Oklahoma Will adopt Obamacare

Another one bites the dust.

Facing a massive budget deficit due to overspending all the wrong money in all the wrong places, the Oklahoma legislature needed to do something drastic. So what have they cut (besides our faith in them to do things right?)

They re-expanded Medicaid by adopting Obamacare and plan to raise taxes more.

What a brilliant decision. I mentioned in my last post why cutting medical subsidies and removing the government from healthcare was a good thing, and how the ACA has raised premiums and deductibles, making healthcare more expensive for the rest of us in the process.

But this post is not designed to address the pitfalls of government run healthcare. This post is designed to address Oklahoma’s spending problem, and the fallacy that spending more on Medicaid will help anyone in the long run.

Our budget shortfall has been blamed on many things. But it really comes down to two big ones. Low oil prices, and excessive spending.

I’ve discussed how energy is hurting us before, and its time to discuss spending.

Much of our spending comes from our broken criminal justice system, whether its 90 million to private prisons, a topic for another time, or another roughly 450 million to jail mostly drug users-52% of our inmates are nonviolent.

Much more comes from subsideis to oil companies-200 million

Legislative salaries are the highest in our region-making more in four months than teachers do all year.

And of course, Medicaid. which accounts for a whopping 25% of our expenditures, equating to roughly 5 billion a year, and only getting bigger with the ACA.

So how do we fix our 1.3 billion dollar budget crisis?

Start with the justice system. End private prison subsidies, 100 million made back. End prison snetencing for nonviolent offenders, another 250 million.

Legalize marijuana, which made Coloarado 70 million and could make us as much as 50 million if we put a sin tax on it.

End energy subsidies. let the free market run its course. 200 million more.

And cut medicaid waste spending. net a solid 700 million.

Thats 1.3 billion right there; and cut legislative salaries for good measure.

These would be great steps to take to solve our budget crisis and make our state freer in the process.

-Travis Baker

I link all my sources. I do not own the images used.

Oklahoma’s Oil Problem

Oklahoma’s economy is almost entirely based on oil production. In fact nearly 15% of all our state income comes from oil and gas production. That is no small number, considering the figure also considers tax dollars and all other industry.

Oil production is the crown jewel that sits at what was once a great Oklahoman energy empire, followed by Natural Gas, and more recently, wind power.

But being so involved in oil production is definitely a two-edged sword. Dependency on oil production creates a problem when the global economy has increased supply of oil. But diving into the global economy and trade is a discussion for another time. I would like to discuss the effects of the oil industry’s dominance over state affairs, and what I think we can do to remedy this situation.

Oil prices have fallen to less than 30% of that last year, which has wreaked havoc on our state economy. Layoffs at Chesapeake and Devon, homes for sale across the Metro, and those cheap gas prices we all love so much are just a few byproducts and the oil industry’s decline.

Oklahoma loses about 200 million dollars per year in breaks and subsidies to oil companies. That’s quite a lot of money to pay for companies that are inconsistent, dependent on the global trade market, and are indirectly causing the earthquakes we’ve been receiving.

Let’s face it. Paying oil companies to stay here isn’t working anymore. In an age where wind power and solar energy are at the forefront of new technological development, and where the federal government continues to tighten its control on fossil fuels, we simply have to try something else.

The way I see it, we have two main options. 1. Over time, we cut off oil subsidies, and invest them in companies using wind power or other forms of clean energy. 2. We put the money towards our growing tourism industry. Either way could be an enormous boon to our state economy, and the excess money we make off of it could go to education.

I think these ideas are potentially great ways to transform our Oklahoma economy and environment. What do you think? Tell me in the comments!

-Travis Baker

travisbaker328@gmail.com

I link all my sources. I do not own the images used.

Oklahoma State Legislature to Return to Session: Earthquakes to be Addressed.

Tomorrow State lawmakers will return to their jobs at the Capitol facing a slew of issues facing our state from education to the budget. But one topic most Oklahomans want our representatives to address is the fact that Oklahoma has recently become the earthquake capitol of the world. 

The legislature has been slow to react to increasing seismic activity in our state. Scientists increasingly point to the disposal of waste water as the source of the earthquakes, and the legislature seems to be in agreement on this topic.

However, nothing seems to change. Governor Mary Fallin recently said that science must drive forward our actions, but earthquakes keep happening. In fact, they’re getting worse. Why?

The answer lies somewhere you wouldn’t expect. The economy. Oklahoma is facing massive shortfall in the budget and lower oil prices are decimating our economy. We have big investments in the oil industry, and even bigger investments in water injection. Oklahoma has a mind-boggling 4,500 waste water plants in our state.

Not only is this a massive amount of sites that we find directly cause earthquake property damage, but we actually are taking money from other states to inject their water too. You read that right. Our government is actually taking other state’s waste water to pump into the ground, and is ignoring the massive property damage the earthquakes are causing so that they can make more money.

I find this concerning, not only because our government is actually putting us and our property at risk for money, but also because this indicates how badly our economy is doing to cause a need for this.

How should we react?

We need to pressure our legislature to stop intaking other states waste water for one thing, and also pressure the state to find a new innovative way to deal with our own waste. The energy sector has a lot of potential these days, and there must be some solution that can both stop this frankly stupid practice of ruining Oklahoma’s environment and public safety for money, and can turn around our energy sector and save our economy.

-Travis Baker

travisbaker328@gmail.com

 

I link all of my sources. I do not own any images used.