OKPOLICY.ORG
What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk is dedicated to this week’s events, publications, and blog posts.
This week Oklahoma Policy Institute posted a letter from our bipartisan Board of Directors urging Governor Fallin and legislative leaders to reconsider their decision to turn down federal money to expand Medicaid.
OK Policy was cited in an article in the The City Sentinel on why opting out of the expansion would negatively impact the healthcare industry and harm community health centers. Our work on the Medicaid expansion was also cited in articles by the Oklahoma Gazette and Tulsa World.
The OK Policy Blog looked at whether upcoming federal budget cuts and tax increases are a fiscal cliff, slope, or hostage crisis. A guest post from Dr. Jeff Alderman questioned Governor Fallin’s projections of the state costs of Medicaid expansion. David Blatt’s Journal Record column discussed how the Kansas tax cut experiment is creating huge budget shortfalls.
Policy Notes
- In today’s Policy Note, Small Business Majority polled small business owners for their opinions on economic policy, tax cuts, jobs and the role of government.
- In today’s Policy Note, Wonkblog shares ten ways to reduce inequality without raising tax rates.
- In today’s Policy Note, Wonkblog reports that more than half of the states have made decision on whether to join the Medicaid expansion, and twice as many states have said yes than have declined.
- 6,230 – Number of Oklahoma teens & young adults now eligible for a temporary reprieve from the threat of deportation under Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
- $1,679,000,000 – Annual federal payroll expenditures to active duty military service members in Oklahoma, 2009
