Entries for August 2009

Governor Lingle also announced that she will furlough approximately 900 state employees for three days per month effective September 1, 2009.  These “exempt excluded” employees are all non-union employees, who are not covered by Judge Karl Sakamoto’s order barring the Governor from unilaterally implementing furloughs for union employees. 

(Sounds like union membership is detrimental to the interests of those emplyees who are being laid off.)

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs will conduct a hearing on S. 1011, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2009.  The hearing is scheduled for Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 2:15 PM (EST)  which is 8:15AM Hawai`i Time and will be held in the Dirksen Senate Office Building room 628.   UPDATE: Names of hearing tesifiers have been released.... 

President Obama is finding that keeping the promises made by candidate Obama is next to impossible. You just can’t borrow a trillion dollars for an economic stimulus, enact a new trillion dollar health care entitlement, and increase discretionary spending by 12% through 2019 (including doubling federal education spending) and then expect to pay for it all by taxing the most productive Americans. Eventually the moment would come when reality would catch up to candidate Obama’s promises. That moment is fast approaching.  This weekend on the Sunday talk shows, both Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers refused to rule out the possibility that President Obama will raise taxes on the middle-class....

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers both sidestepped questions on Obama's intentions about taxes. Geithner said the White House was not ready to rule out a tax hike to lower the federal deficit; Summers said Obama's proposed health care overhaul needs funding from somewhere....

Originally published July, 2007, this article outlines the effect of government-controlled health care on Hawaii.  Since Hawaii's system has been pointed to as a model for socialized health care, other Americans may be interested to learn the fate which awaits them.

In the wake of a heated fight over construction of a privately funded hospital on Maui, the Hawaii Health Services Corporation (HHSC) is moving to improve its facilities by agreeing to provide Hawaii patients with equipment available in some African hospitals....