Issues
Another View on Med Mal
I do consulting work with doctors and hospitals, and my view of medical-malpractice reform differs from Carter’s. First off, personal-injury lawyers aren’t opposed to reform just out of tender hearts and a passion for justice. They’re looking after their bank accounts. Second, a lawyer who is a skilled courtroom performer can hit the…
Read MoreAnother Quagmire?
Well, the United Nations has voted to go to war with Libya only it doesn’t call it a war it calls it a ‘no-fly zone’ – which is political double talk for filling the skies over Libya with American or French or British fighters blowing up Libyan tanks and artillery and air-defense batteries. The…
Read MoreThe Party Caucus
Once years ago at one of Jesse Helms rallies a local Republican official – one of the old-line party stalwarts Jesse used to call ‘pachyderms’ – cornered Jesse and pointing his finger started upbraiding him for not toting the party line up in the Senate and not voting the way the Republican leaders wanted him…
Read MoreHigh Finance Government Style
It’s hard to make heads or tails of this: The Republican Legislature raises taxes on hospitals $215 million – and the hospitals are delighted, tickled to death. In fact, newspapers report, the legislature raised the ‘tax’ at the request of the Hospital Association. The explanation gets even stranger. And more confusing: The $215 million…
Read MoreSmart?
Should the legislature merge and cut Smart Start and More At Four? As the Geico guy might ask: “Is stirring up Jim Hunt a good idea?” Republican legislators apparently are hearing an earful from Hunt already. Those who weren’t around when he was Governor will learn what one legislator back then told one of…
Read MoreGroins, Seawalls and Vanishing Beaches
The Wilmington Star News has branded the unkind words ‘pay to play’ on Senate Republican Leader Harry Brown, who’s put his political clout behind ‘groin-building’ to help wealthy homeowners who need seawalls (groins) to keep the beaches in front of their vacation homes from vanishing. The Star News attack on Brown was straightforward: It…
Read MoreMedia Meltdown
Watching television coverage of the nuclear-plant crisis in Japan is a classic case of TMI. Not Three Mile Island: Too Much Information. Too much confusing, alarmist, over-heated and incomprehensible information, to be precise. The coverage also reflects the trend toward anchors and correspondents being drama kings and queens rather than Walter Cronkite. The New York…
Read MoreOnly a Politician Would Argue…
Last year, the state received $10.5 billion in ‘Stimulus Funds’ from the Obama administration – a staggering number equal to one-half the state budget. This year, the state faces a $2.7 billion dollar budget deficit. Does that sound a bit like fiscal mismanagement? The state gets a $10 billion windfall from Washington last…
Read MoreWhat Can Government Do For You – Today?
Well, the legislative freight train called ‘Legal Reform’ has barreled out of the State Senate and over into the State House: The other day a passer-by spotted a parade of lobbyists (from Insurance Companies, the Medical Society, the Hospital Association, the Pharmaceutical Industry and the Chamber of Commerce) sauntering into Speaker Thom Tillis’ office beaming…
Read MoreThe Trap
In thirty years in politics I’ve only seen a handful of problems with no solutions. None at all. For example once during Steve Forbes first Presidential campaign we got trapped in a corner in Iowa – and there was no way out. None. But, then, as usually happens in politics the tides shifted and…
Read More