CNN’s Ali Velshi: Why wasn’t this a campaign issue? This is what I’m going to do for the long term to get us out of this problem.
Peter G. Peterson: It’s awfully easy to blame the politicians, and Lord knows, they deserve a lot of blame. But someone once said it’s the role of the public to make it safer to do the right thing. And we’ve become a culture that wants it all, that wants it now and doesn’t want to pay for it. Shared sacrifice used to be an American principle. What have we been asked to sacrifice? I go back to Lyndon Johnson who got in a lot of trouble fighting the Vietnam War and adding some social programs… he was accused of wanting guns and butter. What do we want? We want guns, we want butter and we want tax cuts.
An important part of the responsibility here has to rest with our public. And that’s why Dave and our foundation and this film sets out to get them the message that their future is really in peril.
“If you look at what’s happened to great Republics in the past, they generally have not fallen because of external threats. They’ve fallen because of internal threats. Let’s look at Rome as an example, which is the longest standing Republic in the history of mankind. The Roman Republic fell for many reasons, but three seem to resonate today. Declining moral values and political civility at home, overconfident and overextended militarily around the world and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government. We need to wake up, recognize reality and that we have to start making tough choices sooner rather than later, so we can be the first Republic to stand the test of time.”
– Dave Walker, President and CEO, Peter G. Peterson Foundation
Craig Detweiler writes about Matthew Shepard’s death:
‘Reverend Red Phelps held a sign with Matthew Shepard’s picture on it that said, “Matt’s in Hell.” How could Christians picket a funeral? Basic : decency insists that friends and family be allowed to grieve in peace. Surely, the youth group at the Episcopal church that Matthew grew up in deserved some space to remember him. My friend Robert said “Even the most primitive cultures have a basic code about an enemy’s right to a proper burial.” ‘
Craig’s response? He wrote a letter for his church’s Sunday bulletin: “Newsflash: War is Over:”
Matthew Shepard’s funeral will go down in history as the culture war’s “D-Day.” The Christian Right may continue strategizing, protesting, and fighting, but the war is over. And the church lost. Why? Because silence=death. Why did the Christian right lose the culture war? Because as any military strategist will attest, when you surrender the high ground (especially the moraI high ground), you are doomed to defeat. Beatings, lynchings, snipings. These are the reckless acts of the defeated. Desperate men fighting desperately to hold their ground at a distance. Somebody needs to tell them the war is over. Before more civilians are mowed down in the name of Jesus. So why haven’t the “generals” of the Christian ight announced a cease-fire? Admitting we’ve lost is Jesus’ s only chance of winning.
Matthew’s death shook me. Deeply. After years of trying to mediate between my leftist humanistic friends and my rightist Christian brothers, I have given up. I will ride out the last days of the culture war in silence. Holding onto Jesus. Because our shame is too great. Our complicity too obvious. Our self-anointed leaders’ silence too deafening. Call me crazy. Call me chicken. Call me liberal, communist, or gay. But please, please, do not call me Christian.
I didn’t really choose sides. They were chosen for me. My decision was forged in Jesus’ first public reading of scripture in Luke 4:18-19. When Jesus announced good news for the poor, freedom for prisoners, release for the oppressed, I found a calling. When Jesus was accused of being a friend of sinners, I discovered my role model (Matthew 11: 19). My choice was made in passages where Jesus talked about being neighborly, stopping long enough to care for the beaten and bruised traveler (Luke 1O:25-37). Passages about caring for lepers, comforting widows, and loving orphans made my loyalties a foregone conclusion. Bur they didn’t make my commitment any easier to live out.
We will be continuing our conversation with John Marks and Craig Detweiler of Purple State of Mindonline by sharing excerpts from their books and video and transcript clips from our dinner conversation. A limited number of signed copies of John’s “Reasons to Believe: One Man’s Journey Among the Evangelicals and the Faith He Left Behind” and Craig Detweiler’s “Purple State of Mind: Finding Middle Ground in a Divided Culture” are available online
Modify Class Size Amendment
Redress under-funding of higher education
Reform Bright Futures
Assess infrastructure needs
Conduct comprehensive examination of Medicaid
Join interstate compact on internet sales
Add new construction concurrently on tax rolls
Access adequacy of impact fees
Below is a conversation that occurred more than a month ago. Interesting to see what’s happened since.
KEITH OLBERMANN: The Vice President today warned public officials that if they misuse stimulus funds he will use his position to shame him. Historically, how does shame work as a big political motivator when weighed against billions of dollars?
DANIEL GROSS, NEWSWEEK: If we’re going to have to rely on shame to get people to do the right thing economically, I’m going to go buy some 50 pound sacks of rice and start growing some vegetables cuz it’s going to be a long, long, night. Public officials seems to be uniquely immune to shame… Blogoevich, Burris, David Vitter. But more generally, our culture seems to be about people not having any shame, whether it’s Paris Hilton or athletes who use steroids and then go on to play. So I think we need to get some tools other than shame.
Medicaid currently accounts for more than 25% of Florida’s budget, insuring a quarter of Florida’s children and funding 63% of the state’s nursing home care. As we noted in Tough Choices: Update 2008, cuts in Medicaid spending not only leave many residents of Florida with costly, uncovered medical expenses but they also leave available matching federal money on the table. Health care research shows that when providers are financially strapped, quality of care for serious conditions gets worse.
In our original Tough Choices recommendations in 2005 we urged a careful assessment of Medicaid as a prerequisite for both making cuts and improving the effectiveness of the massive safety-net program. Instead, the state has continued to cut services here and there without a careful assessment of their impacts and without a full understanding of the intricacies and myriad components of the Medicaid system. We continue to urge a careful assessment of Medicaid, including prioritization of services and recipients, prior to additional incremental reductions.
Providing high-quality education for those students remaining in the schools remains a daunting task. Florida spends, on average, $8,437 per student, compared to a national average of $9.993. In its 2009 special session, the Florida legislature balanced its budget in part by cutting $140 per student. The high costs associated with the 2002 constitutional amendment limiting class size still loom (although there have been recent efforts by public school officials and others encouraging the legislature to relax the requirements). Florida continues to place large financial burdens on local governments to provide school funding. We reported last year that the local share of school funding in the 2004-2005 school year was greater than for any other southern state, save Virginia, and this remains true. In fact, the local share of public school funding continues to increase with no signs of slowing.
Please watch Dr. Carol Weissert, Director of the LeRoy Collins Institute, speaking on this topic at the Florida TaxWatch and Village Square Take-out Tuesday forum HERE. (Dr. Weissert’s presentation begins two-thirds through.)
In noting that Florida’s college tuition is the lowest in the entire country, LeRoy Collins Institute indicates there should be concern that this disparity is hurting Florida in revenue for higher education and ultimately in our ability to provide the quality of education that enriches our state in the long run.
Their report also makes specific recommendations about changes to Bright Futures:
The Collins Institute has urged policymakers to decouple Bright Futures from
tuition to eliminate the current disincentive for increasing tuition. The scholarship could be provided as a fixed amount, raised periodically. We also recommended that definition of merit be set higher and that a need-based component be added to the program.
Please watch Dr. Carol Weissert, Director of the LeRoy Collins Institute, speaking on this topic at the Florida TaxWatch and Village Square Take-out Tuesday forum HERE. (Dr. Weissert’s presentation begins two-thirds through.)
… Florida is in an increasingly untenable fiscal bind. Revenues continue to fall and demands increase, especially for programs such as Medicaid and Food Stamps. According to the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy, Florida has experienced a recurring general revenue reduction of 17.1% over the last three years and will experience a continuing decline until at least 2010.
“If you’re looking to TV commentators to solve your problems, you’re looking in the wrong place… Now is not the time to point blame, it’s the time to accept responsibility. We’re all in this together, we can’t just see the holes on your side of the boat…
We should realize that when there’s a threat to our country, we need to unite and start doing things together. I’m sick and tired of watching these same commentators that you’re talking about start debating left and right issues, start talking about who the prom queen is this week – is it Rush Limbaugh? Is it someone else? This is really outrageous. There are real things we should be doing as a country in a united fashion to solve this problem. ”
