News and Views on Politics, Policy and More
Upon rereading David Ramsey’s piece on the genesis of the “private option,” it’s hard not to notice the flood of admiring compliments he bestows on the intellect of its creators. They are “clever,” “smart,” “open-minded,” and “pragmatic.” As they work in tandem with Governor Mike Beebe, they are “thoughtful and nuanced.” In particular, Senator Jonathan Dismang’s “comfort with getting into the weeds on policy details” makes him “open to pragmatic … [Read more...]
David Ramsey of the Arkansas Times regularly distinguished himself this session with his thorough coverage of the debate over Medicaid expansion. His account of the creation of the “private option” -- perhaps the biggest increase in the size and scope of state government in my lifetime -- was educational and gripping. But occasionally his work told us more about David Ramsey than it did about Medicaid expansion. One of the areas where his article fell short was in his discussion of the … [Read more...]
One of the legislature’s most praiseworthy achievements this session was passing a “voter ID” bill. If you read the unsigned article in this week’s Arkansas Times, though, you’ll see a very different perspective on voter ID. Indeed, the Times explained: Republicans say the new law will protect the integrity of our elections; some may believe that. But there's no evidence of substantial in-person voter fraud, the only kind prevented by the new law. There is plenty of evidence, however, … [Read more...]
Well, I see David Ramsey is at it again. Ramsey, a blogger for the Arkansas Times, faces a problem. What he’d like to do is criticize Republicans for the wicked things they say. However, there’s a difficulty: Republicans are as careful about what they say as anyone else, so it’s often difficult for Ramsey to find things to write about. Ramsey, however, has come up with a creative solution to this problem: namely, he makes things up. This solves a small problem for Ramsey – the social … [Read more...]
Thanks to the dedication of awesome readers like you, TheArkansasProject.com has been named to The Washington Post’s list of “best state-based political blogs.” We are not entirely sure how this happened, but hey, we’ll take it! There are five Arkansas blogs on the list and the article says they are listed alphabetically, but they’re actually not -- and since we’re listed first, we can only assume that means we are #1 in Arkansas. Again, we’re not really sure how this happened, … [Read more...]
I did my weekly radio thang with Paul Harrell on Thursday. We discussed Rep. Reginald Murdock's bill, HB1284, that would require churches that allow concealed carry to post 8x10 signs on their external doors. We also briefly touched on voter ID and Rep. Westerman's proposal to cap government growth. Cheers: Video streaming by Ustream … [Read more...]
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was in town today to kickoff the A+ Arkansas education rally. Afterwards, he spoke with reporters. Below is a little video I snagged of the Q&A. He had some very interesting things to say, including some comments about the 2014 gubernatorial race (sorry for the poor audio quality -- if you makes you feel any better, I was standing right there and could barely hear): … [Read more...]
Advance Arkansas Institute's very own Dan Greenberg has a new piece out about the perils of Medicaid expansion -- and it's almost as good as mine. The piece was featured in the latest edition of Talk Business. Here's a teaser: Indeed, there is very little evidence generally that expanding Medicaid will improve the health of the uninsured: the evidence calls into question whether broad coverage expansions improve health at all. When Oregon randomly picked 10,000 new Medicaid enrollees a few … [Read more...]
