Righting What's Left

Act 60 (amended as Act 68) is an education financing law that has been called Vermont’s Titanic because it is slowly but surely sinking the state into icy waters of unanchored education spending. In this episode, we examine the history of the controversial law, and three unexpected consequences that have followed as a result of its implementation. Further Reading: Woolf, Art."Vermont's taxes encourage education spending." https://amp.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/07/26/woolf-vermonts-taxes-encourage-education-spending/513132001/

VT's Health Care Advocate and other healthcare authorities have consistently opposed all federal measures that would have made health insurance more affordable for Vermonters. On the one hand, the state's political class kills all measures that would have brought Vermonters financial relief, and on the other hand, its members complain about the unaffordability of health insurance in Vermont. This episode explains why the two remaining insurance companies in Vermont keep raising premium rates and why this trend is bound to continue year after year. Articles Referenced: Hansen, Meg. "Health insurance mandate a step backward for Vermont health care." https://www.manchesterjournal.com/stories/health-insurance-mandate-a-step-backward-for-vermont-health-care,542082 --. "Sticks and no carrots: Association Health Plans in Vermont." https://www.reformer.com/stories/meg-hansen-sticks-and-no-carrots-association-health-plans-in-vermont,544857 Kaiser Health News. "Did The ACA Create Preexisting Condition Protections For People In Employer Plans?" https://khn.org/news/did-the-aca-create-preexisting-condition-protections-for-people-in-employer-plans/ VTDigger. "Health insurance rate increases approved — 12.4% for BCBS, 10.1% for MVP." https://vtdigger.org/2019/08/08/insurance-rate-increases-approved-12-4-for-bcbs-10-1-for-mvp/

What does Vermont's "record low" 2% unemployment rate actually indicate? This Thursday Thoughts episode unpacks the grim truth behind this often-repeated statistic.

In this episode, we will see how Montpelier systematically impoverishes Vermonters, how our politicians continually cry about racism to distract from their anti-economic growth agenda, and why I agree with the state's very first executive director of racial equity that Vermont needs a demographic change. Articles Referenced: Gleason, Patrick. "As Maryland Becomes Sixth State To Pass $15 Minimum Wage, Vermont Lawmakers Look To Follow Suit." https://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickgleason/2019/04/06/as-maryland-becomes-sixth-state-to-pass-15-minimum-wage-vermont-lawmakers-look-to-follow-suit/#59046ef856a2 McCoy, Pattie. "$15 minimum wage is bad economic policy." https://vtdigger.org/2019/04/03/pattie-mccoy-15-minimum-wage-bad-economic-policy/ VTDigger. "Q&A: Racial Equity Director Xusana Davis focuses on blindspots." https://vtdigger.org/2019/08/18/qa-racial-equity-director-xusana-davis-focuses-on-blindspots/

The episode discusses the origins of the opioid crisis, and the role played by the Sackler family (now worth multi-billions), the FDA, and bad actors in the medical and pharmacy professions. References: Keefe, Patrick Radden. "The Family That Built an Empire of Pain." https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain Macy, Beth. Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America. https://www.amazon.com/Dopesick-Dealers-Doctors-Company-Addicted/dp/0316551244 Meier, Barry. Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic. https://www.amazon.com/Pain-Killer-Empire-Americas-Epidemic/dp/0525511105 National Geographic. "This Is What Happens to Your Brain on Opioids." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDVV_M__CSI

On this episode of Thursday Thoughts, Meg shares her personal story, focusing on her travels and travails across the world and how Vermont became her home.

Cultural and political elites are convinced that Vermont has a white(ness) problem, alleging that the specter of systemic racism (i.e. white supremacy) perpetually haunts the Green Mountain State. This episode examines the academic roots of this pernicious ideology and examples of its consequences in public life today. Vanderbeck, Robert M. "Vermont and the Imaginative Geographies of American Whiteness." https://www.jstor.org/stable/4124437?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

The magnitude of Vermont’s public pension debt problem puts us among the bottom third of the states, and it has caused two major rating agencies to downgrade the state's bond rating. We are a critical point of this debt crisis -- pensioners could lose access to funds and Vermonters are likely to see doubling or even tripling of income taxes if the state seriously attempts to fund the growing pension liabilities. Meanwhile, legislative leaders responded by scolding the rating agencies, and the media lauded high schoolers who shut down a major intersection in Montpelier while demanding climate justice. In other words, the adults get away with zero accountability for their fiscal mismanagement and for brainwashing today's teens who don’t realize that they have to pay for this accumulating debt out of their own pockets in the near future.

The political apparatus of Vermont has been steadily destroying the state's economy and turning the populace into lab rats for radical sociopolitical experiments. This episode is the first of many to come that will analyze the role played by the media in maintaining the status quo, and keeping Vermont deep blue.

A Scott Trooper takes issue with my assessment of Vermont’s political scene to which I offer a definitive response. Articles referenced: Faher, Mike. “Senate OKs abortion-rights constitutional amendment.” https://vtdigger.org/2019/04/04/senate-oks-abortion-rights-constitutional-amendment/ Hansen, Meg. “Scott’s Absurd Crusade.” https://www.rutlandherald.com/opinion/perspective/scott-s-absurd-crusade/article_6897d60e-4b4b-5d9d-8ad6-69cbb6a5b97d.html --. “VT’s Sanctuary Status Appalls Republicans.” http://meg-hansen.com/vermonts-sanctuary-status-appalls-republicans/

The episode reviews the new ShowTime miniseries, The Loudest Voice, about Roger Ailes and the creation of Fox News, and explains how mainstream cultural elites believe that allowing the right to have a voice in the America public sphere amounts to dividing the nation.

The American political left in 2019 is a very different animal from the one that storied Vermont Republican politicians faced in the past. George Aiken, Jim Jeffords, Rickard Snelling, and Jim Douglas inhabited a dramatically different political landscape. So why do the Scott Troopers insist on resurrecting that obsolete brand? Why do they look backward and not forward for solutions to today’s problems? Why are they bent on renting a room in the house that Progressives built? This episode responds to the Troopers’ oft-repeated accusation that Vermont conservatives practice ideological purity and thus are myopic and intolerant.

When Montpelier politicizes health policy, the people of Vermont lose. N.B. Apologies for the audio fluctuations. Software patch was successful and chances that this issue will ever repeat = 0. Further Reading: Hansen, Meg. "Health insurance mandate a step backward for Vermont health care." https://www.manchesterjournal.com/stories/health-insurance-mandate-a-step-backward-for-vermont-health-care,542082 ---. "The Affordability Charade." https://vtdigger.org/2018/08/12/meg-hansen-affordability-charade/

This episode unpacks economic patriotism, populism and its bad rap, and why Vermont needs a booster shot of both.

This episode explores the motif of the "Double" in American film and Vermont politics.

FDR famously assured the American people that they had nothing to fear but fear itself. He is known for another important phrase: "bold and persistent experimentation." In this episode, using the example of the All-Payer ACO model (OneCare VT), we see how the Green Mountain State continues FDR’s tradition of bold and persistent experimentation. Further reading: Bateman, Ashley. "Vermont's OneCare All-Payer System Beset by Problems." https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/vermonts-onecare-all-payer-system-beset-by-problems Hansen, Meg. "Postpone vote on OneCare Vermont budget." https://vtdigger.org/2018/11/19/meg-hansen-postpone-vote-onecare-vermont-budget/ ---. "Unreliable Data Plagues Vermont’s All-Payer ACO Model." https://www.caledonianrecord.com/opinion/columns/meg-hansen-unreliable-data-plagues-vermont-s-all-payer-aco/article_b7bbb57d-cdbc-5c13-a0b9-0bbe1e6be675.html

In 1883, American philosopher William Graham Sumner coined the term, “The Forgotten Man,” to describe those who had been compelled to pay for the many reformist programs of the Progressive Era. Sumner wrote, “He works, he votes, generally he prays — but he always pays.” Over a century later, the political left has assumed the mantle of progressivism (albeit in a modified form), and nowhere is the predicament of Sumner’s forgotten man more pathetic than in the state of Vermont. Further reading: Klein, Naomi. "Capitalism vs. the Climate." https://www.thenation.com/article/capitalism-vs-climate/ Page, Guy. "New Act 250 would discourage country living." http://ethanallen.org/new-act-250-would-fight-forest-fragmentation-and-climate-change-discourage-country-living/

What is a Vermont Republican? The Scott Troopers, modern heirs of the Rockefeller Republicans, argue that only liberal Republicans can succeed in Vermont. In contrast, the Rebels believe that the right will only have a future when they show Vermonters that they stand for polices and positions that are distinct from the left.

This week, our activist legislature made Vermont first in the nation to enact radical restrictions on single-use plastic bags. The first "Thursday Thoughts" episode discusses the ideology underpinning climate change activism, and why the Green Left hates low-carbon, cheap nuclear energy. Articles referenced: LaMontagne, Eric. "Vermont is in Trouble." http://truenorthreports.com/vermont-is-in-trouble Shellenberger, Michael. "The Real Reason They Hate Nuclear" https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/02/14/the-real-reason-they-hate-nuclear-is-because-it-means-we-dont-need-renewables/

Vermont positions itself as the emblem of far-left politics in the newly reframed national abortion debate.