Newspaper Page Text
♦ TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2007
4A
Mimstmi HJmmtal
OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
President
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Group Marketing
Don Moncrief
Managing Editor
Guest Editorial
Peachcare in crisis
'lor the legislative week begin-
W ning Feb. 5, Monday
JL through Wednesday
were reserved for committee
meetings and the full House
convened on Thursday and
Friday. The week was large
ly overshadowed by the con
tinuing financial crisis facing
Peach Care for Kids. As March
approaches, the Peach Care
program continues to lack the
federal funding necessary for its contin-
ued viability.
You may
recall back
in January,
numerous
news stories
concerning
the future
of Georgia’s
Peach Care for
Kids program
if the federal
government
did not meet its Financial obligation of sl3l
million. I supported a resolution in the
Georgia House urging Congress to act quick
ly to fund the program and modernize the
funding formula to prevent future shortfalls.
No federal action has been taken to date and
the program faces a growing financial crisis.
According to officials at the Department of
Community Health who oversee the pro
gram, Peach Care only has enough money to
get through the first few weeks of March.
Officials have announced that as of March
11, the program will not accept any new
enrollees but will continue to serve those
currently in the program. Peach Care for
Kids currently provides medical services to
over 270,000 of Georgia’s children.
Thisisavital program and I askyou tojoin me
in once again urging Congress to act quickly.
We in the Georgia House are committed
to seeing this problem resolved. Several
measures have been introduced that would
provide a temporary band-aid to keep the
program alive in the short term. One bill
would provide short term funding to tem
porarily keep the program going, and the
other would increase the number of those
eligible to enroll thus increasing the amount
of funds received from monthly premiums
paid to the state.
Speaker Richardson has also introduced
a measure that would tighten the financial
requirements for participants thus ensur
ing that while we are in this financial cri
sis, those children with the greatest need
continue to be served. If adopted, the new
financial requirement would bring Georgia
in line with our neighboring southern states.
However, the federal government must
meet its financial obligation to ensure the
long-term viability of Peach Care for Kids.
It was a pleasure this week to welcome
middle school student Lauren McCullough
of Warner Robins to the Capitol. Lauren
served as a PAGE for a legislative day. This
program is open to all students ages 12 and
over, and gives students a wonderful oppor
tunity to learn about their government.
I was able to attend the Georgia CASA
lunch this week. I joined local Houston
County CASA representatives Vicki
Richardson, Joe DiDiego, and Terry
DiDiego. Houston County Juvenile Court
Judge Debra Edwards was also able to join
us and it was great to see her. I applaud
the commitment of all of these individuals
and more who have dedicated their lives
to improving the lives of our children.
As the session progresses, I will continue
to keep you up to date on key pieces of leg
islation and important events at the State
Capitol. As always, if you need anything,
please do not hesitate to contact me at my
capitol office at 404-656-5103.
Audrey Evans
Vice President
Marketing I Advertising
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
This is a vital program
and I ask you to join me
in once again urging
Congress to act quickly.
We in the Georgia House
are committed to seeing
this problem resolved.
mt
v. - _ j rm
Larry O'Neal
Georgia House
Representative
Funding arts through cable bad idea
Something is going on at the state
capitol that could slip through
and impact all of us.
It involves cable companies.
The Georgia arts community is
attempting to get its hands on millions
of dollars from cable customers by per
suading lawmakers to change the way
cable television is delivered to homes.
This attempt to hijack cable money
is being spearheaded by art leaders in
Atlanta, but if they get their way all of
us will pay.
They are asking legislators to send
one percent of cable companies’ gross
revenues to a state fund dedicated to
art education.
Sneaky. Sneaky. Sneaky.
And a terrible idea.
If the legislators succumb to this idea
it will result in higher cable television
fees for all customers, because the
cable companies will not and should
not pay this holdup.
An argument in favor of a new pro
posal that would include the one per
cent tribute to the arts community is
that cable companies would have to
make deals with the state and not each
community they serve.
In other words, the franchise money
now being collected by local communi
ties for local purposes would go to the
state and the art community.
This is something to keep an eye on.
And our legislators should leave the
\
_ u YfJ
12 billion reasons not to pay your taxes
There comes a time when even
passionate conservative parti
sans must say enough to pure
insanity. That time has come.
Doubtless the bleached-blonde, “lib
erals-are-bad” authors and pretty-boy
TV pundit robots will find a way to
defend even this.
Everybody else - especially the every
bodies who work hard and pay taxes
- will surely be outraged.
Following the fall of Saddam
Hussein’s regime, the American gov
ernment hatched a plan to bring order
to anarchic Iraq. The United States
would take the monetary value of con
fiscated oil and frozen financial assets
from Hussein’s government and turn
it into sl2 billion in cash to be distrib
uted across Iraq to those ministries
deemed fit to make good and proper
use of it for the restoration of order.
Now hear this: The money was most
ly SIOO bills, bundled and stacked on
warehouse pallets, and shipped into a
war zone!
Clearly, obviously, Washington’s con
cepts of both money and common sense
have descended to the level of psycho
sis.
Naturally, nobody now knows whom
the money went to. Only that it’s
gone.
The House Oversight and Government
Reform Committee released a docu
ment this week saying much of the
money may have been lost “due to cor
ruption and waste.” You don’t say!
Americans of any or no political lean
ing should be apoplectic. “Designed to
keep and restore order”? Who do they
think they’re fooling? This was play
money to the idiots who rushed in to
“bring democracy to Iraq” without a
clue how to do it.
Defense No. 1 of this travesty will be
that it wasn’t “taxpayer money,” but
ill-gotten funds from Hussein.
That may be, but it sure looked like
American dollars in the photographs
OPINION
relationship between local communi
ties and cable companies just as they
are.
If the art community wants more
money let them raise it without put
ting their fingers in the pockets of
almost every Georgian.
■ ■■
To some it is good news. To some is
it bad news. The federal government
apparently is backing off funding for
passenger rail lines in Georgia.
No matter how you slice it, train
service for passengers between
Macon and Atlanta, for example,
would be an expensive boondoggle.
You keep hearing and reading that
surveys show that well over a major
ity of the people surveyed say that
they would use rail passenger service
between Macon and Atlanta if it is
available. Many people might ride the
train to Atlanta one time but the idea
that they would use it on a regular
enough basis to make the service sea-
of it being shipped to points unknown
in Iraq.
Besides, now that most of it has van
ished, and apparently done not a whit
of good, guess where the lost cash must
come from to keep trying to restore
and rebuild Iraq. You guessed it - you
and me.
Get this: It’s estimated that the aver
age Iraqi family income was about SBOO
a year right after the war started, and
now it may be down to about S4OO. We
would have done better to line up all
25 million or so Iraqis and put SSOO in
each of their hands, and to have then
taken the remainder for airfare home!
“Oh,” some will say, “that would
have been putting money into the
hands of insurgents.”
As opposed to now, where much of
the money has undoubtedly gone to
them anyway? It’s even possible that
more has landed in the hands of our
enemies with the way it was actually
distributed, because huge chunks of
the cash may well have been stolen
in one fell swoop. Who really knows?
There’s not bad accounting of this
game. There’s no accounting at all.
Is my counter-idea stupid? Of course
it is.
So how is it different from our gov
ernment planners’ idea?
Mine is only a word game. Theirs
was actually carried out, right in the
midst of the dense fog of war.
It appears the new Democratic
Congress wants to make former U.S.
administrator in Iraq L. Paul Bremer
Foy
Evans
Columnist
foyevansl9@cox.net
ija
Matt
Towery
Columnist
Morris News Service
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
sible is far fetched.
I remember when the Nancy Hanks
provided passenger service between
Savannah, Macon and Atlanta. For
many years it was a big success. I rode
it several times.
That was when Atlanta was just
the downtown area around Peachtree
Street. Macy’s and Rich’s department
stores were a short walk from the train
terminal and that was primarily the
reason most people used the Nancy
Hanks.
Atlanta spread out. Downtown
Atlanta is not the place most people
want to go. Women I have talked to
say that if they took a train to Atlanta
and took MARTA to a suburban shop
ping center they would be hard put to
handle items they might purchase.
Perhaps a few people in the Macon
area might ride a train to and from
work in Atlanta, but, in my opinion,
not enough to support the service.
Comparisons with other cities are
cited to support the idea of passenger
rail service from Atlanta to Macon or
Athens or Columbus. The cities that
are cited have commuter service for
thousands of people who go into them
from bedroom communities.
My opinion on this subject is irrele
vant. So is yours. But we can hope that
something as expensive as passenger
rail service where it is not needed will
not be added to our tax burden.
the primary scapegoat for this and the
other failures of the initial post-inva
sion leadership.
But a smellier fish is in the stew.
Bremer’s bloated thinking is the (ill
) logical extension of Washington’s
entrenched mentality; that money -
mountains of money - is merely a chess
piece in an elitist board game during
which they not only move the pieces,
but rewrite the rules as they go.
If President Bush wasn’t aware of
this foolhardy plan, or of its fiscally
catastrophic outcome, then he should
have been. And he should have acted.
Any Republican or conservative who
tries to defend this sort of Alice-in-
Wonderland indulgence has either glut
ted on partisan Kool-Aid, or is selling
books and starring on talk shows aimed
at the idiotic readers and viewers who
have. Last year I noted that Americans
wanted the “Fair Tax” plan proposed
by Rep. John Linder, R-Georgia, and
championed by author and syndicated
talk show host Neal Boortz.
If people were ready for tax reform
then, imagine the reaction when they
learn that sl2 billion has disappeared
like a mirage in the Iraqi desert.
Wait, I’ve got it! A way to track down
all that cash.
Reassign the Internal Revenue
Service agents now on the trail of hard
working Americans, and instead send
them to Iraq to work their forensic
magic “over there.”
Matt Towery served as the chairman
of former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s
political organization from 1992 until
Gingrich left Congress. He is a for
mer Georgia state representative, the
author of several books and currently
heads the polling and political infor
mation firm Insider Advantage. To
find out more about Matthew Towery
and read features by other Creators
Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit
the Creators Syndicate website at www.
creators.com.
idea