U.S. says new Indiana law improperly limits Medicaid, By Robert Pear, June 1, 2011, New York Times: “The Obama administration prohibited the State of Indiana on Wednesday from carrying out a new state law that cuts off money for Planned Parenthood clinics providing health care to low-income women on Medicaid. The state law penalized Planned Parenthood because some of its clinics also perform abortions. Dr. Donald M. Berwick, administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the state law imposed impermissible restrictions on the freedom of Medicaid beneficiaries to choose health care providers. The freedom of choice, he said, is generally guaranteed by the federal Medicaid law. But state officials said Wednesday that they intended to continue enforcing the state law, which took effect on May 10, when it was signed by Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican…”

• GOP: Feds should let states tighten Medicaid eligibility, By Mary Agnes Carey and Phil Galewitz, May 24, 2011, Miami Herald: “With their proposal to turn Medicaid into block grants all but dead, Republicans are pushing legislation to let states tighten eligibility rules for the health program for poor people and those with disabilities. The move, which would affect Medicaid as well as the Children’s Health Insurance Program, would help cash-strapped states save money, but it also could cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose health coverage. While Democrats strenuously oppose the proposed Medicaid change, some advocates and physicians groups worry that the issue could wind up as a bargaining chip in the partisan wrangling over raising the federal debt limit and reducing the budget deficit…”
• Christie eyes curb on Medicaid rolls, By Matt Katz and Maya Rao, May 23, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Gov. Christie plans to seek approval for a proposal that would deny Medicaid coverage to adults in a family of four with an annual household income of little more than $6,000, down from the current $30,000. A single mother raising three children who earned as little as $118 a week would not qualify for the government-funded medical coverage. The eligibility-requirement change, which must be cleared by the Obama administration and would apply only to new adult Medicaid applicants, would follow Christie’s eliminating - for the second year - a long-standing line item that would provide nearly $7.5 million in funding to family-planning clinics…”
• State drops managed-care Medicaid plan for 5 counties, By Charles S. Johnson, May 23, 2011, Billings Gazette: “The Schweitzer administration has abandoned its controversial plan to set up a Medicaid managed-care demonstration project in Lewis and Clark, Cascade, Choteau, Teton and Judith Basin counties. The Gazette State Bureau reported last fall that the Schweitzer administration since August 2009 had discussed using managed-card Medicaid, the state-federal program that provides health care for the poor and disabled. One major proposal came from Centene Corp., a large managed-care firm based in St. Louis. It was based on the idea that the private company would be paid a certain amount of money for each patient and ‘manage’ that patient’s care by directing him or her to lower-cost health care. That, in turn, was supposed to save money for both the state and the company.
  By last week, the state pulled the plug on the idea…”
• U.S. objects to new law on clinics in Indiana, By Robert Pear, May 22, 2011, New York Times: “The Obama administration is raising serious objections to a new Indiana law that cuts off state and federal money for Planned Parenthood clinics providing health care to low-income women on Medicaid. The objections set the stage for a clash between the White House and Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, over an issue that ignites passions in both parties. The changes in Indiana are subject to federal review and approval, and administration officials have made it clear they will not approve the changes in the form adopted by the state. Federal officials have 90 days to act but may feel pressure to act sooner because Indiana is already enforcing its law, which took effect on May 10, and because legislators in other states are working on similar measures…”

Rhode Island’s Medicaid experiment draws raves, suspicion, By Tony Pugh, May 24, 2011, Miami Herald: “After six months in hospitals and nursing homes rehabbing from a stroke, Elvira Tesarek of Warren, R.I., had a decision to make: Either Medicaid would move her to a long-term nursing facility, or she could simply go home. For Tesarek, the choice was obvious. Instead of costly institutional care, Medicaid pays for a nurse’s aide to visit Tesarek at home five days a week to help with meals and household chores. A registered nurse comes three times a week to prepare her medications. A physical therapist visits twice weekly, and a speech therapist makes occasional home visits as well. Nearly 1,300 elderly and disabled adults, such as Tesarek, have been able to leave Rhode Island nursing facilities or avoid them altogether under a pilot program designed to cut spending on Medicaid, the federal-state health plan for the poor. Many states steer certain Medicaid patients into assisted-living and home-care settings, where they have greater independence. Rhode Island’s effort, however, has garnered national attention in conservative circles not because of what it does but because of how it’s funded…”

R.I. Medicaid agreement admired in other states, By Philip Marcelo, May 16, 2011, Providence Journal: “A Medicaid agreement reached nearly two years ago between Rhode Island and the federal government continues to be praised as a model for other states and the country, even as Rhode Island’s new governor questions how much it has actually saved. Republican governors in New Jersey and Kansas cite Rhode Island’s Medicaid agreement, known as the ‘global waiver,’ as a model for Medicaid reforms they say are needed to close budget deficits. So, too, do Republican-dominated state legislatures in Minnesota and Texas, according to national policy analysts. Leading conservative thinkers argue that the Rhode Island waiver shows how governments can save money by converting federal Medicaid spending into a block grant - a key piece of the federal budget recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. But Rhode Island’s role in the debate over the nation’s primary health-insurance program for the elderly, poor and disabled comes as Governor Chafee, an independent, continues to cast doubts as to whether the agreement has actually produced the promised savings…”

States eye drug tests for welfare recipients, By Kelli Kennedy (AP), May 10, 2011, Sarasota Herald-Tribune: “Lawmakers in more than two-dozen states have proposed drug-testing recipients of welfare or other government assistance, taking a tough stance on aiding the poor in the down economy. Critics say such laws would be unconstitutional - an argument that federal judges have agreed with before. Similar proposals have been introduced in past years by lawmakers in dozens of states, but none currently requires drug testing because it’s difficult to get around the arguments that the tests violate the Constitution’s ban on unreasonable searches. Michigan’s random drug testing program for welfare recipients lasted five weeks in 1999 before it was halted by a judge, kicking off a four-year legal battle that ended with an appeals court ruling it unconstitutional. No other state has enacted such a program, worrying about legal battles. But lawmakers say they’re willing to take the risk, as cash-strapped states struggle to close budget gaps, potentially paving the way for major legal battles. The National Conference of State Legislatures said at least 30 states have proposed to drug test recipients of government aid during the current legislative session…”

• Fla. lawmakers pass historic Medicaid overhaul, By Kelli Kennedy and Brent Kallestad (AP), May 6, 2011, Miami Herald: “Two historic bills enacting sweeping changes to Florida’s Medicaid program won Senate and House approval Friday, placing the care of nearly 3 million beneficiaries in the hands of private companies and hospital networks. The bills inject sorely needed accountability into a statewide managed care program that has faltered in its current state in five pilot counties. The plan’s detractors say for-profit providers are making money scrimping on patient care. Patients have complained they couldn’t get appointments with specialists. Several providers pulled out of the program, causing lapses in care as patients were bounced among plans. Sen. Joe Negron, who spearheaded the overhaul, said leaders have learned from the pilot program’s shortcomings and includes increased oversight and more stringent penalties, including fining providers up to $500,000 if they drop out. The bills (HB 7107 and HB 7109) also require providers to generate a 5 percent savings the first year, which could save the state about $1 billion…”
• Florida legislature passes massive Medicaid overhaul, By Jim Saunders, May 8, 2011, Kaiser Health News: “Arguing that the proposal will save tax dollars and improve patient care, Republican lawmakers Friday approved a massive overhaul of Florida’s Medicaid system. The proposal, which has been debated for more than year, would eventually shift hundreds of thousands of poor and elderly beneficiaries into HMOs and other types of managed-care plans. Supporters say that would hold down spiraling costs in the $20 billion program, while also improving a fragmented system of care. ‘We get to save billions of dollars, and we get to deliver better health care,’ said House sponsor Rep. Rob Schenck, R-Spring Hill. But the proposal drew opposition from Democrats, who questioned whether it would adequately hold HMOs accountable and whether it would stick Medicaid beneficiaries with costs they can’t afford…”

• Florida would be only state to tie unemployment benefits to jobless rate, By Marcia Pounds, May 5, 2011, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “If Florida’s Legislature approves the unemployment benefit bill passed by the Senate on Tuesday, Florida will be the only state that varies an unemployed worker’s weekly benefit with the jobless rate. An amended HB 7005, which returns to the House this week, is ‘the most damaging blow to unemployed workers yet,’ said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, in a press release. The legislation ‘would go further than any other state in dismantling its unemployment insurance system,’ Owens said. Under the House version, the national standard of 26 weeks of benefits would no longer be available to unemployed Florida workers. Instead, the maximum number of weeks would vary from 23 weeks when the state’s unemployment rate is as high as 10.5 percent to as low as 12 weeks when the rate drops to 5 percent…”
• Lawmakers cut unemployment benefits to 23 weeks, By Michael C. Bender, May 6, 2011, Miami Herald: “Out-of-work Floridians would receive fewer state benefits while businesses pay less tax under a controversial proposal approved Friday by a divided Legislature. The deal, which Gov. Rick Scott is expected to sign into law, immediately cuts unemployment benefits by 11.5 percent. Jobless Floridians would continue to receive a maximum payment of $275 per week, among the lowest of any state in the country. But it would be paid for no more than 23 weeks, instead of 26. Cutting the number of weeks was a victory for Scott and the Republican House, which had fought Senate sponsor Nancy Detert to reduce the number of weeks. The bill, HB 7005, passed along party lines in both the Senate and the House. The bill also creates a sliding scale that cuts and adds weeks of benefits based on the unemployment rate. Unemployment compensation would drop as low as 12 weeks once the average unemployment rate drops to 5 percent or lower. A week would be added for every 0.5 percent the jobless rate climbs…”

Plan would trade Medicaid funds for flexibility, By Julie Rovner, May 5, 2011, National Public Radio: “Most of the debate about the budget plan passed by House Republicans last month centers on the dramatic changes it would make to the Medicare health program for seniors. But the proposal calls for potentially even bigger changes to the Medicaid program for the poor. Medicaid actually covers more people than Medicare. In 2010, according to the most recent estimates from the Department of Health and Human Services, Medicaid covered 53.9 million people, compared with Medicare’s 47.3 million. Medicaid’s patients are also among the most vulnerable in society…”

Lawmakers want to change welfare, but are the changes constitutional?, By Kevin Miller, April 21, 2011, Bangor Daily News: “Fixing welfare is easy enough to talk about on the campaign trail. But when it comes to actually revamping the social service programs created to help those in need, reform efforts often run up against federal restrictions, constitutional prohibitions and, in some cases, the fact that reality is different than political perception. On Monday, a legislative committee will take up a number of bills dealing with welfare, MaineCare and other social services. Although a perennial issue, welfare reform efforts gained momentum with the election last November of Gov. Paul LePage and a new Republican majority in the Legislature. LePage has pushed forward with his reform agenda by incorporating changes into his two-year, $6.1 billion budget now in the hands of the Legislature’s budget-writing committee. But lawmakers have introduced their own proposals, some more contentious than others. A few of the measures on Monday’s agenda in the Health and Human Services Committee are repeats from previous years that critics hope will suffer a similar fate…”

Republicans revive 1990s-era welfare debate over food stamps, suggest overhauling program, Associated Press, April 18, 2011, Washington Post: “House Republicans resurrected a 1990s-era fight over food stamps in their budget approved last week, arguing that any serious attempt to cut spending must include an overhaul of government programs that help needy families pay for food. Congress already has started cutting some food programs, including reducing the Women, Infants and Children Program by $500 million as part of a deal on this year’s budget. And last year, more than $2 billion in future funding for food stamps was redirected to other programs. On Friday, the House approved a Republican proposal to overhaul the $65 billion food stamp program - known officially as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP - by replacing it with capped block grants to states, which would pay for the aid but make it contingent on work or job training. That proposal was included in a 2012 budget plan put forward by Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis…”

Federal Medicaid teams deployed to help states cut costs get mixed reviews, By Christopher Weaver, April 13, 2011, Kaiser Health News: “Earlier this year, governors — both Republicans and Democrats — asked the federal Department of Health and Human Services for greater freedom in bending Medicaid rules to make it easier to narrow gaping state budget deficits. The department demurred, but offered the states teams of experts to search for savings within the current rules. The teams, HHS said at the time, would be deployed to states that asked for help on Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor and disabled. Nearly half the states took HHS up on its offer, according to newly released information from HHS…”

Newly empowered GOP pushes voter ID, By John Gramlich, April 14, 2011, Stateline.org: “Fresh off commanding electoral victories in November, Republican majorities in many state legislatures want to require voters to show photo identification at the polls, a move Democrats say is cynically designed to help the GOP during the next election cycle. Voter identification laws have been a demarcation line between Democrats and Republicans for years. Democrats claim the measures disenfranchise poor, elderly and minority voters who tend to vote Democratic but may not have appropriate photo ID. Republicans say the laws are necessary to prevent fraud, particularly when important statewide contests - such as the 2008 election for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota - can be decided by just hundreds of votes…”

Illinois House OKs studying cost of ID photos on food stamp cards, By Dave McKinney and Stephen Di Benedetto, April 13, 2011, Chicago Sun-Times: “After a stormy debate, the Illinois House voted Tuesday to commission a study on how expensive it would be to put photos on the ATM-like cards used for food stamps and cash assistance. Designed to combat fraud, the legislation, which passed 64-48 and now moves to the Senate, would give the Department of Human Services six months to report back to the Legislature with an estimate and to figure out how caregivers could buy groceries for their clients with so-called Link cards bearing the clients’ photos…”

• In Pa. budget fight, would cutting welfare lessen the impact of cuts to education?, By Angela Couloumbis, April 7, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Cutting welfare to save higher education: How much would it really save? The corridors of the Capitol were reverberating this week with chants of students and teachers (’We are . . . Penn State!’) decrying the deep cuts Gov. Corbett wants to make in aid to state-funded universities. So it made sense for the brain trust of the House’s new Republican majority to give serious consideration to somehow softening those blows. And for one brief shining moment, that brain trust seemed to have it figured out: save millions by rooting out fraud and waste in the welfare department. Use the savings to put back some of the aid Corbett wants to take from the big ’state-related’ universities (Pennsylvania State, Temple, Lincoln, Pittsburgh) and 14 smaller state-supported schools such as West Chester and Kutztown. Problem is, the House Republicans are still doing the math on just how much money their plan to root out welfare waste will actually save…”
• Welfare targeted to spare higher ed, By Brad Bumsted and Timothy Puko, April 7, 2011, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “The Department of Public Welfare’s proposed $11.2 billion budget, the largest area of spending in state government, remains a target of House Republicans as they attempt to restore some of Gov. Tom Corbett’s recommended cuts in higher education. But GOP leaders acknowledged at a news conference on Wednesday that the package of eight bills they were touting would not have a significant impact on the 2011-12 budget in which Corbett is trying to close a $4.2 billion deficit… “
• Pa. social services sweating over major budget blow, By Jeremy Roebuck, April 7, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “With the effects of a recession lingering, no one providing government or social services expected to escape this year’s budgeting process unscathed. But Gov. Corbett’s proposal to eliminate a fund directed toward helping families hardest hit by the economic downturn has some area nonprofits scratching their heads. The governor’s proposed budget - released last month - calls for zeroing out the $23 million Human Services Development Fund, an account that helps counties fill gaps in their social-services spending on those who fall outside typically protected groups such as children and the disabled. Yet the cuts couldn’t come at a worse time, nonprofit managers say, as the recession has put more families in need of such help and restricted the amount of private money available to support them…”

House passes massive Medicaid overhaul bill, By Jim Saunders, April 1, 2011, Miami Herald: “Five years after a controversial pilot program began in Broward and Duval counties, the Florida House on Thursday approved a statewide proposal to shift Medicaid beneficiaries into managed-care plans. The Republican-dominated House voted 80-38 along almost straight party lines to approve a bill that details a five-year process for overhauling the Medicaid program. Another bill needed to carry out the changes passed 78-39. Supporters said the plan would improve care for Medicaid beneficiaries, reduce widespread fraud and control costs in the $20 billion program…”

• Michigan may cut length of jobless benefits, By Todd Spangler, March 24, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, D-Royal Oak, finds himself immersed in the affairs of the Capitol in Lansing because of a piece of legislation - now on the governor’s desk - that could make Michigan’s unemployment benefits the skimpiest in the nation, in terms of how long they can last. In a hastily called conference call with reporters and two state legislators this morning, Levin railed against the bill passed by the Republican-controlled state House and Senate as having ‘potentially dire ramifications’ if it goes into effect- which is almost certain to happen, at least in the short term, since Gov. Rick Snyder, also a Republican, has said he will sign it…”
• Levin, Dem leaders urge Snyder not to sign jobless measure, By Karen Bouffard, March 24, 2011, Detroit News: “U.S. Rep. Sander Levin and Democratic leaders of the state House and Senate called a rare joint press conference this morning to urge Gov. Rick Snyder not to sign legislation that will permanently reduce state-level unemployment benefits to 20 weeks from 26. The bill provides a 20-week extension in federal unemployment benefits for about 150,000 laid-off Michigan workers set to lose benefits by the end of the year, including 35,000 slated to fall of the rolls at the end of this month. The governor is expected to sign the bill into law, according to Snyder spokesman Sara Wurfel…”

• Medicaid savings unrealistic, study says, By Warren Wolfe and Rachel Stassen-Berger, March 22, 2011, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Faulty information is driving a plan by Minnesota House Republicans to save $300 million in Medicaid spending over the next two years by seeking to exempt the state from some federal rules in exchange for a lump-sum block grant, a Washington think tank says. The House proposal is based on a 2009 ‘global Medicaid waiver’ for Rhode Island that some former officials say saved the state about $150 million in its first 18 months. But the ’savings’ actually came from extra federal Recovery Act money to states — including $400 million to Rhode Island — to help them cope with the recession, said the report by health policy analysts at the Center on Budget and Policy Research, published last week and updated Tuesday…”
• Opponents of Medicaid cuts warn of devastating ripple effect, By Chuck Lindell, March 22, 2011, Austin American-Statesman: “Proposed steep cuts to state Medicaid spending threaten to force medically fragile children and adults with disabilities away from home care and into nursing homes and other institutions, health care advocates said at Capitol rallies Tuesday. At the same time, however, the 33 percent cuts proposed for Medicaid-funded nursing homes will force agencies to close across Texas, limiting options for thousands of the state’s elderly, advocates warned. The ripple effect of the cuts - estimated at $7.6 billion to almost $10 billion, or roughly one-third of Texas’ Medicaid spending - will endanger lives, kill jobs, strain the state’s economy, and cost Texas more money in the long run, they said…”

Misuse of welfare money is minimal, data show, By Madeleine Baran, March 15, 2011, Minnesota Public Radio: “Republican state lawmakers have proposed new restrictions to prevent poor people from spending welfare money on alcohol, tobacco and lottery tickets. However, the available data suggests misuse of welfare money is minimal. Instead, people who receive welfare said the legislation would make it impossible to use the money for basic needs, like paying rent and doing laundry. ‘It’s degrading enough, and now they want to degrade me even more, and that’s wrong,’ said Gigi Wright, a welfare recipient who would be affected by the changes. Republican lawmakers have authored several bills this session that would impose restrictions on the transaction card that welfare recipients use to access their monthly benefits. At a press conference in late January, lawmakers introduced the bills while standing next to a display of beer, cigarettes, and lottery tickets — items that aren’t supposed to be purchased using welfare money…”

• Floridians may get fewer federal unemployment benefits, if state insurance cut, By Marcia Heroux Pounds, March 6, 2011, Sun Sentinel: “Florida residents who lose their jobs will get fewer unemployment benefits than residents in any other state if a House bill reducing benefits is passed, says a national advocacy group for the unemployed. Republican legislators said the cuts are necessary to protect Florida’s business climate. But benefits experts say Florida’s unemployed will get penalized twice. At issue are the federal unemployment benefits that kick in after state benefits are exhausted. House sponsors of HB 7005 said reducing the state’s payment would not cut the federal entitlement the unemployed can claim. But not everyone agrees…”
• Fla. House gives first OK to reduce jobless benefits, By Jason Garcia, March 9, 2011, Orlando Sentinel: “The Florida House of Representatives tentatively approved a plan Wednesday that would slash unemployment benefits for out-of-work Floridians and pass much of the savings on to businesses. The sweeping legislation would both cut the maximum number of weeks unemployed workers could receive state payments, from 26 to 20, and reduce the tax levied against businesses to pay for the program. It would also make it easier for businesses to deny benefits. A top priority of the state’s business lobby, the unemployment-compensation package was the first substantive measure taken up on the floor of the House in the 2011 legislative session, which opened Tuesday. An estimated 400,000 Floridians are currently receiving unemployment benefits, as the state’s unemployment rate remains stuck at about 12 percent…”

• Microfinance struggles to restore its reputation, By Erika Kinetz (AP), March 7, 2011, Boston Globe: “Long heralded as a way to lift the downtrodden out of poverty, microfinance is under a cloud. The stories of lives being changed by a $27 microloan and picture perfect scenes of smiling women with colorful handlooms, empowered by affordable credit, have been replaced by headlines about borrowers driven to suicide. At best, microfinance seems to be failing to achieve its most noble goal: poverty alleviation. At worst, some lenders are contributing to a cycle of indebtedness and abuse, just like the loan sharks they sought to replace. Critics say the industry has grown too quickly for its own good, with too much rapaciousness and too little regulation. That has fostered a breakdown in lending discipline, with multiple loans to overextended borrowers, and allowed some unscrupulous players to thrive…”
• India’s poor need help to help themselves, By Sarika Bansal, March 7, 2011, The Guardian: “Until recently, microfinance has been the golden child of international development. Microfinance companies would lend small amounts of money to poor women who would, in the ideal scenario, use them to start small businesses. Their interest rates were typically lower than loan sharks’ but still high enough to make a profit. Around the world, development experts believed microfinance was an ideal way to alleviate poverty, a smart way to ‘do good’ while also ‘doing well’. How times have changed. In the last few months, many people have become newly critical. In November, politicians in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh started making bold claims about how microfinance’s crushing interest rates and strongman tactics were, among other things, leading to suicide among over-indebted borrowers…”

• Governors differ on extent of flexibility for Medicaid, By Amy Goldstein and Dan Balz, February 28, 2011, Washington Post: “Democratic and Republican governors, burdened by crushing budget pressures from Medicaid, said Sunday that federal officials should allow them more freedom to change eligibility rules and other aspects of the public health insurance program for the poor. But they displayed sharp ideological differences over how far such flexibility should go. After a series of private conversations at the National Governors Association’s semiannual meeting over the weekend, leaders of the group formed a bipartisan committee to explore in detail what kind of flexibility over Medicaid the governors can agree to seek from federal health officials. It remains unclear whether they will be able to forge such common ground, given their partisan disagreements over both Medicaid and the new federal law to reshape the health-care system. ‘The closer governors get to Washington, the more they start acting like members of Congress,’ said Oregon Gov. John A. Kitzhaber (D), vice chairman of the NGA’s Health and Human Services Committee, referring to the rancorous debate over health care that persists on Capitol Hill.
• Governors: Medicaid more a budget buster than ever, By Julie Rovner, February 28, 2011, National Public Radio: “The federal government and the states have shared the cost of Medicaid, the health insurance program for some 60 million low-income Americans, since it was created in 1965. They’ve shared something else almost that long - arguments about who should foot how much of the ever-escalating bill. ‘Medicaid cost growth has been a problem for time immemorial,’ says Alan Weil, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy. But this time, he says, things are different. For one thing, ‘the program is bigger, so growth on a larger base is more real dollars that’s harder to find…’”

Obama plans to rescue states with debt burdens, By Michael Cooper and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, February 8, 2011, New York Times: “President Obama is proposing to ride to the rescue of states that have borrowed billions of dollars from the federal government to continue paying unemployment benefits during the economic downturn. His plan would give the states a two-year breather before automatic tax increases would hit employers, and before states would have to start paying interest on the loans. The proposal, which administration officials said would be included in the 2012 budget that the president is scheduled to unveil next week, was greeted coolly by Republicans on Capitol Hill, who warned that the plan would ultimately force many states to raise their unemployment taxes in the years to come. But the White House is calculating that the proposal will ultimately appeal to Republicans because it involves a tax moratorium right now for hard-hit states during a still-fragile economic recovery…”

• Health-care law: Arizona tries new approach to get by federal Medicaid rules, By N.C. Aizenman, January 23, 2011, Washington Post: “Republican efforts to repeal or limit the reach of the new health-care law took a new direction last week when Arizona lawmakers approved a novel and controversial attempt to cut Medicaid for 280,000 of the state’s poor. The bill, requested and signed by Gov. Jan Brewer (R), empowers her to make a formal request, most likely this week, for a federal waiver to avoid complying with provisions of the law that prohibit states from tightening their eligibility requirements for Medicaid. Twenty-nine Republican governors, including Brewer, have signed a letter calling on President Obama and congressional leaders to remove the provision from the law. But Arizona is the first state to, in effect, play chicken with the Obama administration by directly requesting a reprieve and daring Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to refuse…”
• States may face showdown with feds over cutting Medicaid rolls, By Marilyn Werber Serafini and Julie Appleby, January 28, 2011, Kaiser Health News: “Financially strapped governors, Congress and the Obama administration could be headed for a showdown over the Medicaid health care program that covers 48 million poor, disabled and elderly people nationwide. Arizona’s governor has already asked for permission to drop people from the joint federal-state program, which states say is eating up huge portions of their budgets. But to do so, they need the green light either from Congress or the Obama administration. If they don’t get one? States warn they may need to slash payments to doctors and hospitals and make deep cuts in other programs such as education. They could even thumb their nose at the law and cut eligibility, which would force the Obama administration to decide whether to cut all federal Medicaid funding to those states…”

• Arizona lawmakers back governor on Medicaid waiver, By Paul Davenport (AP), January 20, 2011, Washington Post: “The Arizona Legislature on Thursday authorized Republican Gov. Jan Brewer to seek a federal waiver allowing the cash-short state to temporarily remove nearly 300,000 people from its Medicaid rolls in the first such request by a state. The House and Senate approved the authorization requested by Brewer amid questions about whether the waiver request would be approved by President Barack Obama’s administration, and if the legislation would survive an anticipated court challenge. Brewer wants to suspend the eligibility of 280,000 low-income adults, which would scale back the state’s coverage to near that of most other states and save $541.5 million. It’s the single biggest element in Brewer’s plan to eliminate a projected $1.1 billion shortfall in the next state budget…”
• Dayton: Medicaid shift will be soon, By Warren Wolfe, January 20, 2011, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Briskly brushing aside the views of his predecessor, Gov. Mark Dayton said Thursday that Minnesota will begin a major expansion of its Medicaid program on March 1, not in October as the Pawlenty administration had projected. His decision to move about 95,000 patients into Medicaid was a ‘no-brainer,’ Dayton said at a news conference. The shift will offer more comprehensive care for most of the affected patients and is expected to bring Minnesota about $1.1 billion in federal funds over the next biennium. There will be no net cost to the state beyond what it would have spent for those patients who are currently on two state health plans, state analysts concluded. While the move was applauded by many health care providers and Dayton’s DFL allies, Republicans said the expansion will be shortsighted…”

• As state budgets, payrolls shrink, so do ambitions, By John Gramlich, January 10, 2011, Stateline.org: “Four years ago, Washington Governor Chris Gregoire beamed as she presented her new state budget to the public. It was a good-times spending plan that took billions of dollars in tax revenue drawn from a bustling high-tech economy and poured it into education, health care and social services. ‘I love my budget,’ she said, calling it a roadmap ‘to change the status quo.’ These days, Gregoire would love to return to the status quo of old. Last month, she proposed another two-year budget that is notable not for the investments it makes, but for the spending cuts it requires, many of which reverse her priorities of just a few years ago. Gone are subsidized health insurance for 66,000 working poor and 27,000 children; funding for early childhood education; the state tourism office; and even Washington’s 2012 presidential primary election, which she intends to cancel in favor of party caucuses to save $10 million. If approved, the budget would be the first one in Washington State since the Great Depression to decrease overall state spending from one biennium to the next…”
• States adjust to a more frugal Washington, By Pamela M. Prah, January 11, 2011, Stateline.org: “As a new power dynamic takes hold in Washington, one thing is clear for cash-strapped states: Whether they think of federal aid money as an essential economic boost or a wasteful bailout, the help is over. For states that have leaned heavily on federal stimulus dollars to balance their budgets during their worst fiscal crisis in generations, Washington’s more austere attitude will come as a big change. But the really interesting question for 2011 is whether the state-federal relationship may change in more fundamental ways than Congress simply turning off the spigot of emergency budget aid…”
• Republicans face obstacles in redistricting, By Daniel C. Vock, January 12, 2011, Stateline.org: “If there is any state where the power to draw political district lines is well understood, surely it must be Texas. It was in Texas, after all, where Democratic state legislators fled the Capitol and later the state in 2003 to stall a controversial Republican redistricting plan. The Democrats ultimately relented and the Republicans passed their unusual ‘mid-decade’ map. Partly as a result, the GOP gained six congressional seats in the next election…”
• State budget outlook: the worst isn’t over, By Josh Goodman, January 13, 2011, Stateline.org: “Last year, to the surprise of many people in Maryland, the state ended the fiscal year with a $344 million surplus. State revenues, beaten down by the recession, had begun to increase again - and they’ve continued to rise ever since. After three revenue-draining years, it seems, the long-awaited economic recovery has begun. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the uptick won’t be anywhere near enough to save Maryland from what will likely be the worst year yet of its current budget crisis. Even with the recent revenue growth, Maryland faces a budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year of somewhere between $1.3 billion and $1.6 billion. As a result, this year may be the first time in the current economic downturn that Maryland cuts K-12 education spending to a lower amount than it was the year before. Also for the first time, major layoffs of state workers may be coming…”
• Health care budgets in critical condition, By Christine Vestal, January 14, 2011, Stateline.org: “Ever since Congress passed a sweeping health care reform law last year, states have been split into two groups moving essentially in opposite directions. Going one way are states like California, where leaders from both parties have embraced the federal law and even accelerated plans to implement it. Democrats in the Legislature last summer wasted no time writing a bill to create a health insurance exchange - a key element of the national framework - and Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was then governor, signed it. California also sought and won a special waiver from the federal government to allow low-income adults now covered by state-funded health care programs to move into federally funded Medicaid plans prior to the 2014 effective date. Going the other way are states like Arizona, where leaders wish the federal health care law would go away. First, Republican Governor Jan Brewer joined one of several legal battles aimed at overturning the federal law. Then, Brewer supported a successful ballot measure that rejects one of the core principles of the law, the so-called ‘individual mandate’ requiring every American to buy health insurance. Now, with a gaping hole in her upcoming budget, Brewer is asking Washington for permission to scale back Arizona’s existing Medicaid program until health care reform takes effect in 2014…”

Indian state empowers poor to fight corruption, By Lydia Polgreen, December 2, 2010, New York Times: “The village bureaucrat shifted from foot to foot, hands clasped behind his back, beads of sweat forming on his balding head. The eyes of hundreds of wiry village laborers, clad in dusty lungis, were fixed upon him. A group of auditors, themselves villagers, read their findings. A signature had been forged for the delivery of soil to rehabilitate farmland. The soil had never arrived, and about $4,000 was missing. The bureaucrat, a low-level field assistant who uses the single name Sreekanth, was suspected of stealing it. ‘I am a very rightful person,’ he declared. But the presiding official would have none of it. He ordered that the money be recovered and that Mr. Sreekanth be promptly disciplined. That simple verdict was part of a sweeping experiment in grass-roots democracy in rural India aimed at ensuring that the benefits of government programs for the poor actually go to the poor. It empowers villagers to act as watchdogs and to perform ’social audits’ like the one that meted out quick justice to Mr. Sreekanth. Their success or failure could have broad implications for India’s quest to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty…”

• Congress approves Child Nutrition Bill, By Robert Pear, December 2, 2010, New York Times: “Congress gave final approval on Thursday to a child nutrition bill that expands the school lunch program and sets new standards to improve the quality of school meals, with more fruits and vegetables. Michelle Obama lobbied for the bill as a way to combat obesity and hunger. About half of the $4.5 billion cost is financed by a cut in food stamps starting in several years. Mrs. Obama said she was thrilled by passage of what she described as a groundbreaking piece of legislation. By a vote of 264 to 157, the House on Thursday passed the bill, which was approved in the Senate by unanimous consent in August. It goes now to President Obama, who intends to sign it…”
• House votes a $4.5 billion boost for child nutrition, school lunches, By Amanda Paulson, December 2, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “Congress took aim at childhood obesity and hunger Thursday with passage of a landmark child nutrition bill. The bill, formally known as the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, includes some of the biggest changes to the Child Nutrition Act since the program was started nearly half a century ago. The House passed it by a vote of 264 to 157 Thursday. The Senate unanimously approved it in August, and President Obama is expected to sign it soon…”

House votes to send child nutrition bill to President Obama, By Nick Anderson, December 2, 2010, Washington Post: “The Democratic-led House voted Thursday to send President Obama a bill that would enable more poor children to receive free meals at school, raise the nutritional quality of cafeteria fare, and reduce the junk food and sugary beverages sold in school vending machines. The bill, which cleared the Senate in the summer, won House approval on a 264-157 vote. More than 15 Republicans broke party ranks to join Democrats in favor of the bill. A handful of Democrats were opposed. The bill, a priority for the president and first lady Michelle Obama, would boost spending on child nutrition $4.5 billion over 10 years and raise federal reimbursements for school lunches more than the inflation rate for the first time since 1973. It also would require for the first time that free drinking water be available where meals are served…”

Millions to lose unemployment benefits, By David Welna, December 1, 2010, National Public Radio: “Things just got worse for the millions of Americans who have been unemployed for up to 99 weeks. At the stroke of midnight Tuesday, a short-term extension of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed expired as Democrats and Republicans in Congress failed to agree on how those benefits should be further extended. Congress decided last July to extend long-term unemployment insurance only until the end of November. November has now given way to December, and West Virginia Democratic Sen. John D. Rockefeller lamented that those benefits have run out, just in time for the holiday season. ‘I feel terrible about it, particularly in West Virginia where everybody’s fighting to survive all the time. And we have to do it,’ he said. ‘Why we haven’t done it, I don’t know.’ The House has already tried once - and failed - in the current lame-duck session to extend the jobless benefits. In the Senate, No. 2 Democrat Dick Durbin appeared stricken Tuesday when asked what that chamber planned to do about the 2 million people losing their jobless benefits…”

• Health coverage at risk for working poor in Pa., By Don Sapatkin, November 17, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “An affordable health-insurance program for low-income working people that was started by Gov. Tom Ridge and expanded under Gov. Rendell is projected to run out of money within weeks after Gov.-elect Corbett takes office, administration officials said. Contractual obligations mean that insurance-termination notices may need to go to tens of thousands of subscribers in the program, known as adultBasic, even before the new governor is sworn in, if more than $50 million is not found before then, they said. As attorney general, Corbett joined a lawsuit seeking to overturn President Obama’s health-care overhaul. The opposition was based on the mandate that individuals and many businesses sign up or pay a fine, said Kevin Harley, a spokesman for the transition. The governor-elect said during the campaign that he supported plans to continue funding the state program at least through the fiscal year that ends June 30…”
• With Medicaid waiver, California dives into health care reform, By Christine Vestal, November 19, 2010, Stateline.org: “Nearly missed in the noise from newly elected politicians vowing to upend the Obama administration’s health care reform law was a federal decision allowing California to start implementing it - and improve its fiscal situation in the process. On Election Day, California got word it would receive $10 billion in federal Medicaid money to extend coverage to some 500,000 people who are currently uninsured. The initiative means the nation’s most populous state will dive right into the new health law’s biggest challenge: providing coverage for low-income adults who are not eligible for Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor. The plan, which the state calls a ‘bridge to reform,’ is also designed to bolster the state’s safety-net hospitals, as well as lower overall health care costs. Under the Nov. 2 agreement - a waiver of standard Medicaid rules aimed at allowing states to test innovative new programs - California promised to shave $2 billion per year from its existing Medicaid bill by streamlining care for its highest-cost recipients: seniors, adults with disabilities and children with severe illnesses. The federal government agreed to give California $2 billion per year in return…”
• Maine Republicans say they will end ‘Dirigo’ health care experiment, By Pamela M. Prah, November 17, 2010, Stateline.org: “Before there was a federal health care overhaul, and before there was a Massachusetts law to use as a model for the national plan, there was Dirigo. That’s what Maine called its first-in-the-nation attempt at achieving universal health coverage when Democrats approved the plan back in 2003. Now, the Maine program may be one of the first casualties of the Republican landslide in state capitals. Maine’s incoming governor, Paul LePage, pledged during the campaign to ‘repeal and replace’ the plan, which is Latin for ‘I lead’ and is the state’s motto. Republicans also took control of the Maine House and Senate, making the state one of only two to flip from total Democratic control to total control by Republicans (Wisconsin was the other)…”

• Jobless-benefits bill rejected, By Janet Hook and Martin Vaughn, November 19, 2010, Wall Street Journal: “House Republicans Thursday torpedoed a bill to extend benefits for the long-term unemployed, pressing their demand that the $12 billion cost of the program be offset rather than adding to the deficit. In a defeat for Democrats trying to keep the program from expiring Nov. 30, the House rejected a bill to continue the program for three more months. Lawmakers in both parties expect a compromise eventually to be reached-but not until December, after the current program expires. Without an extension, 800,000 unemployed workers will lose their benefits by Nov. 30 and two million by the end of December. The unemployment aid is just one of many issues before the lame duck Congress that are confounding President Barack Obama and congressional leaders. Others include the fate of the Bush-era tax cuts due to expire Dec. 31 and a funding mechanism to keep the government running after a stop-gap appropriations bill expires Dec. 3…”
• Filibuster blocks U.S. aid for jobless, By Ann Belser, November 19, 2010, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “On the same day the state reported that there were still 560,000 unemployed Pennsylvanians in October, congressional Republicans blocked a measure that would have reauthorized the national extension of unemployment benefits. The state’s Department of Labor and Industry announced Thursday afternoon that the unemployment rate last month dropped to 8.8 percent, the same level as January, as Pennsylvania gained nearly 16,000 nonfarm jobs. Reauthorization of unemployment benefits would have allowed states to pay unemployment compensation past the standard 26 weeks up to 99 weeks, as they have been doing since early in the recession…”
• House GOP blocks extension of jobless benefits, By Lisa Mascaro, November 18, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “House Republicans voted Thursday to deny an extension of unemployment benefits for jobless Americans and tried to cut off public funding for National Public Radio, moves that reinforced the GOP’s direction following its midterm election gains. The votes were not necessarily new tactics, as Republicans have generally opposed extending unemployment insurance unless it is paid for with federal spending cuts elsewhere, and have pledged to take weekly votes to cut federal spending. But the two House votes, within hours of each other as lawmakers prepared to recess for a Thanksgiving break, provided an example of the agenda to come when the GOP takes control of the chamber in January…”
• EPI: Extending federal unemployment benefits through 2011 could generate the equivalent of 700,000 jobs, By Jackie Headapohl, November 9, 2010, MLive.com: “Not only do unemployment benefits assist the unemployed, they also boost spending in the economy and generate jobs, according to a brief from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. The brief states that extending unemployment insurance benefits through 2011 would generate more than 700,000 full-time-equivalent jobs while saving millions from poverty…”
• CBO: Unemployment benefits prevented record poverty rate in 2009, By Arthur Delaney, November 17, 2010, Huffington Post: “Extended unemployment insurance put in place to fight the recession prevented the poverty rate from rising to 15.4 percent in 2009, a level unseen since the 1960s, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The government announced in September that that the 2009 poverty rate had risen to 14.3 percent from 13.2 percent the previous year…”

Is ‘Race to the Top’ aid at risk?, By Catherine Candisky, November 19, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “In an effort to preserve his education plan, outgoing Gov. Ted Strickland went to Education Secretary Arne Duncan to put pressure on his successor to keep it. Strickland said yesterday that he told Duncan he fears Ohio will lose its $400 million federal Race to the Top grant if Gov.-elect John Kasich follows through on his plan to dump Strickland’s evidence-based school-funding model. ‘I asked Secretary Duncan if the (U.S.) Department of Education allowed states to change their plans’ after funds were awarded, ‘and how could it possibly be fair to other states,’ Strickland said. The governor said his evidence-based model ‘was such a vital part’ of Ohio’s plan that he questions whether the state would still qualify for the federal money…”

• End of jobless benefits is political plight, By Janet Hook and Sara Murray, November 15, 2010, Wall Street Journal: “Jobless benefits for two million unemployed Americans will begin to expire in two weeks, an issue Congress is ill-prepared to tackle during a packed lame-duck session that is shadowed by growing voter antipathy toward government spending. With the aid for the long-term unemployed due to lapse Nov. 30, Democrats are under heavy pressure to extend the program during the lame duck session because its prospects will likely dim after Republicans gain control of the House in January. The program, which provides aid for up to 99 weeks after workers are laid off, has been extended seven times during the current economic downturn. Democrats are hoping its critics will be loath to allow the benefits to lapse during the holiday season, with the unemployment rate still exceeding 9%. But the last time Congress extended the program, the summertime battle was so pitched that extended benefits lapsed for more than a month as Republicans opposed another extension on the grounds that it would add to the deficit-a concern that has only grown more prominent during and after the midterm elections…”
• Congress’ to-do list includes unemployment help, By Audie Cornish, November 15, 2010, National Public Radio: “Lawmakers have a long list of items to take up in their lame-duck session, and one of the things they could tackle is a federal program extending unemployment benefits for millions of laid-off workers. The money runs out at the end of November. If lawmakers don’t extend those unemployment benefits, millions of people will lose their checks over the next few months. The program funds jobless benefits beyond the 26 weeks that states normally provide. In states with the highest unemployment rates, workers are eligible for more than a year and a half of benefits…”
• Jobless benefits set to end yet again, By Catherine Candisky, November 14, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “Nearly 40 percent of Ohioans receiving jobless benefits will exhaust their unemployment by the end of December unless Congress agrees to continue funding extended benefits. According to state officials, 115,679 Ohioans will lose their benefits within a month if the program expires Nov. 30. By the end of April 2011, nearly all of the 291,998 receiving aid will fall off the rolls, said Benjamin Johnson, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Congressional Democrats, who will be in the minority in the House and have a diminished majority in the Senate, are considering a three- or six-month extension when lawmakers return to Washington this week for a brief lame-duck session. While some Democrats say they would like to pass a one-year extension, it’s doubtful there will be the votes to accomplish that…”

Proposal would restore state funding for child care, By Patrick McGreevy, October 19, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “Upset that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed $256 million in child-care money for the poor, the state Assembly leader announced a proposal Monday to go around the governor and restore funding until a new chief executive takes office in January. The program pays child-care costs for working parents who take jobs to move off welfare but can’t afford day care. The governor’s action means child care for 60,000 families will end Nov. 1 unless a stopgap measure is found. It would cost $60 million to extend the program through Jan. 1, after which the new Legislature could try to pass a measure to restore full funding, according to Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles)…”

• Welfare: Well-meaning, well-funded, well-done?, By John Richardson, October 17, 2010, Portland Press Herald: “Wherever the candidates for governor go in Maine, they say, one question is likely to follow them. What are you going to do about welfare? ‘I have never seen anger this intense about anything, with the possible exception of the Vietnam War,’ said Eliot Cutler, one of three independent candidates on the ballot. The face of welfare in Maine might be a mother buying cigarettes with her state-issued debit card. It might be an elderly neighbor on the edge of becoming homeless. Both pictures are accurate — and that’s one of the reasons that Maine’s complex system of aid to the poor creates starkly different views of welfare and the people who receive it. With a gubernatorial election coming in between a deep recession and a billion-dollar budget crisis, the topic of public assistance for the poor may be the most emotionally charged issue in the Nov. 2 election. Advocates and critics of the system both throw out statistics to support their views, but it is clear that Maine’s system is facing historic pressures…”
• Maine welfare system data proves hard to get, By John Richardson, October 17, 2010, Portland Press Herald: “There is nearly universal agreement on one criticism of Maine’s welfare system: Getting detailed information on what the state spends and who gets the money can be a tall order…”
• Poll shows Mainers dissatisfied with, mistrustful of assistance programs, By John Richardson, October 17, 2010, Portland Press Herald: “Maine voters are frustrated and skeptical about the state’s public assistance programs, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage has tapped into that anger far more than his rivals, according to a poll by MaineToday Media…”
• From Welfare to Work: For many Mainers, there’s no free lunch, By John Richardson, October 18, 2010, Portland Press Herald: “It’s 7:30 a.m., and Portland’s General Assistance office is filled with men and women who need help paying their rent or some other basic expense. But they’re here for the day’s job assignments. One by one, they are sent off to clean the city’s homeless shelter, do laundry at the Barron Center, clean up a park or do clerical work at City Hall, among other tasks. These days, for thousands of Mainers, welfare is work. And people on the receiving end say they like it that way…”
• Candidates tackle welfare: State’s assistance programs face a political reality check, By John Richardson, October 19, 2010, Portland Press Herald: “From a business executive who grew up in poverty to a longtime legislator who defends public assistance programs, the candidates for governor have widely differing perspectives on welfare in Maine. Whoever wins Nov. 2 is sure to oversee changes in Maine’s welfare system…”

‘Culture of poverty’ makes a comeback, By Patricia Cohen, October 17, 2010, New York Times: “For more than 40 years, social scientists investigating the causes of poverty have tended to treat cultural explanations like Lord Voldemort: That Which Must Not Be Named. The reticence was a legacy of the ugly battles that erupted after Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then an assistant labor secretary in the Johnson administration, introduced the idea of a ‘culture of poverty’ to the public in a startling 1965 report. Although Moynihan didn’t coin the phrase (that distinction belongs to the anthropologist Oscar Lewis), his description of the urban black family as caught in an inescapable ‘tangle of pathology’ of unmarried mothers and welfare dependency was seen as attributing self-perpetuating moral deficiencies to black people, as if blaming them for their own misfortune. Moynihan’s analysis never lost its appeal to conservative thinkers, whose arguments ultimately succeeded when President Bill Clinton signed a bill in 1996 ‘ending welfare as we know it.’ But in the overwhelmingly liberal ranks of academic sociology and anthropology the word ‘culture’ became a live grenade, and the idea that attitudes and behavior patterns kept people poor was shunned. Now, after decades of silence, these scholars are speaking openly about you-know-what, conceding that culture and persistent poverty are enmeshed…”

• Call center waits prove frustrating, By Phil Anderson, October 10, 2010, Topeka Capital-Journal: “Please don’t mention the word ‘filibuster’ to Kansas Department of Labor Secretary Jim Garner. He really doesn’t want to hear it. Not after a summer in which a filibuster that started in early June by U.S. Senate Republicans contributed to almost two months of delays in processing extensions to unemployment claims that Garner said resulted in thousands of frustrated Kansans having to wait weeks for benefits or information regarding their eligibility. The previous unemployment extension expired June 2, he said. Many thought passage of a new extension would be a mere formality, but the Senate filibuster action changed that. Garner said the Kansas Department of Labor had to stop taking applications because the federal extended benefit program ‘wasn’t legally in existence…’”
• N.H. long-term jobless take a hit: Feds shift burden to local welfare rolls, By John Nolen, October 11, 2010, Foster’s Daily Democrat: “Some unfortunate Granite Staters who lost their jobs when the recession began to impact New Hampshire in January 2009, have been unable to find work since then. Their woes eased slightly this summer when Congress voted to extend unemployment benefits to 99 weeks for this might have carried them through to November. It was a false dawn, though. Like just a handful of states, New Hampshire’s unemployment rate has averaged below six percent in recent months, and so the latest federal benefit extension lifeline has excluded the long-term unemployed in New Hampshire. The calculations that go into the 99-week unemployment payments are complex, and in the process a few states with lower unemployment rates may be filtered out of some of the federal programs…”

• Employment picture dims as government cuts back, By Catherine Rampell, October 8, 2010, New York Times: “In the one-two punch many had long been fearing, hiring by businesses has slowed significantly while government jobs are disappearing at a record pace. Companies added 64,000 jobs last month, after having added 93,000 jobs in August, the Labor Department reported Friday. But over all, the economy shed 95,000 nonfarm jobs in September, the result of a 159,000 decline in government jobs at all levels. Local governments in particular cut jobs at the fastest rate in almost 30 years…”
• Economy continues shedding jobs, posing challenge for Obama, Democrats, By Michael A. Fletcher, October 8, 2010, Washington Post: “The nation’s economy continued shedding jobs in September, as modest increases in private employment were offset by the steep loss of government jobs, the government reported on Friday. The unemployment rate remained at 9.6 percent in the final jobs report before the midterm elections. It marked the 17th consecutive month that the nation’s unemployment rate has been above 9 percent, sharpening the challenge facing President Obama and congressional Democrats, whose policies have failed to produce significant new hiring…”

Haiti still waiting for pledged US aid, By Jonathan M. Katz and Martha Mendoza (AP), September 29, 2010, National Public Radio: “Nearly nine months after the earthquake, more than a million Haitians still live on the streets between piles of rubble. One reason: Not a cent of the $1.15 billion the U.S. promised for rebuilding has arrived. The money was pledged by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in March for use this year in rebuilding. The U.S. has already spent more than $1.1 billion on post-quake relief, but without long-term funds, the reconstruction of the wrecked capital cannot begin. With just a week to go before fiscal 2010 ends, the money is still tied up in Washington. At fault: bureaucracy, disorganization and a lack of urgency, The Associated Press learned in interviews with officials in the State Department, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the White House and the U.N. Office of the Special Envoy. One senator has held up a key authorization bill because of a $5 million provision he says will be wasteful. Meanwhile, deaths in Port-au-Prince are mounting, as quake survivors scramble to live without shelter or food…”

Poverty numbers get muted reaction on Hill, By Michael A. Fletcher, September 18, 2010, Washington Post: “Deborah Weinstein, a longtime advocate for the poor, calls the news that one in seven Americans is living in poverty ‘a national emergency.’ But for much of Washington’s political class, the shocking new poverty numbers provoked not alarm about the poor but further debate over tax cuts for the middle class. ‘We know that a strong middle class leads a strong economy,’ President Obama told reporters in the Rose Garden on Friday, as he used the new census report, which also showed that middle-class income has dipped slightly over the past decade, to continue making his case for limiting the cuts to family incomes under $250,000. Meanwhile, Republican leaders in the House and Senate had no reaction to the poverty report. But earlier in the week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took the Senate floor to argue for extending the tax breaks to everyone, saying, ‘We can’t let the people who have been hit hardest by this recession and who we need to create jobs to get us out of it’ be subject to a tax increase. McConnell’s spokesman later clarified the statement, saying that McConnell indeed believes the economic downturn has hit the poor harder than it has high-income business owners, who also have suffered. The reluctance of political leaders on both sides of the aisle to directly confront the fact that growing numbers of Americans are slipping into poverty reflects a stubborn reality about the poor: They are not much of a political constituency…”

With election looming, record gains in poverty expected, By Hope Yen and Liz Sidoti (AP), September 12, 2010, Lawrence Journal World: “The number of people in the U.S. who are in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Barack Obama’s watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty. Census figures for 2009 - the recession-ravaged first year of the Democrat’s presidency - are to be released in the coming week, and demographers expect grim findings. It’s unfortunate timing for Obama and his party just seven weeks before important elections when control of Congress is at stake. The anticipated poverty rate increase - from 13.2 percent to about 15 percent - would be another blow to Democrats struggling to persuade voters to keep them in power. ‘The most important anti-poverty effort is growing the economy and making sure there are enough jobs out there,’ Obama said Friday at a White House news conference. He stressed his commitment to helping the poor achieve middle-class status and said, ‘If we can grow the economy faster and create more jobs, then everybody is swept up into that virtuous cycle.’ Interviews with six demographers who closely track poverty trends found wide consensus that 2009 figures are likely to show a significant rate increase to the range of 14.7 percent to 15 percent…”

• Federal aid leaves Kentucky Medicaid short, provides extra for schools, By Tom Loftus, September 9, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Congress’ recent effort to help the states financially will provide $135 million in unanticipated aid to Kentucky schools - but still leaves a $470 million hole in the Medicaid budget. In making that announcement at a news conference Thursday, Gov. Steve Beshear blamed the Medicaid shortfall on the General Assembly. He said legislators ‘assumed we would get millions more and balanced their budget on that assumption. … I called it ‘a hope and a prayer’ when they came up with it. It leaves us in a real crunch.’ For their part, legislative leaders accused the administration of stonewalling committees that were seeking ways to contain Medicaid’s burgeoning cost. The amounts for Medicaid and the schools are roughly the same as the projections made at the time Congress passed the Education, Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act in August. The shortfall in Medicaid, a $5.2 billion program that provides health care for 800,000 poor and disabled Kentuckians, results from an inaccurate estimate of anticipated federal assistance in the 2010-12 budget approved by the General Assembly in May…”
• Beshear: State faces $470 million shortfall in Medicaid budget, By Jack Brammer, September 10, 2010, Lexington Herald-Leader: “A looming $470 million shortfall in the state Medicaid budget could have ‘a catastrophic impact’ on Kentuckians, Gov. Steve Beshear said Thursday as he announced the state will not get as much federal funding for the program as expected. Beshear had better news in reporting that Kentucky will receive nearly $135 million in federal money to support teachers, but that money can’t be used to help the cash-strapped Medicaid program that provides health insurance for the needy. Beshear said at a Capitol news conference that the state budget approved this year by the General Assembly assumed the federal government would provide an additional $238 million for Medicaid. Congress did provide additional money to help the states last month, but Kentucky will receive $137 million - only about 58 percent of what was expected, he said.That leaves a $111 million hole, Beshear said. Since funding for Medicaid is matched by the federal government on a roughly 4-to-1 basis, the gap represents a $470 million total program shortfall, the Democratic governor said. About 800,000 poor and disabled Kentuckians depend on the $6 billion program for health insurance…”

Jobs hang in balance, By Gerry Smith, September 6, 2010, Chicago Tribune: “Moises Vasquez was laid off in March from a chicken processing plant, but he was not unemployed for long. One month later he found a job at a granite and marble recycling company in Schiller Park. But his new employer, Earth Stone Products of Illinois, does not pay his wages. Uncle Sam does. Vasquez, 27, is one of about 25,000 people employed through Put Illinois to Work, a subsidized jobs program that helps unemployed workers gain new skills with $200 million from the federal stimulus package. Since the program was announced in April, Put Illinois to Work has become the nation’s largest year-round subsidized employment program. In June, state officials stopped accepting applications because there were not enough jobs for the 60,000 people who applied. But in coming weeks, Vasquez and other workers supported by the program could be unemployed again unless Congress extends the fund that supports Put Illinois to Work. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Emergency Contingency Fund expires Sept. 30. An extension of the federal fund has been packaged in larger bills that passed the House twice but stalled in the Senate after Republicans and some Democrats said the legislation would increase the deficit…”

• Joblessness in America: A stickier problem, August 26, 2010, The Economist: “The economy stopped shrinking a year ago, but America’s unemployment problem is as big as ever. The official jobless rate was 9.5% in July, and would be higher still had many people not given up searching for work. Some 45% of the unemployed have been out of a job for more than six months-the highest proportion since the 1930s. And judging by the recent rise in applications for unemployment benefits, the situation may soon get worse rather than better. Why is joblessness still so high? The prevailing view among policymakers is that unemployment is a painful reflection of the economy’s weakness. Americans are out of work because the slump was deep and the recovery has been lacklustre. Stronger demand will eventually solve the problem…”
• Unemployment and the mid-terms: To help or not to help, August 26, 2010, The Economist: “The gargantuan statue of a dining-room chair that graces the centre of Martinsville is a tribute to the legacy of the local furniture-making industry. That legacy is grim, however: for decades, local factories, bested by foreign competition or automating to keep pace with it, have been shedding workers or shutting up shop altogether. Earlier this year American of Martinsville, a 100-year-old furniture manufacturer whose headquarters overlooks the giant seat, declared bankruptcy and closed its local factory, eliminating 225 jobs. Another local firm, Stanley Furniture, recently laid off 530 workers. Two other big local industries, textiles and tobacco, are equally sickly. Unemployment in the town, which was already 9% before the recession, is now 20%. Martinsville also happens to sit in one of the most marginal congressional districts in the country. At the most recent election, in 2008, Tom Perriello, a Democrat, ousted the Republican incumbent by just 727 votes, even as the district voted against Barack Obama for president. In November Robert Hurt, a popular state senator, aims to recapture the seat for the Republicans. Both candidates agree that the biggest local concern is unemployment. The same is true of America as a whole, where polls consistently rank the state of the economy, and unemployment in particular, as the voters’ main worry (see chart). But the two candidates, in keeping with the orthodoxy of their parties, have very different ideas about how to reduce it…”
• Economics focus: Bad circulation, August 26, 2010, The Economist: “Americans are used to thinking of their job market as lithe and supple. Employment snaps back quickly after recessions. Workers routinely shuttle between industries and cities to wherever jobs are abundant. But in the past decade, the labour market has resembled an ageing athlete. Each new injury is more painful and takes longer to heal. More than a year into the current economic recovery the unemployment rate remains stuck close to 10%, raising concerns about the kind of sclerosis that continental Europe suffered in the 1980s. The slow rehabilitation is in part because the economy suffered a trauma, not a scrape. The fall in GDP during the last recession was easily the largest of the post-war period, and output remains well below its potential. Few had expected a rapid return to full employment, but even modest expectations for jobs growth have not been met. Employment has actually fallen since the end of the recession; and unemployment would be even higher than it is were it not for discouraged would-be jobseekers quitting the workforce. Some economists now fret that other barriers besides weak demand stand between workers and jobs, and that high unemployment is partly ’structural’ in nature…”

Congress set to send states more aid, By Naftali Bendavid, August 5, 2010, Wall Street Journal: “Congress took a decisive step Wednesday toward finalizing a $26 billion bill offering aid to states, a surprise win for Democrats keen to demonstrate they’re taking action on an economy showing signs of weakness. The bill, designed to prevent teacher layoffs and help states with their Medicaid payments, comes after months of foot dragging by Congress. Lawmakers have proven reluctant to spend money on everything from stimulus projects to additional unemployment insurance, amid increasing voter concern about the size of the U.S. budget deficit. But Wednesday’s action, which won the support of two Republicans, suggests members of Congress are sufficiently concerned about the mixed signals from the economy that they’re willing to approve narrow spending bills, particularly those with political resonance ahead of this year’s midterm elections…”

Welfare agencies boost voters, By Richard Wolf, July 22, 2010, USA Today: “The recession that impoverished millions of Americans is producing a side effect: new voters. Lawsuits by voting rights groups in Missouri and Ohio have led hundreds of thousands of people to file voter registration applications at welfare agencies, as mandated by the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, or the ‘motor voter’ law. Cases pending in Indiana, New Mexico and other states, as well as new Justice Department guidelines, probably will boost those figures. Voting rights advocates say millions of low-income people could be registered this way. A U.S. Election Assistance Commission report in 2007-08 showed 21 states registered less than 1% of voters at welfare offices. Only Vermont, Tennessee and New York registered more than 4% that way…”

Extension of benefits for the jobless clears Senate hurdle, By Carl Hulse, July 20, 2010, New York Times: “The Senate broke a stalemate on Tuesday over extending unemployment benefits for Americans who have been out of work for six months or more, voting to override Republican objections that the bill’s costs would add to the federal deficit. On a 60-to-40 vote, the Democratic-led Senate agreed to cut off debate on the $34 billion plan to distribute added unemployment compensation through November for those who have exhausted their standard 26 weeks of aid. The 60 yeas were the minimum needed to overcome the threat of a filibuster and advance the bill to a final vote, expected later on Tuesday, when it is all but certain to pass. Two Republicans, Senators Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, joined 56 Democrats and two independents in voting for the legislation; 39 Republicans and one Democrat, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, opposed it…”

• After training, still scrambling for employment, By Peter S. Goodman, July 18, 2010, New York Times: “In what was beginning to feel like a previous life, Israel Valle had earned $18 an hour as an executive assistant to a designer at a prominent fashion label. Now, he was jobless and struggling to find work. He decided to invest in upgrading his skills. It was February 2009, and the city work force center in Downtown Brooklyn was jammed with hundreds of people hungry for paychecks. His caseworker urged him to take advantage of classes financed by the federal government, which had increased money for job training. Upgrade your skills, she counseled. Then she could arrange job interviews. For six weeks, Mr. Valle, 49, absorbed instruction in spreadsheets and word processing. He tinkered with his résumé. But the interviews his caseworker eventually arranged were for low-wage jobs, and they were mobbed by desperate applicants. More than a year later, Mr. Valle remains among the record 6.8 million Americans who have been officially jobless for six months or longer. He recently applied for welfare benefits…”
• Frustration and despair as job search drags on, By Michael Luo, July 17, 2010, New York Times: “In her well-thumbed, leather-bound Bible, Terri Sadler recently highlighted in bright pink a passage in the Gospel of Matthew. In it, Jesus urges his followers not to ‘worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.’ But Ms. Sadler’s tightening throat and halting breath when she tries to read the words aloud make it clear that she is having trouble mustering enough faith to follow them. Ms. Sadler, who lost her job at an automotive parts plant in October 2008, learned last month that her unemployment insurance had been cut off. She is one of an estimated 2.1 million Americans whose benefits have expired and who are waiting for an end to an impasse that has lasted months in the Senate over extending the payments once more to the long-term unemployed. Times have changed politically, however, and opposition is growing in Washington and abroad to deficit-bloating government spending, even for those who are hurting…”
• Obama assails G.O.P. for blocking benefits bill, By Helene Cooper, July 19, 2010, New York Times: “President Obama called on Congress on Monday to pass an extension of unemployment benefits, and leveled a sharp critique against Republican senators who have stopped passage of a bill that would give some relief to out-of-work Americans. Under pressure in an election year to reduce the unemployment rate, now at 9.5 percent, Mr. Obama also urged the Senate to approve a package of tax cuts and an expansion of lending to small businesses. ‘We all have to continue our efforts to do everything in our power to spur growth and hiring,’ Mr. Obama said at the White House. Senate Democrats are expected to bring the unemployment insurance bill back up on Tuesday, after they swear in another Democrat, Carte Goodwin of West Virginia, to be the interim successor to Robert C. Byrd, who died last month. Mr. Goodwin will provide Democrats with the 60th vote they need to close debate and pass the measure…”
• When being out of work becomes a chronic condition, By Floyd Norris, July 16, 2010, New York Times: “In the United States, unemployment has typically been a relatively brief affair. The vast majority of people who lost jobs soon found new work. That is not the way it has been in many other developed countries. In Europe and Japan, long-term unemployment is far more common. At any given time, most of the unemployed people in many European countries have been out of work for more than six months. Now the United States appears to be becoming similar to Europe. Even as the overall unemployment rate has begun to drop - falling to 9.5 percent in June from a peak of 10.1 percent last October - the proportion of the work force that has been out of work for more than six months has risen to 4.4 percent, as can be seen in the accompanying charts…”

• No unemployment extension: Benefits not in sight for the long-term jobless, By Michael A. Fletcher, July 13, 2010, Washington Post: “Even before his unemployment checks ended, Dwight Michael Frazee’s days were filled with the pursuit of any idea that could earn him a buck. But few are working out, and now his nights are filled with dread. In the coming weeks, the Senate is expected to resume its debate about whether to extend the emergency jobless benefits that were passed in response to the steep increase in unemployment caused by the recession. But people like Frazee, who have suffered the longest in the downturn, will not be part of that conversation. They are among the 1.4 million workers who have been unemployed for at least 99 weeks, according to the Labor Department, reaching the limit for the insurance. Their numbers have grown sixfold in the past three years. The 99ers are glaring examples of the nation’s most serious bout of long-term joblessness since the Great Depression. Nearly 46 percent of the country’s 14.6 million unemployed people have been out of work for more than six months, and forecasters project that the situation will not improve anytime soon. Currently, the Labor Department says there are nearly five unemployed people for every job opening…”
• When the benefits run out - and still no job, By Hibah Yousuf, July 13, 2010, CNNMoney.com: “Two years on the unemployment line is devastating. You deplete your savings. You borrow from your family. You feel that your life is slipping out of your control. And then you spend your last unemployment check. As the ranks of the long-term unemployed grow, the politicians in Washington are fighting over whether to extend deadlines so more people can get the maximum of 99 weeks of benefits. But 99 weeks is the cap. For Americans surviving on jobless benefits, that’s the end of the road. And there’s no movement in Washington to come to their aid. In fact, by the end of the year, more than 1 million people will have exhausted their 99 weeks and still be without work, according to Andrew Stettner, deputy director at the National Employment Law Project…”

In Haiti, the displaced are left clinging to the edge, By Deborah Sontag, July 10, 2010, New York Times: “Hundreds of displaced families live perilously in a single file of flimsy shanties planted along the median strip of a heavily congested coastal road here called the Route des Rails. Vehicles rumble by day and night, blaring horns, kicking up dust and belching exhaust. Residents try to protect themselves by positioning tires as bumpers in front of their shacks but cars still hit, injure and sometimes kill them. Rarely does anybody stop to offer help, and Judith Guillaume, 23, often wonders why. ‘Don’t they have a heart, or a suggestion?’ asked Ms. Guillaume, who covers her children’s noses with her floral skirt when the diesel fumes get especially strong. Six months after the earthquake that brought aid and attention here from around the world, the median-strip camp blends into the often numbing wretchedness of the post-disaster landscape. Only 28,000 of the 1.5 million Haitians displaced by the earthquake have moved into new homes, and the Port-au-Prince area remains a tableau of life in the ruins. The tableau does contain a spectrum of circumstances: precarious, neglected encampments; planned tent cities with latrines, showers and clinics; debris-strewn neighborhoods where residents have returned to both intact and condemnable houses; and, here and there, gleaming new shelters or bulldozed territory for a city of the future…”