Dollars & Sense articles from January 1996

Dollars & Sense archives from January 1996

Medi-raid. (Medicaid reform)
January 1, 1996... Last fall, the Republicans in Congress proposed seismic changes in Medicaid, which provides health care to low-income families, the blind, disabled, and elderly poor. The proposed Republican budget would cut $163 billion from the program over...

The brave new world of the mega-bank.(Economy in Review)
January 1, 1996... Last summer Chase Manhattan Bank and Chemical Bank, formerly bitter rivals, announced their intention to merge, creating the largest bank in the United States with nearly $300 billion in assets. The move followed on the heels of mega-deals...

Sweeney's quandary. (AFL-CIO presidential candidate John Sweeney)
January 1, 1996... WILL THE AFL-CIO'S NEW LEADERS CHANGE ITS OLD COLD WAR POLICIES? Only the most determined cynics came away from October's AFL-CIO convention doubting that there would be major changes in direction, at least on some issues. In what has been a...

Pensions for progress.
January 1, 1996... TARGETING UNION RETIREMENT MONEY TO SAVE JOBS Union jobs are under attack at Boeing, the world's leading aircraft manufacturer. Threats to job security have led to the first strike in six years at the Seattle-based firm, involving thirty-two...

Economics for the next century? The New Party's economic policy.
January 1, 1996... Economists on the left of the political spectrum often find it easy to critique the capitalist economy, but seem to have a much harder time suggesting alternatives. To the extent that we appear to be "for" anything in these days of cuts in social...

Death by "devolution." (United States Congress)(Special Section)
January 1, 1996... CONGRESS PASSES THE BUCK TO THE STATES Multiple choice question - the goals of the Congressional Republicans are to: (a) balance the federal budget, (b) "devolve" power to the states by giving them "block grants" rather than funds for...

Whitman bedazzles New Jersey. (Christine Todd Whitman, New Jersey Republican governor)
January 1, 1996... CUT TAXES NOW, PAY THE PRICE LATER Christine Todd Whitman, the aristocratic Republican governor of New Jersey, has performed a miracle. In office only two years, she has cut the state's income taxes by 30% while raising state government...

Weldfare. (Massachusetts Gov. William Weld)
January 1, 1996... As Congress prepares to turn welfare into a block grant to the states, severely limiting the federal government's ability to assist poor families, an intelligent stranger to this political world might assume that governors would be quaking at...

Homeless in Massachusetts.
January 1, 1996... Comparing the state government to a creaky old house, Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld attracted national attention last October by proposing to tear it down, promising $695 million in savings from the process. Yet there were no press conferences...

Arguments for a New Left: Answering the Free Market Right.
January 1, 1996... As hatred of government festers in America - so virulent in some pockets that it has erupted into violence - the left has found itself in an awkward position partly of its own making. From the American heartland to the Czech Republic, the age-old...

Managed health care: reorganization without reform.(Economy in numbers)
January 1, 1996... In August 1994, when the 103rd Congress abandoned any attempt to legislate national health care reform, one might have expected all talk about reform to cease. That has not happened. Instead, many policy experts, politicians, and the media talk...