Sunday, March 31, 2013

Reject Governor's Amendments at April 3 Session

 

Dear Friends,  

First of all, Happy Easter to you and your family!  No matter how many difficulties we may experience in life or in the political arena, we can always rejoice in the knowledge that Our Lord has triumphed over death.  That is true victory and true hope!
 
Returning to the mundane:
PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE TO URGE YOUR DELEGATE AND SENATOR TO VOTE NO ON HB 2313 AND MEDICAID AMENDMENTS TO THE BUDGET-HB 1500.
 
The General Assembly “Veto Session” is this Wednesday, April 3.  As you may recall, the AG responded to my inquiry that the original Transportation Bill regional taxes (in HB 2313) and the Budget Bill language on Medicaid Expansion (in HB 1500) were unconstitutional.
 
TRANSPORTATION BILL:
Instead of offering separate amendments, Governor McDonnell has offered a “substitute” HB 2313 bill to address the constitutional problems with HB 2313 since the AG ruled that “special” taxes which apply to certain regions are not constitutional.  The Governor’s new bill mandates that all regions (not just Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads) will be subject to the extra taxes once the planning districts of which they are a part meet certain criteria: population of 1.5 million, not less than 1.2 million motor vehicles registered, and transit ridership of not less than 15 million per year.  The revenues will be deposited into separate “Funds” for the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority and the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority.
 
This ensures future automatic tax increases for the other Planning Districts without a separate vote of the General Assembly.   I think such a policy, while perhaps legal, is not prudent.  Who can predict the needs of localities in ten or possibly 100 years?  Can Planning District boundary lines be reconfigured to collect taxes sooner?   Does this conflict with our constitutional requirement that laws must take effect on July 1 of the year in which the bill becomes law, yet these taxes might not start for some areas for twenty or more years? 
 
The NVTA and HRTA are to act as independent bodies of the state government and VDOT:  15.2-4839 2. The Authority is independent of any state or local entity, including the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB), but the Authority, VDOT and CTB shall consult with one another to avoid duplication of efforts and, at the option of the Authority, may combine efforts to complete specific projects.
 
The NVTA and HRTA will receive millions of our tax dollars, decide how they will be spent and can even invest in security instruments. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) has been criticized by the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) for cost-overruns and no-bid contracts.  Increasing the number of Authorities over which citizens have little ability to influence policy is a dangerous delegation of power in my opinion.
 
Here is a link to the Governor’s substitute transportation bill: http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB2313H5
 
MEDICAID EXPANSION:
The AG replied to my inquiry, affirming his earlier opinion to Delegate Ben Cline, that the General Assembly cannot delegate its power to expand Medicaid to a Commission which includes a few members of the General Assembly.  Governor McDonnell nevertheless declined to change the language affecting the delegation to a subgroup of the Assembly, so the same legal-constitutional problems the Attorney General pointed out are still present in the amended version.  
 
The Governor has offered four new amendments to HB 1500 on Medicaid. Please urge your delegate and senator to reject them:
 
Amendment 22:  Adds up to five additional employees from other agency personnel for the Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) to fully comply with new provisions of health care reform.
 
Amendment 23:  Provides $870,000 from the general fund to cover the rest of a $1.67 Million contract to George Mason U which will mostly contract with the Center for Health Innovation.  (Future budgets will surely add more funding.)
 
Amendment 24:  Strikes certain lines on pages 295-297 of the Budget intended to add specificity to Medicaid reforms, (not definitive in my opinion).
 
Amendment 25:  Creates a $3 Million Medicaid customer call center by allowing DMAS to contract with a vendor so individuals can apply for Medicaid by telephone, as required by the federal government by October 1, 2013.  $1.5 million comes from Virginia.  Costs could increase depending upon the final contract and center workload.  More funding could be provided next year.
 
These amendments grease the skids for Medicaid expansion!  Here is a link to all of the Governor’s amendments to the Budget bill (HB 1500): http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+amd+HB1500AG
 
The Heritage Foundation estimates Medicaid expansion will cost Virginia an additional $902 Million through 2022, requiring massive tax increases or cutting (unlikely) other Virginia programs. 
 
Harvard’s Malcolm Sparrow in 2009 testified before Congress that Medicaid bills continue to be paid to physicians after they die, to treat patients after death, to treat immigrants who have been deported.  He noted that the Credit Card Industry has a threshold of one-tenth of one percent for acceptable business fraud risk.  Medicaid losses from fraud range from 3-14%, not including billing errors!
 
It is folly to think that ten part-time members of the General Assembly meeting once a month for a few months can ensure Virginia will be able to exercise adequate oversight over expanding 400,000 new recipients to the current 1,000,000.
 
And, while some Assembly members believe Virginia can expand Medicaid, accept the three year 100% federal subsidy, and then opt out later, The U.S. Supreme Court did not rule states could leave Medicaid once enrolled nor is there an opt-out provision in the Affordable Care Act. 
 
Please view this video of U.S. Senator Orin Hatch in which he states that Obamacare was designed to fail to usher in single-payer government-run healthcare.  See: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/hatch-obamacare-was-designed-become-single-payer-system
 
Republicans used to complain when Democrats proposed tax increases and expanded government programs.  Now Republicans are putting them to shame, leading the charge to saddle present and future taxpayers with greater financial burdens. 
 
PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE TO URGE YOUR DELEGATE AND SENATOR TO VOTE AGAINST HB 2313 AND MEDICAID AMENDMENTS TO HB 1500.
 
Thank you,
bob marshall 
Delegate Bob Marshall
Contact Information:
703-361-5416 (office and fax)
703-853-4213 (cell) (preferred)
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 421
Manassas, VA 20108

Paid for and Authorized by Friends of Bob Marshall

 



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Reject Governor's Amendments at April 3 Session

 

Dear Friends,  

First of all, Happy Easter to you and your family!  No matter how many difficulties we may experience in life or in the political arena, we can always rejoice in the knowledge that Our Lord has triumphed over death.  That is true victory and true hope!
 
Returning to the mundane:
PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE TO URGE YOUR DELEGATE AND SENATOR TO VOTE NO ON HB 2313 AND MEDICAID AMENDMENTS TO THE BUDGET-HB 1500.
 
The General Assembly “Veto Session” is this Wednesday, April 3.  As you may recall, the AG responded to my inquiry that the original Transportation Bill regional taxes (in HB 2313) and the Budget Bill language on Medicaid Expansion (in HB 1500) were unconstitutional.
 
TRANSPORTATION BILL:
Instead of offering separate amendments, Governor McDonnell has offered a “substitute” HB 2313 bill to address the constitutional problems with HB 2313 since the AG ruled that “special” taxes which apply to certain regions are not constitutional.  The Governor’s new bill mandates that all regions (not just Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads) will be subject to the extra taxes once the planning districts of which they are a part meet certain criteria: population of 1.5 million, not less than 1.2 million motor vehicles registered, and transit ridership of not less than 15 million per year.  The revenues will be deposited into separate “Funds” for the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority and the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority.
 
This ensures future automatic tax increases for the other Planning Districts without a separate vote of the General Assembly.   I think such a policy, while perhaps legal, is not prudent.  Who can predict the needs of localities in ten or possibly 100 years?  Can Planning District boundary lines be reconfigured to collect taxes sooner?   Does this conflict with our constitutional requirement that laws must take effect on July 1 of the year in which the bill becomes law, yet these taxes might not start for some areas for twenty or more years? 
 
The NVTA and HRTA are to act as independent bodies of the state government and VDOT:  15.2-4839 2. The Authority is independent of any state or local entity, including the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB), but the Authority, VDOT and CTB shall consult with one another to avoid duplication of efforts and, at the option of the Authority, may combine efforts to complete specific projects.
 
The NVTA and HRTA will receive millions of our tax dollars, decide how they will be spent and can even invest in security instruments. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) has been criticized by the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) for cost-overruns and no-bid contracts.  Increasing the number of Authorities over which citizens have little ability to influence policy is a dangerous delegation of power in my opinion.
 
Here is a link to the Governor’s substitute transportation bill: http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB2313H5
 
MEDICAID EXPANSION:
The AG replied to my inquiry, affirming his earlier opinion to Delegate Ben Cline, that the General Assembly cannot delegate its power to expand Medicaid to a Commission which includes a few members of the General Assembly.  Governor McDonnell nevertheless declined to change the language affecting the delegation to a subgroup of the Assembly, so the same legal-constitutional problems the Attorney General pointed out are still present in the amended version.  
 
The Governor has offered four new amendments to HB 1500 on Medicaid. Please urge your delegate and senator to reject them:
 
Amendment 22:  Adds up to five additional employees from other agency personnel for the Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) to fully comply with new provisions of health care reform.
 
Amendment 23:  Provides $870,000 from the general fund to cover the rest of a $1.67 Million contract to George Mason U which will mostly contract with the Center for Health Innovation.  (Future budgets will surely add more funding.)
 
Amendment 24:  Strikes certain lines on pages 295-297 of the Budget intended to add specificity to Medicaid reforms, (not definitive in my opinion).
 
Amendment 25:  Creates a $3 Million Medicaid customer call center by allowing DMAS to contract with a vendor so individuals can apply for Medicaid by telephone, as required by the federal government by October 1, 2013.  $1.5 million comes from Virginia.  Costs could increase depending upon the final contract and center workload.  More funding could be provided next year.
 
These amendments grease the skids for Medicaid expansion!  Here is a link to all of the Governor’s amendments to the Budget bill (HB 1500): http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+amd+HB1500AG
 
The Heritage Foundation estimates Medicaid expansion will cost Virginia an additional $902 Million through 2022, requiring massive tax increases or cutting (unlikely) other Virginia programs. 
 
Harvard’s Malcolm Sparrow in 2009 testified before Congress that Medicaid bills continue to be paid to physicians after they die, to treat patients after death, to treat immigrants who have been deported.  He noted that the Credit Card Industry has a threshold of one-tenth of one percent for acceptable business fraud risk.  Medicaid losses from fraud range from 3-14%, not including billing errors!
 
It is folly to think that ten part-time members of the General Assembly meeting once a month for a few months can ensure Virginia will be able to exercise adequate oversight over expanding 400,000 new recipients to the current 1,000,000.
 
And, while some Assembly members believe Virginia can expand Medicaid, accept the three year 100% federal subsidy, and then opt out later, The U.S. Supreme Court did not rule states could leave Medicaid once enrolled nor is there an opt-out provision in the Affordable Care Act. 
 
Please view this video of U.S. Senator Orin Hatch in which he states that Obamacare was designed to fail to usher in single-payer government-run healthcare.  See: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/hatch-obamacare-was-designed-become-single-payer-system
 
Republicans used to complain when Democrats proposed tax increases and expanded government programs.  Now Republicans are putting them to shame, leading the charge to saddle present and future taxpayers with greater financial burdens. 
 
PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE TO URGE YOUR DELEGATE AND SENATOR TO VOTE AGAINST HB 2313 AND MEDICAID AMENDMENTS TO HB 1500.
 
Thank you,
bob marshall 
Delegate Bob Marshall
Contact Information:
703-361-5416 (office and fax)
703-853-4213 (cell) (preferred)
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 421
Manassas, VA 20108

Paid for and Authorized by Friends of Bob Marshall

 



powered by phplist v 2.10.17, © phpList ltd

Townhall Daily - March 31 - Derek Hunter, John Ransom, Austin Hill, Doug Giles, Debra J. Saunders and More

GOP to Obama: Approving Keystone XL Pipeline is a "No-Brainer", "The Five" Absolutely Destroy Jim Carrey's Absurd Press Release , Planned Parenthood Official Endorses Right to Kill Babies Born Alive,
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Derek Hunter Derek Hunter:
Progressives' Three-Card Monte
John Ransom John Ransom:
Cue the Semi-Educated, Liberal Attacks on Easter as Pagan
Austin Hill Austin Hill:
A Free People, And A Resurgence Of Wisdom
Doug Giles Doug Giles:
Jesus Christ, Ted Nugent and Rosie O'Donnell Weigh in on Gay Marriage
Debra J. Saunders Debra J. Saunders:
Welcome to San Francisco, DMV Licenses Optional
Paul Jacob Paul Jacob:
Obama's Bloody Shirt
Daniel J. Mitchell Daniel J. Mitchell:
This Wins the "Booby Prize" for Great Moments in Government-Run Healthcare
Steve Chapman Steve Chapman:
Why the No-Fly List Doesn't Fly
Rich Tucker Rich Tucker:
Making Life Easier, and Harder
Bob Beauprez Bob Beauprez:
The Chart from Hell
Political  Calculations Political Calculations:
Bubbles and Fire Part 2
Night Watch Night Watch:
North Koreans Declare War and No One Notices
Michael Youssef Michael Youssef:
We Have Come a Long Way, America...The Wrong Way
Marita Noon Marita Noon:
Obama Creates More Wealth for Green Crony Soros
Mark Baisley Mark Baisley:
Endangered: The Constitution Part 2
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Group Pushes Gun Control Agenda with Reagan Shooting

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Yesterday's Top 10 Columns
  1. Hawkins: 5 Groups Of Obama Voters That Are Being Crushed By Democrats
  2. O'Reilly: Hey, Isn't That the Spring Bunny?
  3. Mitchell: Some Much-Needed Humor about the Bunny and the Politician
  4. Beauprez: IRS knowingly sends Billions in Fraudulent Refunds to Illegal Immigrants
  5. Goodman: Report Card on ObamaCare
  6. Stokes: Have Some Evangelicals Simply Left Their Bibles Behind?
  7. Ransom: Cyprus by Other Means
  8. Starnes: Lawmakers
  9. Malkin: The Bloody Company Hollywood Keeps
  10. Limbaugh: It's Not Cool To Cherry Pick Scripture
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Saturday, March 30, 2013

Townhall Daily - March 30 - Bill O'Reilly, John Hawkins, John Ransom, Todd Starnes, John C. Goodman and More

Planned Parenthood Official Endorses Right to Kill Babies Born Alive, A Culture of Death, "Not So Stealth" US Flies B-2 Bomber Over Korea,
Townhall Daily Newsletter
PrintForward
Columnists Columnists Tipsheet News Cartoons Videos
Obama's big new scandal?
One of America's most widely read financial journalists says a huge new scandal is working its way through the Obama administration.
He says this scandal could ruin Obama's entire presidency, and will bring about the most dramatic changes to American life in more than 50 years. See the full analysis, free of charge, here…
Bill O'Reilly Bill O'Reilly:
Hey, Isn't That the Spring Bunny?
John Hawkins John Hawkins:
5 Groups Of Obama Voters That Are Being Crushed By Democrats
John Ransom John Ransom:
Cyprus by Other Means
Todd Starnes Todd Starnes:
Lawmakers: Anti-Bullying Conference Bullies Conservatives, Christians
John C. Goodman John C. Goodman:
Report Card on ObamaCare
Rich Galen Rich Galen:
Politics Ain't Beanbag
Obama's big new scandal?
One of America's most widely read financial journalists says a huge new scandal is working its way through the Obama administration.
He says this scandal could ruin Obama's entire presidency, and will bring about the most dramatic changes to American life in more than 50 years. See the full analysis, free of charge, here…
Daniel J. Mitchell Daniel J. Mitchell:
Some Much-Needed Humor about the Bunny and the Politician
Political  Calculations Political Calculations:
Bubbles and Fire
Bob Beauprez Bob Beauprez:
IRS knowingly sends Billions in Fraudulent Refunds to Illegal Immigrants
Steve Deace Steve Deace:
Questions for RNC Chairman Reince Priebus
Ransom Notes Radio Ransom Notes Radio:
It Turns Out "Moderate" Liberals Just Don't Exist
Mike Shedlock Mike Shedlock:
Bill Allowing Gold and Silver as Money; Bureaucratic Nightmare?
David Sterman David Sterman:
What the Troubles in Europe and China Mean to Your Investments
Night Watch Night Watch:
North Korea Threatens to Attack
Tad DeHaven Tad DeHaven:
Budget Problems Continue in Washington
Bill Tatro Bill Tatro:
Foreign Adventures – Part III
David Stokes David Stokes:
Have Some Evangelicals Simply Left Their Bibles Behind?
Today's Cartoons
Today's Cartoons



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Dana Loesch Absolutely Schools Piers Morgan and Van Jones on 'Assault Weapons'

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  1. Malkin: The Bloody Company Hollywood Keeps
  2. Limbaugh: It's Not Cool To Cherry Pick Scripture
  3. Davis: Nine Justices or Fifty States? Who Should Decide Gay Marriage?
  4. Charen: Why We Are Losing Debate Over Same-Sex Marriage
  5. Bozell: Gay and Godless on the Public-School Stage
  6. Starnes: Lawmakers
  7. Mitchell: Ranking the States for Economic and Personal Freedom
  8. Ransom: Obamacare
  9. Coulter: The Left's Continuing War on Women
  10. Goldberg: Can GOP Reverse the Damage Done by Iraq?
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