A big Medicaid proposal from Gov. Corbett, some moves from the Obama admin, and more. Here’s who had a good week and who needs a do-over.
Tom Corbett. The Governor took the driver’s seat this week when he proposed his plan to expand Pa. health care using Obamacare funds. In so doing he weakened one of his opponents’ sharp criticism of his administration. There are strong and valid criticisms of the plan from both sides, which could dog and ultimately sink the plan. But some of the key players on the provider side support it and the Governor has the high ground. He also put the ball in the Obama admin’s court.
PA Coal. A lot of Pennsylvania’s coal-burning power plants are on the edge already. The primary culprit, far more than government, is the availability of cheap natural gas. But those plants remain marginally profitable in the current regulatory environment. Now, President Obama’s administration is putting its finger on the scale. Stringent new regulations, announced Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency, could be the beginning of the end.
Marjorie Margolies. This week she leveraged her key strength to address her key weakness. The strength: her deep roots to national Democrats and other members of Congress. The weakness: her poor fundraising. She served a term in the 1990s and this week 33 former colleagues will co-host an event as she seeks the Democratic nomination in PA-13.
Bill Shuster. The Congressman was tapped as Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chair because he was seen as a bridge between establishment and tea party factions of the House Republicans. That looks like a good call. His first big test, a major funding bill for water projects, looks like it will pass the House without the major backlash that faces the farm bill and others. Plus he’ll get air support in his primary. A super PAC formed this week to back up the incumbent and take shots against challenger Art Halvorson.
Vince Fumo. Oops. It turns out the federal government doesn’t look too kindly on headlines about people under house arrest hosting lavish parties for friends, former staffers and politicos. The feds nixed a big party scheduled for Fumo’s home. Fumo, the former state Senator, was convicted on corruption charges in 2009 and recently left a federal corrections institute in Kentucky.
Ed Pawlowski. This.
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Tweet of the week: Jonathan Tamari, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s DC reporter.
As @SenToomey hammers ethanol someone on press row jokes: well, he’s not running for president #Inq
— Jonathan Tamari (@JonathanTamari) September 19, 2013
Runner up tweet of the week: Adam Bonin, attorney with an observation about PA-13.
I guess this is what happens when you don’t grab all the relevant domain names: http://t.co/av1HvLbjlt #PA13
— Adam Bonin (@adambonin) September 20, 2013
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8 Responses
PA Cyber School?…..Paindy1…how can you question an educational guru like Tommy Corbett? Did you know that near 50 %of the teachers voted for him last time! I bet he will do even better with educator in 2014, especially with those Penn State Alum. Also he was just offered a teaching job in Philly!
http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20130919_Teacher_to_top_leaders__Just_try_it.html
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/state/pa-cyber-ceos-consulting-work-questioned-662620/?print=1
Dear John Micek: I am not a Harrisburg sophisticate like you. Tell me how the Corbettcare policy was developed; PROVE I’M WRONG!! Did COS Leslie GROMIS-Baker and UPMC Scotty Baker get together with Brian Nutt and Jennifer Branstetter in Governor Brabender’s “Loudon County Camp David” and formulate the policy commonly known as Corbettcare, which is designed to subsidize the not for profit health systems indigent care, which justifies their not for profit status. Mr. John Micek: “Political Necrophilia it’s all good!”
http://blog.pennlive.com/capitol-notebook/2013/09/with_medicaid_plan_corbe
tt_has.html#incart_flyout_opinion
Mr. Eric Veronikis: my sources tell me that Sec. Will Harner was the subject of an alleged political hit job by the PA Cyber Charter School Profiteers. Who in the Brabender/Corbett administration ordered this Political hit Job and why? What doesn’t the Corbett Administration want to hide about the Cyber Charter Schools. http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/09/termination_agreement_led_to_f.html
daylin leach legal counsel stumbles on fake margolies website…shocking…guess that’s where you go at margolies 43 leach 7
Love how all these anti- government republicans want to get a place in government to…. stifle any progress and collect public tax dollars for doing so. Utterly disgusting.
Big Government Bill Shuster is terrified. Even if he does outspend his opponent 3-1 he can’t make his record disappear. If Halvorson can succeed in making this race about Shuster’s spending and expansion of government, Shuster will lose. And with plenty of Republicans also mad at Tom Corbett, this could be a very bad year for the GOP establishment.
He didn’t vote to ‘hold the President accountable’. We’ve had multiple elections and an unbelieveable amount of sturm und drang over Obamacare. The President has already been held accountable, and if memory serves he’s still President.
Shuster and his Republican colleagues voted to force a government shutdown over ideology. They couldn’t win the political fight the first time when the law passed, or the second time after the 2010 elections, or the third time in the 2012 election. So now they are holding a gun to the head of the American economy — again — and waiting for President Obama to act more responsibly than they do.
Elections are supposed to have consequences.
Perception is NOT reality; perception is perception. The Tea Party sees Bill Shuster for what he is. Bill Shuster’s record as a Big Spending Porker is extensive and a matter of government record. I am hoping money isn’t everything,
Bill Shuster did vote to hold the President accountable on fundamentally changing 1/6 of the US economy by voting YEA on the Continuing Resolutions defunding Obamacare (J.R. 59)