Thanks to the keepers of this blog for the modest amount of policing that is done to maintain some degree of credible and civil conversation here.

This was probably too long to post as a comment to Chris's post, so I'm making it a diary.

This is from a post on the Maryland Policy blog, and was part of a longer message to get people to expand their view of what is their "community."  Or to be relevant to Chris's post, their "home."

It is a story that was told by then-Senator Bill Bradley:

Cross posted (sort of) at the Maryland Policy blog

Hey, are you all warmed up after coming together to buy a laptop for Chris?  Now we've got some real work to do:  323,000 people in Tennessee are about to lose their health insurance.  Unless we all step in to help.

Posted earlier today on the Maryland Policy blog.  If you live in Maryland, this ought to make you ill.

Keep in mind:  Maryland is tied for first with the highest median household income among states.  Collectively, we are rich.  

Here is what we are NOT doing with our money:

I have blog where I frequently write about the war on the poor.  I often focus on Maryland because that is where I live (and because I get paid to write about Maryland). But if it is happening here, there is a good chance that it is happening in your state too.

In my state, if you are a single parent with two kids and you earn a little more than $500 in a month, you're too rich to qualify for Medicaid.  In other words, you're out of luck when it comes to health care or health insurance.

You could go to a clinic somewhere, but they only provide primary care.  They can diagnose you, but if you need treatment they don't do that.

Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R) proposed in January to eliminate the state offices that are responsible for enforcing minimum wage and salary compliance laws (it saved a little bit of money in his budget).

The General Assembly thought that they stopped this cut by redirecting money that the governor had set aside to increase purses at horse racing tracks.

This week, the governor claims that the legislature overstepped their Constitutional powers, and announced that the wage compliances offices will close effective July 1.

This cross posted on the Maryland Policy blog.

The least popular items on my blog are those that deal with the federal budget deficit.  That's too bad.  

Here is the result of four years (and counting) of massive tax cuts:

Total federal revenues (as a share of our economy) are the lowest since 1959; and
Federal individual income tax revenues are the lowest since 1951.

I wasn't alive in the 50s, so I confess that I don't have so much nostalgia for those good old days. The Cunningham's seemed happy enough, but then I don't recall any episodes where Mr. and Mrs. C fretted about long-term care for their aging parents, or where Mr. C worried that family health insurance premiums of $17,000 per year were putting a dent into his take home pay from the hardware store. Apparently, all of Mr. C's coworkers made enough money selling nuts and bolts that there were no concerns about health costs, college tuition and housing...