Be sure to read: JCSU Town Hall Meeting to Discuss Community Issues in East and West Sides which will likely address the streetcar.
• Republicans have filed bills to reject the expansion of Medicaid and setting up an insurance exchange. These are two aspects of the federal Affordable Care Act. These programs would help individuals earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level – $15,415 for an individual or $26,344 for a family of three in 2012 – would qualify for Medicaid. Under the Republicans bills our state’s most vulnerable would still be at risk of not being able to afford medical insurance. I guess our Republican legislators think the state would save more money by allowing the steady stream of uninsured patients flooding our hospital emergency rooms to continue.
• The biggest whopper is the assault on unemployment. State legislatures have proposed cutting maximum unemployment benefits to $350 from $530, and reducing the number of weeks recipients are eligible to 12 from the current 26, depending on the jobless rate, according to the Charlotte Business Journal. We all pay into unemployment insurance the same way we pay into Social Security. Yet, lawmakers aren’t trying to limit Social Security. Why are state lawmakers punishing people who can’t find a job or can’t find a job earning livable wages? Instead of punishing people who’ve paid their fair share into unemployment, lawmakers should push businesses to pay their employees better wages. Oh, but wait that would shift some of the blame on businesses not the zillions of unemployed people collecting those fat checks rather than job hunting.
North Carolina Headed In The Wrong Direction Under Republican-Led State House was originally published on praisecharlotte.com
