Axe-Grinding in Raleigh

Senate Bill 39, which was filed yesterday in Raleigh, would restore partisanship to state judge races ... not that there wasn't already partisanship (witness Supreme Court Justice Newby), but apparently every registered Republican in the state wasn't getting the memo, so the Honorables intend to hang a "D" or an "R" around the neck of every judicial candidate.

The NC Institute of Medicine paid for comprehensive analysis of the impacts of the Affordable Care Act in North Carolina, but of particular interest is the cost analysis of expanding Medicaid under the ACA (hattip: Adam Searing). (Expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act is precisely what the Republicans in the General Assembly are currently rushing to block.) According to the consultants at Regional Economic Models Inc., North Carolina's participation in the Affordable Care Act would:

1. Create approximately 25,000 new jobs
2. Increase annual state GDP by $1.3 – $1.7 billion a year
3. Increase total state revenues by $497 million by 2021
4. Save $159 million over the next two years (and $65 million overall for the next 10 years)

Why do people keep claiming that Republicans know how to manage money?

Wonder how managers of North Carolina's hospitals feel about this dickishness? The dickishness of dictators with so many axes to grind that they need a bigger place to hang their axes.

At least The Congregation has retired for the weekend, and, as Molly Ivins used to say, every village can now reclaim its idiot.