I just finished reading an old (2005) piece by Malcolm Gladwell on health insurance. While a few of the statistics are no longer current, the policy perspective is perfectly fresh and very useful in the current health care reform conversation.

In particular, I was touched by the clarity of the final paragraph of the article:

Read Bee's Op-Ed on the Stimulus in Texas Weekly

Houston Chronicle's Rick Casey on the Stimulus

The Senate Finance Committee this morning voted unanimously to approve Senate Bill 1—the appropriations bill—and bring the committee's report to the Senate floor.

The proposed budget includes $10.9 billion in funding Texas will receive under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). However, Texans won't receive the full benefit of the ARRA funds, which represent federal income taxes paid by Texans coming back to our state.

I am so proud of all of you who have written and called to say that you sponsored Texas Impact's resolutions at your precinct caucuses on March 4! Hundreds of people downloaded the resolutions from our website in the 3 days before the caucuses, and we have had reports from all over the state about what a great experience it's been participating in the caucuses. I was extra-tickled that the first person to report passing the resolutions was Vicki Baggett from Nacogdoches, where I was born.

Our friend the Reverend Steve Brown of Virginia Interfaith Power & Light forwarded me an op-ed by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ross Gelbspan, who is the retired editor of the Boston Globe and an international expert and voice for change on global warming and energy. Ross is a great friend to Texas and Texas Impact who has travelled down here several times to speak to religious and secular audiences on global warming challenges and solutions. His website is http://www.heatisonline.org/

Ross's op-ed is absolutely required reading for faith communities for a number of reasons, the most important of which is the context for hope Ross continues to operate in. As language about global warming from the scientific community gets scarier, we will need different ways of thinking about the future to keep us from shutting down and giving up. Ross Gelbspan's perspective is one that helps me stay grounded in hope for the long term as opposed to grasping for optimism in the short term.

Climate change may destabilize democracies

By Ross Gelbspan

This op-ed first appeared in the Lowell, Massachusett, Sun.

While senators and representatives diddle over the beginnings of authentic climate change legislation, it is depressingly clear that even our best-intentioned leaders don’t really get it.

Today's Austin American-Statesman reprinted a New York Times column by David Brooks on health care reform, which column in turn drew on an article by Jason Bordoff in Democracy. Both articles present interesting ideas that are integral to the national debate on health care reform that is just launching.

The articles are particularly useful discussion tools because they examine the broader idea of social contracts, rather than dwelling on details of the current American health insurance system. Both articles discuss a recently introduced health care reform model proposed by Stuart Butler of the Heritage Foundation. Butler's proposal is likely to receive significant attention in the health care reform debate.

Before the congressional August recess, both the US House and the US Senate passed versions of legislation reauthorizing funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Both versions of SCHIP reauthorization include increased funding for the program, which is vital to account for inflation and population growth. The House version of the legislation includes a larger increase than the Senate version, which would allow states to cover more children.

There were two important new reports on poverty released this week. First, the US Census Bureau released its annual report Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States (pdf). And yesterday, Texas' own Center for Public Policy Priorities released The Family Budget Estimator: What It Really Takes to Get by in Texas, which analyzes living costs for a family of four in several Texas metro areas compared to the official US poverty guidelines.

The reports show that more Texans and more Americans lack health insurance, and, while the official US poverty rate dropped for the first time in five years, household incomes are still below 1999 levels.

I have to take a minute to give some much-deserved recognition to Texas Impact's interns. As a small nonprofit, Texas Impact--like our colleague organizations--relies on interns to help accomplish our work. Texas Impact's interns come from a variety of faith and educational backgrounds. I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to work with the gifted, committed young people who come into our internship program, and I'm delighted to have the chance to tell you about our two interns this summer, Aiman Janmohamed and Shelby Wardlaw. They both got submissions printed in the Austin American-Statesman this week, so I thought this would be a good time to highlight their work and provide links to their respective pieces.

From today's Earth Portal News, a really good article on religion and the environment including well-laid-out analyses of the environmental teachings of a number of world religions:

The 80th Texas Legislature should have enjoyed a relatively amicable budget process compared to the brutal battles of the past two sessions. Because there is an ample stash of cash carried over from prior years, lawmakers could be turning their attention to restoration of vitally needed programs such as children’s health, and strategic new initiatives such as the Governor’s proposal to make Texas the national leader in cancer research.
 
Instead, the state budget process is off to a frightening start for anyone who expects their elected officials to make reasoned and deliberate choices about budget priorities. In their haste to fund property tax cuts that were promised during last year’s special session on school finance, lawmakers are carving out areas of state spending and exempting them from the normal budget processes, including processes designed to ensure public participation. In adopting ad hoc rules that only apply to some parts of the budget, legislators are establishing dangerous precedents.