Repealing and replacing Obamacare would have a huge impact on our state budget. Speaker Ryan has proposed that the Medicaid program be block granted. Instead of billing the federal government for the health care provided to eligible patients, each state would get a lump sum of money annually. We did this once before: welfare reform. …more >
A professor at Moscow State University had to leave the Soviet Union because he was Jewish. He was recruited to the University of Maryland College Park in 1979 by the head of the math department, Brit Kirwan. His son attended the public schools in Prince George’s County before graduating from College Park and attending Stanford. …more >
Sometimes, I follow my own advice. Co-sponsorship is the biggest waste of time in Annapolis, I’ve declared in this diary more than once. A committee chair made that point this week. He advised that more cosponsors on your bill won’t be of much help if it’s heard at 8:00 at night on a Friday in …more >
A fiscal note can kill your bill. The note estimates the cost of implementing your legislation. It’s prepared by our non-partisan staff, with input from the affected executive branch agency and other interested parties. If the cost is high, you can turn out the lights on your bill; the party’s over. That was not the …more >
Why does it matter that President Trump said that the illegal votes of millions of unauthorized immigrants denied him a popular vote majority? Voter fraud is the fake justification for voter-ID laws, whose purpose is to make it difficult for people to vote who are likely to vote Democratic. Elected officials who support these infringements …more >
I learned an important lesson from George Mills. George was a studio camera man when I worked at WJZ-TV from 1976-79. I produced shows like Square Off, which was hosted by Richard Sher. If you respected George and the other camera men, they would look for good shots. (They were all camera men forty years …more >
A big number and two words. If the Congress reduces the federal portion of the cost of the expansion of Medicaid coverage under Obamacare, the cost to Maryland would be $1.27 billion. For more than 30 years, Maryland’s all-payer system has meant that all patients pay the same rate for hospital care, whether they have …more >
This job is about public policy. How should we spend taxpayers’ dollars? What is the appropriate penalty for the worst crimes that take someone’s life? For the minor crimes that can affect a person’s long-term future? This job is also about neighborhoods. Elected officials are the advocates for their constituents, who can’t afford to hire …more >
I took my subcommittee members to lunch today. I told them that I’m a big fan of Socratic dialogue. Translated from law school, that means: “Ask questions.” That back and forth will result in a better work product. I talked about a Republican leader who served on my Appropriations subcommittee. I gave his views as …more >
John Lewis nearly died when he marched over the Edmund Pettis Bridge. Alabama state troopers fractured his skull. Within days, President Johnson spoke to a joint session of Congress. He concluded his speech introducing the Voting Rights Act by declaring, “We shall overcome.” The Supreme Court gutted the enforcement provision of that law in a …more >
