CABPRO Report

We did not have green back then

submitted by Thom Williams

In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that she
should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren't good for
the environment.

The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the 'green
thing' back in my day.

"

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today.  The former generation
 did not care enough to save our environment."

He was right, that generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, they returned their milk bottles, soda bottles and beer 
bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be 
washed and sterilized and refilled,  so it could use the same bottles
over and over. So they really were recycled.

But they didn't have the green thing back in that customer's day.

In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn't have an
escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the 
grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every 
time they had to go two blocks.

But she was right. They didn't have the green thing in her day.

Back then, they washed the baby's diapers because they didn't have the 
throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy 
gobbling machine burning up 220 volts - wind and solar power really 
did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers
 or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that old lady is right, they didn't have the green thing back in her day.

Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house - not a TV in every
 room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief, not a
 screen the size of the state of Montana .

In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn't
have electric machines to do everything for you.

When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used a
wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble
wrap.

Back then, they didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut
the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They 
exercised by working so they didn't need to go to a health club to run 
on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right, they didn't have the green thing back then.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty instead of using a 
cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They
 refilled their writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and 
they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the
whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But they didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their 
bikes to school or rode the school bus instead of turning their moms 
into a 24-hour taxi service. They had one electrical outlet in a room, 
not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they
 didn't need a  computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from 
satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza
 joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful the old
 folks were just because they didn't have the green thing back then?

White House Creates Rural Council

by CABPRO Staff

By executive order on June 9th President Barack Obama (aka Barry Soetoro) expanded BIG Government once again by creating the White House Rural Council.  The low key White House press release said that the purpose of this new BIG Government initiative was to promote economic prosperity and quality of life for the poor.

This new council is supposed to help low-income residents in rural communities access public funds for “economic growth” and to “promote innovation” and improve access to healthcare and education.   And, it is to focus on job creation in those areas, bringing access to credit, creating “digital and physical networks,” expanding “ecosystem markets” and developing “renewable energy projects.” The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will provide the taxpayer money and administrative support for the new council.

Obama’s Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, will chair the rural council and the heads of all major federal agencies will serve as members and key advisors. Among them are the secretaries of the Treasury, Defense, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Education and Energy. Attorney General Eric Holder will also serve on the new panel.

Their job will be to coordinate programs across BIG Government and "increase the impact of federal dollars" to “improve the quality of life in rural America.” The entire country will benefit from this federal investment because “strong rural communities are key to a stronger America,” according to the president.

This new USDA BIG boondoggle comes on the heels of several other like-minded and costly Obama initiatives. In the last few months the USDA has doled out tens of millions of dollars to bring healthy foods to the inner city, recruit more food-stamp recipients and track what minority public school children eat for lunch.

Just a few days before Obama's executive order the USDA dropped $10 million on a Farmers Market Promotion Program (http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/FMPP) that is to bring fresh and healthy cuisine to low-income neighborhoods (“food deserts”) throughout the USA. Last month the USDA launched a sophisticated internet-based mapping tool "Food Desert Locator" that identifies areas with “limited access to affordable and nutritious foods.”

When is Enough ~ Enough?

Rural communities are generally small towns with close community ties formed to create relative safety, where everyone knows each other and we help one another. How can BIG Government possibly help us?  BIG Government would just screw up a good thing. What is the purpose of the White House Rural Council?…to turn rural communities into ghettos like they have done to the urban metropolitan big cities?

Again, When is Enough ~ Enough?

Hopefully, on November 6, 2012 We'll Vote Enough Out!!

Managed Care and the Paradoxical Massacre of Private Practice in America

by Patrick Wagner, MD

I am a doctor who has something to say about the part of our healthcare industry that’s tearing our whole system apart.  My hope in doing so is to encourage everyone who cares about their health to view this indispensable system in a light with which they may not be familiar.  I’d like to tell you a bit about why I eventually quit my job as a doctor.

I worked as a general surgeon in Sacramento for about 2 decades, serving thousands of average citizens who found themselves facing a wide range of health problems—gallbladder trouble, breast cancer, hernias, and appendix ruptures to name a few.  I also patched up individuals with traumatic injuries in operating rooms and assisted them in getting back to normal, healthy lives afterward.  This was my life’s work, and I loved every minute of it.

Unfortunately, between the time when I began working as a doctor and when I quit medicine, the healthcare industry changed drastically, and that change was not for the better good of you or me.

Early in my experience as a surgeon, the term “managed care” began to evolve into something that would be seen as much more commonplace down the road.  “Managed care” was a plan contrived by health insurance companies and bought into by growing government.  The pitch was that medical care was costing people too much, and this plan would effectively solve that problem.  This money-saving strategy posited by crafty  insurers was that insurance companies knew the best ways to “administer” health care.  At the same time, the insurers also knew how to improve the “quality of care” for all patients.

Our government loved this idea—decreased cost, increased quality.  Some doctors conceded to the notion too.  I watched tentatively as various private practice physicians began to approve of this strategy and were essentially bought out by health insurance companies.  Unfortunately, as this happened, doctors also began to evolve into something different as well.  Instead of serving as professionals whose primary goal was the better good of their patients, many doctors began to follow a new set of rules laid out by the insurance companies.  The old code of ethics that had framed the profession for so long became something that doctors managed to ignore more and more often.

As the healthcare industry shifted its focus from ethical standards of care to the money it would cost to provide it, our SOCIAL insurance programs began to change as well.  Medicare—our government’s way of making sure older patients receive the medical assistance they need—slowly started to corrode.  I first began to notice this steady decline while being paid for the operations I did on patients.  For example, in 1987, I operated on a 67-year-old woman with breast cancer, and Medicare paid me about $800.  For the same operation 14 years later, Medicare paid me $400. 

I once asked my brother, Kirk, a cabinet maker, what he thought about this scenario.  He said that he couldn’t think of another service or goods industry where a worker is paid less as time goes on, especially when considering standard inflation.
 
This problem began to really rub on me—not just because I was making less money, but because I felt like Medicare was getting flakey as a social service.  My colleagues began to agree.  Somehow, we physicians had allowed Medicare to get away with this. 

As the government continued to further buy into the insurance companies’ “managed care” strategy, it became tougher and tougher for doctors and other medical professionals to make a living.  We were being managed as well.

Sadly, this type of management—not just of “care” but of people—became even more egregious as time went on.  Do you remember a time when there were no advertisements for medicines on TV—medicines for heartburn, high cholesterol, impotence, obesity, sleeplessness?  Or billboards and radio ads pitching HMO’S, PPO’S, IPA’S, even specific hospitals like Sutter Health or Mercy or Catholic Healthcare West or UCD or Kaiser?  I certainly do. 

It was during this growing propaganda phase—when commercials began urging patients to “Ask their doctor” about the best “care” available—that insurance companies also started radically decreasing the amount of money they paid physicians and other medical professionals for their services. For instance, in 1987, an insurance company paid me $800 for a patient’s hernia repair.  Fourteen years later, they paid $160.  During some months near the end of my career, I never got paid at all. 

Aside from the issue of the exorbitant amount of money being made by these companies at the expense of medical professionals and patients is the unethical nature of business conducted in the healthcare industry.  As health insurance companies have increasingly contained their costs—and as government has allowed this to happen—doctors and other medical professionals have found their clinical judgment short-circuited for the sake of insurance savings.  Insurance companies demand that doctors cut the days our patients can stay in the hospital after an operation.  They demand that we ignore our patients’ risky medical symptoms or pain or sickness so that the company won’t have to pay for the patient’s hospital bed.  They tell us these situations don’t matter. 

As a doctor, I disagree.  That’s why I got out.

As I see it, our healthcare system needs to change in a big way.  But one of our obstacles to reforming this system seems to involve the confusion insurance companies have created for patients about the plans they provide—HMOs vs. PPOs. 
HMOs are cut-rate insurance plans for huge organizations of workers.  According to HMOs, employees save on their healthcare because insurance companies pay a flat rate for services rendered.  The PPO—administrated by the same insurance company—is designed for folks who own small businesses, for whom the insurance companies pay around 80% of the bills for services, leaving the patient a huge deductible and 20% of the bill. 

While PPO patients have likely noticed a drastically negative change in American healthcare over the past couple of decades, HMO patients have largely been kept in the dark by insurance companies about how things really work.  While a PPO patient could end up paying $100,000 out of pocket for a $500,000 car accident, HMO patients rarely see that sort of bill.  Many of my HMO patients were school teachers, state workers, public employees, and other civil servants who felt protected by the healthcare offered by their jobs.  Despite this comfort shared by some, however, it becomes important for ALL Americans to begin questioning the unfairness that exists for many sick patients—and for the workers who strive to care for them in hospitals across our country.  We need to question the way these insurance companies run their businesses and pay attention to the political practices that allow these companies to extend their negative influence.

Essentially, “managed care” has left us with decreased quality and increased cost.  And as a result, things are getting less safe, folks.  Really less safe.  At the same time, however, this system cannot be sustained unless WE sustain it.  Piece by piece, we’ve got to knock down this house of cards that’s been strategically constructed over time by business executives and politicians who aimed at—and succeeded in—making lots of money for themselves at the expense of patients and medical professionals.  It’s time to reverse this scenario by not only questioning our destructive status quo, but by rejecting it…as unsuccessful, unethical, and un-American.

Patrick Wagner, MD is a retired general surgeon, making his home in Nevada City.

CALIFORNIA BUDGET MADNESS

by Fran Freedle

On June 15, the Democrat Legislature passed what they called a “balanced budget” which is required under Proposition 25, passed by the voters last November, requiring a balanced budget to be passed by June 15, or the legislators would not be paid until a balanced budget is passed.  Salaries cannot be paid
until this happens – no retroactive payments.

Well, the Democrats did it by majority vote without Republican support.  They passed what they consider to be a balanced budget full of gimmicks, one-time solutions, tax increases and accounting tricks.

It includes no structural reform – the one thing that is really needed with reduced spending – but we may have to endure:

A ¼ cent increase in sales tax

A $12 surcharge on Vehicle License Fees commonly known as the car tax

A new sales tax on every online purchase

A $150 fee each year on property owners in approximately 1/3 of the state where California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection provides fire services – that’s most of Nevada County.

Our abnormally high sales tax is scheduled to decrease one full percentage point on July 1.  They want to continue ¼ percent of it to balance the budget.  Now which is it – will they be constrained by the time limit that ends the 1% sales tax increase – or will they be able to play around with it to pad their insatiable desire for increased taxes?

Our very high vehicle license fee is scheduled to be reduced by nearly half on July 1.  Will they be able to add a surcharge to our car tax?

Will they be able to add an online purchase tax, or fire protection fee, that are redundant with state and county taxes?

These tactics clearly illustrate the corruption of California legislators determined to get their paychecks while holding the taxpayers of California hostage.  All of these are taxes and fees that require a 2/3 vote, not a majority vote for such costs to be tucked into a questionably balanced budget.  Lawsuits requiring a 2/3 vote on taxes and fees may be the only way to stop this blatant money-grab to be struck down. 

Even though Governor Brown had 12 days to consider it, he has vetoed the Democrats' budget calling it “legally questionable”.   He is taking cover and leaving the decision of whether to pay the legislators up to State Controller John Chiang.  Brown still wants his tax increase ballot measure and this is yet another way he can keep working toward it. 

Republicans are still holding out for real pension reform and no tax increases.  We need to demand an end to endless tax and fee hikes, with a clear message, STOP SPENDING.

Fran Freedle is a former Nevada County Supervisor and the Legislative Chairman for the Nevada County Republican Women Federated.

ENGLEBRIGHT DAM STILL IN THE CROSS HAIRS --$100,000 MORE FOR NEW ENGLEBRIGHT “STUDY”

By Doni Hubbard

    If you are one of the hundreds who stood up for Englebright Dam when Cal Fed first listed dam removal as an option for improving fish habitat, please remain standing. Englebright foes are much too happy these days. Read SYRCL and American River press releases and newsletters, and you see that the latest $100,000 appropriated to study Englebright fish passage is their vision of the “first step” in taking down Englebright.

    SYRCL on Facebook (May 17, 2011): The best action that could be taken to restore wild salmon back to the upper Yuba River would be a mandate for fish passage at Englebright Dam. The Army Corps owns the dam and therefore is the entity most responsible…the Army Corps must initiate a feasibility study, the first step towards removal of Englebright Dam. An American Rivers press release (May 17, 2011) referred to “outdated” Englebright and was euphoric over the “confluence of Federal processes and scientific consensus directed at the Corps dams.”  Again on May 17 (Union Democrat) quotes American River spokesman Steve Rothert after his organization had just named the Yuba River as one of the nation’s most endangered rivers: Naming the Yuba one of the nation’s most endangered rivers is intended to highlight the need to remove Englebright Dam.
   
     So here we go again, another study, another $100,000. Perhaps you recall that the original amount of the study directed at Englebright in 1999 was $191,000. This quickly escalated in the hands of Cal-Fed to a $6.7 million study. As reported 11/5/03 in the Marysville Appeal Democrat, the “Upper Yuba River Studies” project next received an additional $2.3 million for a total of $9 million. After the millions spent so far, the $100,000 allotted this time (for a court mandated study in the hands of the Army Corps) sounds like a bargain. These are your taxpayer dollars, by the way.
   

California leads the nation in the loss of personal freedom

By Assemblyman Dan Logue

It has been said that the first step to solving any problem is to admit that a problem actually exists.  Ignoring or denying the problem only makes it worse in the long run. 

In California, we clearly have a jobs problem as we have the nation’s second-highest unemployment rate at 11.9 percent.  At the same time, we also carry one of the heaviest tax burdens in the nation, including the highest sales and gas taxes and the top business income tax rate in the West.  Respected publications such as Forbes and Chief Executive have also ranked the not-so Golden State as one of the worst places to do business.

Now comes a new report from the Virginia-based Mercatus Center at George Mason University that confirms the obvious: California is one of the least friendly states for freedom in the nation.  We rank 48th out of 50 states for having policies and laws that restrict the ability of people to pursue their dreams.  I believe it is this lack of freedom that makes it harder for us to attract the investment and jobs we need to turn our state’s economy around.

The report’s authors noted that “California not only taxes and regulates its economy more than most other states; it also aggressively interferes in the personal lives of its citizens.”  The Mercatus Center suggested we cut state spending and relax labor laws to boost employment.  In contrast, states that rank much higher in economic freedom such as South Dakota and Texas (ranked 1 and 15 respectively) have lower unemployment (4.9 and 8 percent respectively).  Not coincidentally, these states also have lower tax and regulatory burdens on its job creators than California.

Off the Top of My Head: Road Trip Economic Observations

by Russ Steele

By the time you read this, Ellen and I will be back home in Nevada County. We have been on a coast-to-coast road trip across the nation to Delaware for a 50-year family wedding anniversary.  As is our custom, we like to use the back roads of America when-ever practical.  Pulling a trailer on the freeway can be a challenge in heavy traffic. It is less stressful on America’s two-lane highways that go through villages, towns and small cities. 

As we went across the country, we looked for signs of economic recovery, buildings going up, homes being built, a new barn here and there, the age of the farm equipment in the fields, etc. We also looked for closed-up storefronts and boarded-up buildings. We also watched for For Sale and Foreclosure signs.  Granted, most of this observation was from the main street, as we did not explore too many side streets, though there were a few side trips when we were looking for the best BBQ ribs in town.

Overall, we did not see as much economic blight as we had expected.  Middle America seems to be doing OK. We took old highway 40 across parts of Utah and Colorado and the resort towns are surviving. The RV parks were not as full as we had expected, and business was down according to RV park managers.  At a Mom and Pop BBQ place in Craig, Colorado, the owners said they had weathered the slow economy by planning ahead, and now business was picking up. They were looking for a good  summer season. 

We stopped in Greeley, Colorado to visit with Larry and Linda Burkhardt over the Memorial Day weekend. Larry was Nevada County’s first ERC President. Economic development in Weld County is going very well for Larry.  A cheese factory is building a plant that will require expansion of local herds of milk cows, creating an economic ripple effect. This cheese factory has five of the major Pizza chains under contract to provide their mozzarella cheese. Shale oil and gas exploration is ramping up in the region, with Halliburton, an oil and gas field service company, and two drilling companies building facilities in the county. Since arriving in Colorado six years ago, Larry has helped facilitate the creation of over 900 jobs, with an annual budget of about $800,000.  It takes money to create jobs, something that has escaped our local political leaders, who could never find enough money for robust job creation programs in Nevada County.

 According to Larry, unemployment is about 10% in Weld County, as people are flocking to the region looking for jobs since news of the regional industrial growth was reported in the region's newspapers. While Weld County is “not roaring right now, they are posed to take off once the economy gets rolling again,” said Larry. 

Yes, Colorado is recruiting California business, encouraging them to come to Colorado with its more friendly business environment.   Colorado is number seven on the Mercatus Center at George Mason University’s list of states with the highest levels of personal and economic freedom, while California is number 48.  Great fodder for Weld County marketing campaigns.

July Dates to Remember

By CABPRO Staff

July 1, 1863 – Battle of Gettysburg begins during the Civil War.

July 2, 1881 – President James Garfield (20th) was shot in Washington, DC; he died later, September 19, 1881.

July 2, 1937 – American aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator went missing over the Pacific during an attempt to fly around the world.

July 4, 1776 – Independence Day!!. The Declaration of Independence was accepted and signed in Philadelphia. Fly the Stars and Stripes!!

July 4, 1826 -  Presidents John Adams (2nd) and Thomas Jefferson (3rd) died on the same day.

July 6, 1921 – Former First Lady Nancy Reagan was born in New York City.

July 6, 1946 – President George W. Bush (43rd) was born in New Haven, CT.

July 8, 1776 – The Liberty Bell rang in Philadelphia summoning citizens to the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.

July 10, 1863 – The siege on Battery Wagner by Union troops began during the Civil War; it ended September 17, 1863, when the Confederates evacuated the fort.

July 11, 1804 – Vice-President Aaron Burr fatally shot Federalist Alexander Hamilton in a duel, or an “affair of honor,” at Weehawken, New Jersey.

July 12, 1862 – President Abraham Lincoln (16th) signed law creating the U.S. Army Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor.

July 12, 1881 – Henry McCarty, aka “Billy the Kid,” was shot to death by Sheriff Pat Garrett at the Maxwell Ranch in New Mexico, after tracking him for three months.

July 12, 1968 – Hank Aaron hit his 500th home run.

July 15, 1903 – The new Ford Motor Company took its first order from a Chicago dentist: a $850 two-cylinder Model A with a tonneau (back seat). The buyer took delivery about a week later.

July 15, 1968 – President Richard Nixon (37th) announced that he would visit communist China; the historic “journey for peace” took place in 1972.