ben waking up to the threat posed by Common Core as a means of control over K-12 curricula. OhioansAgainst Common Core are working to get our state legislators to reject it, as just happened in our neighbor state of Indiana. Bravo Indiana! 

As bad as Common Core is, there is another threat that is just as destructive: it's a frightening change in the College Board’s Advanced Placement U.S. history course. From Heartland.org:

A dramatic, unilateral change is taking place in the content of the College Board’s Advanced Placement U.S. history course. In fall 2014, almost half a million high school sophomores and juniors will learn a very different version of U.S. history from the course of study now in place. Currently, a five-page topical outline gives teachers clear guideline for their course. This long-established outline conforms to the sequence of topics state and local boards of education have approved. In contrast, the new, redesigned Framework is a detailed 98-page document that does far more than list required topics.

This change in format is best described as a curricular coup that sets a number of dangerous precedents. By providing a detailed course of study that defines, discusses, and interprets “the required knowledge of each period,” the College Board has in effect supplanted local and state curriculum by unilaterally assuming the authority to prioritize historic topics. This inevitably means that some topics will be magnified in importance while others will be minimized or even omitted. If concerned parents, educators, and elected public officials do not speak out, the College Board (led by David Coleman, generally considered the architect of the Common Core national standards) will continue to develop similar frameworks for its 33 other Advanced Placement (AP) courses and thus become an unelected de facto legislature for America’s public and private high schools.

Frowning at American History

The new Framework inculcates a consistently negative view of American culture. For example, the units on colonial America stress the development of a “rigid racial hierarchy” and a “strong belief in British racial and cultural superiority.” The Framework ignores the United States’ founding principles and their influence in inspiring the spread of democracy and galvanizing the movement to abolish slavery. The Framework continues this theme by reinterpreting Manifest Destiny—rather than a belief that America has a mission to spread democracy and new technologies across the continent, the Framework teaches that it “was built on a belief in white racial superiority and a sense of American cultural superiority.”

The units on colonial America focus unbalanced attention on the conflicts between the colonists and Native Americans. While students will learn about the Beaver Wars, Chickasaw Wars, and King Philip’s War, they will learn little or nothing about the rise of religious toleration, the development of democratic institutions, and the emergence of a society that included a rich mix of ethnic groups.

A particularly troubling failure of the Framework is its dismissal of the Declaration of Independence and the principles so eloquently expressed there. The Framework’s entire discussion of this seminal document consists of just one phrase in one sentence: “The colonists’ belief in the superiority of republican self-government based on the natural rights of the people found its clearest American expression in Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and in the Declaration of Independence.” The Framework thus ignores the philosophical underpinnings of the Declaration and the willingness of the signers to pledge “our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor” to the cause of freedom.

Ignoring Cultural Giants

The Framework also sidesteps any discussion of the personalities and achievements of American giants whose courage and conviction helped build our country. It excises Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and the other founders from the United States’ story. George Washington’s historical contributions are reduced to a brief sentence fragment noting his Farewell Address. Two pages later, the Framework grants teachers the flexibility to discuss the architecture of Spanish missions, which presumably merits more attention than the heroes of 1776.

The Framework consistently highlights negative events while ignoring positive achievements. For example, although it does not mention the sacrifices U.S. civilians and armed forces made to defeat fascism, it does recommend that teachers focus on “[w]artime experiences, such as the internment of Japanese Americans, challenges to civil liberties, debates over race and segregation, and the decision to drop the atomic bomb [which] raised questions about American values.”

AP U.S. History should give students a balanced curriculum that acknowledges both America’s founding principles and its continuing struggles to be faithful to those principles. Instead, the new College Board Framework seems determined to create a cynical generation of what it calls “apprentice historians.” Is this really what we want our children to learn about America’s history?

The AP US History Framework is not a fait accompli. There is still time for parents, educators and public officials to closely scrutinize it and then demand a new curriculum that does not trump state curricular requirements with warmed-over political correctness.

Another topic to discuss with your legislators at Bring Your Legislator To Class Day on April 9.

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Sin tax: yes or no?

Photo credit: dyanvega.blogspot.com

The proposed “sin tax” that will be on the Cuyahoga County ballot in May drew pro and con comments from readers and voters on Cleveland.com. Andrew Tobias's full analysis is here. Here is an extract:

If voters approve it in May, the county's sin tax would be used to pay for maintenance for Cleveland's pro sports stadiums. It's assessed at 4.5 cents per pack of cigarettes, 1.5 cents per 12-ounce bottle of beer, 6 cents per 750-milliliter bottle of wine, 32 cents per gallon of mixed beverages, 24 cents per gallon of cider and $3 per gallon of hard liquor. Officials estimate it will raise around $270 million over a 20 year period, based on recent collections.

Will the price of my beer really go down if the sin tax fails?

moneymike posted:

“So all of you geniuses who want to vote NO really think the price you pay for beer or cigarettes is actually going to drop now that we do not have a sin tax? Its the same story with gasoline, why will we never see gas less than $3.00 again? Because everyone is still paying the price now. So instead without the sin tax we will pay the same price for beer and cigarettes but instead of that money going back into the county to generate more revenue, it is going into the pockets of your local convenient store owner... Makes sense lets vote NO and deprive CLE of everything.”

I hear this a lot. If the sin tax fails, should we expect a $5 brew at Market Garden to cost $4.98? Will a $5.50 pack of cigarettes suddenly cost $5.45?

This isn't scientific, but the consensus from those that I've talked to: not very likely. 

(UPDATED: March 29) I thought about this overnight, and decided I didn't address this issue well enough. It's a bit of an open-ended question, and if I get a better answer, I'll update it here. But a commenter on this post who identified him or herself as a tobacco representative says convenience stores likely would lower the prices of cigarettes if the taxes fails. I have not heard the same thing from bar owners or people in the liquor business. 

It's also worth saying the anti-sin tax people say regardless of what happens with the prices, the tax itself hits the poor the hardest. And, the money it raises isn't inconsequential, and could be used for something else. Finally, I should point out: many of the commenters here oppose the tax on principle.

Why can’t Cleveland just raise taxes on tickets?

In a post on Thursday, Gadgetking2014 wrote:

“Instead of a general sin tax they could use a per-ticket facility fee to raise the necessary funds. let the people who actually use the facilities pay for them.”

The Northeast Ohio Media Group’s Rich Exner addressed this issue, and set up a nifty calculatorto provide some rough estimates of how high the tax would have be to equal the sin tax. His answer: ranging between $3 to $7, depending on the team.

The pro-sin tax campaign argues that tickets are already taxed enough. The admissions tax in Cleveland is currently 8 percent -- a tax hike would discourage fan attendance and make Quicken Loans Arena in particular less competitive when attracting regional concerts and other events, they say.

Who decides what constitutes “maintenance” versus “enhancements” to the stadiums?

Again from Gadgetking2014:

“also they need to better define what is contractually obligated maintenance and what is enhancements (that the teams are responsible for). the tax does not expire for over a year so they have time to work this out before they lose this temporary tax.”

Here’s what we know about what the teams want:

The Cavs and Indians have submitted what amount to “wish lists” – that is, about $135 million in estimated stadium repairs the two teams expect to ask Gateway to pay for within the next decade. 

It’s up to the Gateway Economic Development Corp. – that’s the non-profit landlord created by Cuyahoga County and Cleveland to oversee Progressive Field and Quicken Loans Arena – to approve any requests for capital improvements greater than $500,000. Gateway will not approve anything it deems to be enhancements not covered by the lease. This determination is legal and complicated, and Gateway board members say they take their responsibility seriously.

But this review won't happen until the teams officially ask for the repairs. That likely won't happen until July 1, if not later.

As for the Browns -- team officials said they expect to ask for $23.7 million in repairs over the next 10 years. Their list is less detailed, in part because FirstEnergy Stadium is owned by Cleveland and is not entirely dependent on the sin tax.

The Northeast Ohio Media Group’s Leila Atassi dissected the Browns’ lease in November. In short, the city can be held responsible even for “upgrades” under the correct circumstances.

“Tax and spend Democrats”

From newkidontheblog007:

“The dems never met a tax they didn't like.”

We hear this a lot.

The majority of elected officials in Cuyahoga County who have taken a public position on the sin tax support it. And of course, the majority of elected officials in Cuyahoga County are Democrats.

But some Republicans have lent their support to the issue. For example, County Councilman Jack Schron, the presumptive Republican candidate for Cuyahoga County executive, was among the three Republican members of county council that unanimously voted to place the sin tax extension on the ballot last January.

Read the rest here. 

Bring Your Legislator To Class Day : Ohioans Against Common Core

Art credit: OhioansAgainstCommonCore.com

MARK YOUR CALENDAR:

COMMON CORE FORUM

Bring Your Legislator to Class Day

Common Core 101

Wednesday – APRIL 9th – 6:00 to 9:00 pm

Capitol Theatre – 77 S. High Street - Directions 

·         Common Core is a fundamental change in education for every child in Ohio, yet it was never put through the legislative process. Why are legislators refusing to debate it?

·         A large majority of Ohio lawmakers had never heard of Common Core before parents and citizens brought it to their attention last April. Why the covert implementation?

·         Education is the largest state appropriation. Why were no cost projections done?

·         Why does every organization supporting Common Core have a funding tie to Bill Gates?

·         Why are Republican legislators supporting Common Core if the RNC has condemned it?

It is imperative that your State Representative and Senator attend this event. 

Call them now and explain your insistence and expectation that they attend. We have reserved their seats.

GET YOUR TICKET HERE

Presenters will include -

·         Jamie Gass - Director of the Center for School Reform, Pioneer Institute

·         Stan Hartzler, PhD. - Mathematics Educator, an original employee of (John) Saxon Publishing

·         Megan Koschnick, PhD. - Child Clinical Psychologist

·         Terrence Moore, PhD. - Professor of history at Hillsdale College, Classical School advisor

·         Jane Robbins, J.D. - Senior Fellow, American Principles Project

Don’t miss this opportunity for you and your state representative and senator to hear and discuss the implications of Ohio’s adoption of Common Core Standards with the nation’s foremost experts. We’ll address the issues parents and teachers are experiencing and their destructive effect on our children, including developmentally inappropriate standards, explicit and biased content, inane mathematics instruction, elimination of classical literature study, loss of teacher controlled classrooms, incessant testing, intrusive data mining and corporate influence. Hold your representatives accountable.

PLEASE REMIND ALL REPUBLICAN LEGISLATORS THAT THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE PASSED A RESOLUTION CONDEMNING COMMON CORE.

Read Resolution Here

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