Teacher Jobs Bill Approved Preventing State Layoffs and Increasing FMAP Medicaid Funding

A $26 billion state aid package was approved by Congress (and will be signed by the President) that saves thousands of state teaching and government worker jobs. The package provides $16.1 billion to extend (for six months) Medicaid funding for states, known as FMAP. The measure also provides $10 billion for a fund Democrats say will avert 138,000 state employee layoffs. It passed with the limited support of Republicans.

In a statement issued in the White House Rose Garden, the president said the bill would prevent the layoff of not only educators but essential state employees, including “police officers, firefighters, nurses and first responders.” Funding for the bill was in part created by closing tax loopholes that encourage corporations to ship American jobs overseas — so it will not add to our deficit.

The package actually reduces the deficit by $1.4 billion over 10 years. However a number of original measures were scaled back to pay for this bill. This includes removing the extension of the bush tax cuts for all income earners and a $12 billion scale-back of food stamp stimulus payments (which will hurt millions of low income earners). No extension of the 2010 $250 SSI payment was included in the bill as some readers had alluded.

The official bill is H.R.1586 was approved in a special house session. I will provide further updates and encourage you to subscribe (free) to get the latest news.

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7 thoughts on “Teacher Jobs Bill Approved Preventing State Layoffs and Increasing FMAP Medicaid Funding”

  1. Putting the politics aside, the focus needs to be on the students and student learning; the whole objective and very reason for schools’ existence. Sure, teachers are a key success factor, but a systemic approach is necessary, incorporating teachers (and performance), delivery, intervention/prevention and support – administrative, community, parents, local businesses and colleges. As John Stanford writes, let’s focus on the students and not on the (less important) adult issues that get in the way of student learning.

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  2. Just a comment on the cutting of food stamp benefits….for anyone who has not seen how much some families get a month, cutting the amount should not HURT them. People on food stamps often eat better than the average person, able to buy things many of us cannot. They need to be taught to buy FOOD, not waste it on junk foods or expensive meats. Should learn to clip coupons, buy specials and eat healthy. A family of 4 should not get 700 a month for food…that is just crazy and a waste of our tax payers money.

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  3. Pathetic how the Republicans think it’s OK to increase the deficit by shoveling money into extending the criminal Bush Reich tax cuts for the wealthy, but yet they piss and moan about saving the jobs of educators. Talk about totally screwed up priorities.

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  4. All kidding aside, the public sector is out of control. At the end of 2006, the number of State Workers was 329,000. More have been hired since. Pay and benefits packages have become outrageous. The average State Worker makes about 1.7 times, in pay and benefits, what the average private sector employee makes. This applies to workers, not management. Private sector management employees, make more than public sector managers, in most cases. The State of California is and has been run by the Democrats. The Democrats support State Worker compensation and can expect about 300,000 state workers to vote en block, for their statewide offices. Arnold Schwarzenegger saw the problems created by a bloated, over paid workforce, long before the economic collapse occurred. The public sector unions raised huge sums of money and publicly crucified him, around the clock, until he lost support from the general public. Unless this cycle is broken, the rest of us will be nothing more than hosts to the worse kind of parasite.

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  5. States are making their own call on their budgets. This bill is nothing more than a payoff for public and teacher unions. And I think the majority of American’s realize this. This is just taxpayers money given to unions, many of those taxpayers are losing their own jobs and they don’t get to worry about their “union pensions” or their “union health plans”. I am so tired of less than 10% of the people in this country (unions) getting all the tax money, while we continue to mortgage the future of our kids and grandkids.

    I get fed up with $Billion bills being passed under the “guise” of saving jobs. This has nothing to do with our economy, nothing to do with creating jobs, and has everything to do with unions and those that vote for it saving their public jobs, and more to do with Pelosi, getting the biggest cut for California,

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  6. We have almost half of the Obama stimulus funds which have yet to be spent. Why didn’t they delve into those funds instead of using another $26B of taxpayer money to pay for the teachers, firemen, and police? And just because some of us fiscal conservatives are against this recent bailout of public sector jobs with another $26B of which we don’t have, doesn’t mean we are against public education, police, and fire. We are demanding accountability and accounting to make sure we are spending money wisely instead of politically. So don’t accuse me of being against public education, whoever made that blatantly stupid statement above. Go back and read the article about Vallego, CA and how public pensions have bankrupt the city. This is happening across the country. But fiscal spendthifts of the liberal persuasion just want to keep tossing money at it. That’s not leadership. It’s insanity.

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  7. Many of those whose jobs are being saved belong to teacher unions or the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, two key components of the Democrats’ political base who are needed for the mid-term elections. So essentially the Dem’s are buying votes. Again.

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