According to Obamacare, the federal government would cover 90 percent of the cost of such an expansion long-term. States would be required to pay the difference. When passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama, the Obamacare Medicaid expansion was mandatory, but in a 7-2 decision, the United States Supreme Court made the Medicaid […]
Jonathan Small
Point: Time to fix workers’ comp
Our current system makes employers and employees adversaries while impairing the rehabilitation of injured workers, burdening families and placing a heavy drag on Oklahomas economy and productivity. Ours is a system where everyone loses: the employers, the taxpayers and, most importantly, the injured workers themelves. For example, our system devotes more resources to litigation and […]
Medicaid expansion is the new SQ 744
Public- and private-sector leaders joined the campaign to publicize its unsustainable structure and potential harm to core services. Voters overwhelmingly rejected it. Oklahoma lawmakers now face a similar scenario. The Affordable Care Act provides for a massive expansion of Medicaid, allowing states to expand Medicaid to include many individuals below 133 percent of the federal […]
Point: Phase out state personal income tax
On Nov. 29, 2011, the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs and Dr. Art Laffer, an economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan, released the findings of a new research study. If Oklahoma were to phase out its income tax over a 10-year period without raising any other tax rates or burdens, Oklahoma would have the lowest […]
Point: Creating a boomtown in OKC
One strategic move that would create an economic boom in the metro would be for Oklahoma to phase out the state personal income tax. Can you imagine the boom that would happen throughout the OKC metro area if this happened? Places like the vibrant and growing Paseo Arts District and all of its entrepreneurs would […]
