Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker’s main issue differentiating himself from Governor Deval Patrick has for weeks been his emphasis on cutting state spending, including eliminating 5000 jobs. But he hasn’t been specific about where those jobs are, so his criticism of the Patrick administration has lacked clarity, credibility and clout, easily dismissible as campaign rhetoric …
Continue reading Charlie Baker: Right on Municipal Workers’ Health Insurance
Name a position on health reform, and Scott Brown has taken it. As a state senator, he voted for the Massachusetts health reform law, which became the model for the federal law. Yet he rode to Washington on a pledge to be the 41st (and decisive) vote against health insurance reform legislation in the U.S. …
Continue reading Scott Brown – All squirrely on health reform
The course leading to the House vote on health insurance reform was clearly a case of winning ugly. We’ve all had an overdose of exposure to legislative sausage-making. But, in the end, the 219-to-212 vote was a huge step forward, an historic moment in the history of this country. More than 30 million uninsured people …
Continue reading Health Insurance Reform: The End of the Beginning
National Grid seems to have joined the ranks of such scam artists as vinyl siding salesmen and certain car mechanics. Judge for yourself, based on this experience of one of our neighbors, without heat and hot water for five days due to the storm. When Alison and Hal got the basement dry enough to attempt …
We are fond of saying we live a block from the Charles River......most of the time. This is the rest of the time. Ten inches of rain in 72 hours! The Charles is over its banks, with water coming up and onto the two-lane road we walk on nearly every day. The ducks and geese …
Governor Patrick is said to be planning a visit to Newton this Saturday. His campaign will be giving out bumper stickers and signing up supporters. Here’s what I hope he talks about: the cost of health insurance to cover city workers. It’s a case study in what ails local communities these days.Newton faces an $11 …
Continue reading Governor Patrick: Lead Communities to Health Insurance Savings
The Hit. For anyone who grew up in Boston, yesterday’s reopening of the Paramount Theatre on Washington Street downtown was both a trip down memory lane and an invitation to an exciting future. The theater opened in 1932 but decrepitude forced its closing in 1976. Emerson College has taken it over, invested a fortune (more …
Two little letters say it all about one’s perspective on Speaker Robert DeLeo’s proposal to site two resort casinos and slot machines at four racetracks in Massachusetts. He and other supporters speak of gaming (a harmless family entertainment akin to bingo night or Radio City Music Hall); opponents preserve the b and the l and …
Continue reading Casino Gambling for Massachusetts is a Crapshoot!
Thirteen rich white men want Massachusetts to go back to the old days, or so it seems. And they’re taking along with them one token individual without a Y chromosome. They are all CEO’s or former CEO’s, and apparently they think things were run just fine under the Vault half a century ago. The Vault …
Seven hours of discussion at Thursday’s health summit did produce some winners and losers on both sides of the table. The Republicans were winners because they were able to present themselves as having ideas, rather than just being naysayers. They had a wider audience for their versions of tort reform, expanding health savings accounts (nothing …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 