The economy is tumbling. The AP reported this morning that jobs have dropped for a year now.

The number of newly laid off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits soared last week.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that claims for unemployment benefits rose by 35,000 to 380,000. Private economists had expected claims would rise by a smaller 18,000.

The story goes on to suggest that we're due to lose another 70K across our economy.

Here in PA, we've got a chance to extend healthcare coverage to many of the people who will be laid off here, at affordable prices, and thereby ease the suffering of many workers out of work. It's money that's stopping it.

Smokers have been taxed here, among other things, to create a fund that cuts malpractice premiums (at the very least) in half across PA. We collected much too much tax money for that fund and now the state wants authorization to reallocate part of that money into paying for the uninsured.

With another dime per pack on cigarettes and reallocating this money that's just sitting, we could cover many of the uninsured here. In a few years, I believe, the program would reach all of them.

The man-on-the-street will have a lot less money in his pocket, soon, when he loses his job and when a general economic tightening reins in the hours, the bonuses, the overtime, the promotions, the raises and the tips or commissions of others. We can, at least, insure that he remains whole and healthy through this downturn.

The Senate R's are coming out with their own plan this week. It's not likely to cut a break to consumers. They are more than content to let their sick constituents get sicker and destroy the liquidity of working families who catch a bad break in order to stay tight with doctors and hospitals. We can't let them do it. SB 1137 is the right vehicle to maintain health through the coming recession and it should simply pass.

PHILADELPHIA, March 12 – State Rep. Babette Josephs, chairwoman of the House State Government Committee, said the committee will hold two public hearings in Philadelphia this week.

The first hearing, on legislation to change the redistricting process (H.B.s 81, 84 and 2047), will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, March 13 in the Irvine Auditorium of the University of Pennsylvania.

The agenda will be as follows:
10 a.m. -- Rep. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery
10:20 a.m. -- Rep. Steve Samuelson, D-Northampton/Lehigh
10:40 a.m. -- Rep. Mark Cohen, D-Phila.
11 a.m. -- Kenneth Myers, vice president, Jewish Social Policy Action Network
11:20 a.m. -- Sara Steelman, chairwoman, Common Cause, Pennsylvania
11:40 a.m. -- Andrea Mulrine, president, League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania
Noon -- Nathaniel Persily, law professor, Columbia Law School
12:20 p.m. -- Dennis Baylor, Pennsylvania Accountability Project.

Maybe it's time to give I.R.V. a try, at least in Philly municipal-level elections, to show the state why the idea has merit?

As Hendrink Hertzberg writes:

... the Presidential candidate of America’s Green Party in 2000, Ralph Nader, got about 2.7 per cent.

For the past seven years, Americans (and the world) have been suffering from the head-pounding hangover of that 2.7 per cent: President George W. Bush. Even though a clear majority of us — 51 per cent — wanted a left-of-center government, we got, with the help of a little nudge from the Supreme Court, a very, very right-of-center one.

In Australia, the consequence was precisely the opposite.

and

Today, my reform campaign ran the second of a series of full page ads in the Daily News where I poked fun at State Senator Vince Fumo's alleged misuse of taxpayer and charity money for personal and political purposes. (The Daily News is 60 cents - go buy a copy. They have a nice comics section.)

Though the fraud and corruption detailed in the Fumo indictment are dramatic and infuriating, the issues in Harrisburg are much larger than Fumo himself. The problem is that our legislature is broken, unwilling to operate in the light of day, and unable to reform itself.

For too long, Pennsylvania government has been corrupt and content, and the voters have grown frustrated. When the General Assembly gave itself an illegal pay raise in a late night vote on fourth of July weekend in 2006, voters of all political stripes joined together in a populist revolt and threw out dozens of lawmakers from around the state.

HB 2005 came out of the House Insurance Committee this week. It's a bill that Rep. Deluca (D-Pittsburgh) wrote that finally gives us some control of the health insurance industry. Imagine: up to this point, car insurance was better regulated than health insurance. That's like telling a kid not to run with scissors but letting him play with your guns. That could end. Word on the street is that they'll get HB2005 to the floor by the end of the year. That would be good.

Of course, lobbying and politics made it all more complicated than the had been initially planned. I'm not going to put the text of the bill in here, but here's the deal: small employers get nailed on their premiums all the time. Let's say we've got a plumbing company, right? We'll call it Dan & Ray's Plumbing. You've got this great plumber named Jen, and Jen's been working with you for years. Great gal. Works hard. She's in her late 40's. The doctor tells her that she needs a double-bypass. Big bill to your insurance carrier. Suddenly, we're paying a lot more money for all our plumbers, all our shop assistants and all our administrative staff. Premiums can spike like crazy because one of your crew had the audacity to get sick. The nerve.

Sickness is no good for insurance company profits.

On November 24th, Rep. Payton and I recorded our second edition of The Legislator and The Agitator. You can download the episode in four individual tracks here.

01-The House Democrats Bonus Scandal

(14:57)

Introduction to the November 24th, 2007 show.

Discussion of the House Democrats recent firing of major staffers around large bonuses given to legislative staff.

We'll move into the issue of Reform and Rep. Payton's freshman class of Harrisburg Legislators.

02-Costing out - will the state ever pay for schools?

(16:07)

Good Schools Pennsylvania convinced the state to do a costing out study on what it would actually cost to pay for students around the state so we can do a better job of realistically discussing how much money we need to pay for schools. It started a big conversation on YoungPhillyPolitics.com.

Tony and Brady discuss the great amount of political maneuvering around this information as well as the lack of the real initiative to find the cash. Will it happen? Can it?

Also, Brady tells about the time that he fought back against a really big bully.

It makes sense in context.

Click "Read More" for the next two tracks!

Well, it is of course an exciting time to be in Philadelphia. I know I speak for many when I say that it is a real pleasure to hear Michael Nutter speak, with his hopeful vision for the city. Of course, he does not have solutions for the major problems facing the city; and some of his proposals strike me as far-fetched or difficult to implement; but it is great to hear his pitch for civic involvement and a clear vision for what the city can be. I look forward to seeing what happens, and being a part of it.

So we will face an important decision in 4 years. Will we re-elect him or not? It is doubtful that any major tectonic shifts in attitude or social forces will have occurred; so we will have to decide on whether to support him based on some interval benchmarks.

So I ask now: What are the absolute MUSTs that must be in place in the spring of 2011 to assure your vote and support for Nutter II?

Here's one of the four buses that came from Philadelphia to rally for health insurance for low-income workers, and reforms in everyone else's health insurance program. All in all, about 150 to 200 Philadelphians made there way up to Harrisburg to back up the Governor's Prescription for Pennsylvania.