Righting What's Left

Meg Hansen (Senior Fellow, MCC/Danube Institute) moderates a deep dive into the anatomy of statesmanship with John Burtka – ISI President and author of a new book, Gateway to Statesmanship: Selections from Xenophon to Churchill (2024). The discussion addresses the following topics and much more. – What is the relationship between statesmanship and populism? – In the era of the Deep State and technocrats, how can a new generation of morally excellent and politically savvy statesmen arise? – How has Christianity (in its Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox forms) influenced Western ideals of political leadership? – How did European advice to kings and princes differ from non-Western sources? Do these differences continue to impact the political landscape today, especially in China and the Islamic world? – Which statesmen from history could serve as role models for succeeding in the uniquely challenging political landscape of the 21st century? Which examples from the past should we not follow today?

Act 60 (amended as Act 68) is an education financing law that has been called Vermont’s Titanic because it is slowly but surely sinking the state into icy waters of unanchored education spending. In this episode, we examine the history of the controversial law, and three unexpected consequences that have followed as a result of its implementation. Further Reading: Woolf, Art."Vermont's taxes encourage education spending." https://amp.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/07/26/woolf-vermonts-taxes-encourage-education-spending/513132001/

VT's Health Care Advocate and other healthcare authorities have consistently opposed all federal measures that would have made health insurance more affordable for Vermonters. On the one hand, the state's political class kills all measures that would have brought Vermonters financial relief, and on the other hand, its members complain about the unaffordability of health insurance in Vermont. This episode explains why the two remaining insurance companies in Vermont keep raising premium rates and why this trend is bound to continue year after year. Articles Referenced: Hansen, Meg. "Health insurance mandate a step backward for Vermont health care." https://www.manchesterjournal.com/stories/health-insurance-mandate-a-step-backward-for-vermont-health-care,542082 --. "Sticks and no carrots: Association Health Plans in Vermont." https://www.reformer.com/stories/meg-hansen-sticks-and-no-carrots-association-health-plans-in-vermont,544857 Kaiser Health News. "Did The ACA Create Preexisting Condition Protections For People In Employer Plans?" https://khn.org/news/did-the-aca-create-preexisting-condition-protections-for-people-in-employer-plans/ VTDigger. "Health insurance rate increases approved — 12.4% for BCBS, 10.1% for MVP." https://vtdigger.org/2019/08/08/insurance-rate-increases-approved-12-4-for-bcbs-10-1-for-mvp/

What does Vermont's "record low" 2% unemployment rate actually indicate? This Thursday Thoughts episode unpacks the grim truth behind this often-repeated statistic.

In this episode, we will see how Montpelier systematically impoverishes Vermonters, how our politicians continually cry about racism to distract from their anti-economic growth agenda, and why I agree with the state's very first executive director of racial equity that Vermont needs a demographic change. Articles Referenced: Gleason, Patrick. "As Maryland Becomes Sixth State To Pass $15 Minimum Wage, Vermont Lawmakers Look To Follow Suit." https://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickgleason/2019/04/06/as-maryland-becomes-sixth-state-to-pass-15-minimum-wage-vermont-lawmakers-look-to-follow-suit/#59046ef856a2 McCoy, Pattie. "$15 minimum wage is bad economic policy." https://vtdigger.org/2019/04/03/pattie-mccoy-15-minimum-wage-bad-economic-policy/ VTDigger. "Q&A: Racial Equity Director Xusana Davis focuses on blindspots." https://vtdigger.org/2019/08/18/qa-racial-equity-director-xusana-davis-focuses-on-blindspots/

The episode discusses the origins of the opioid crisis, and the role played by the Sackler family (now worth multi-billions), the FDA, and bad actors in the medical and pharmacy professions. References: Keefe, Patrick Radden. "The Family That Built an Empire of Pain." https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain Macy, Beth. Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America. https://www.amazon.com/Dopesick-Dealers-Doctors-Company-Addicted/dp/0316551244 Meier, Barry. Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic. https://www.amazon.com/Pain-Killer-Empire-Americas-Epidemic/dp/0525511105 National Geographic. "This Is What Happens to Your Brain on Opioids." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDVV_M__CSI

On this episode of Thursday Thoughts, Meg shares her personal story, focusing on her travels and travails across the world and how Vermont became her home.

Cultural and political elites are convinced that Vermont has a white(ness) problem, alleging that the specter of systemic racism (i.e. white supremacy) perpetually haunts the Green Mountain State. This episode examines the academic roots of this pernicious ideology and examples of its consequences in public life today. Vanderbeck, Robert M. "Vermont and the Imaginative Geographies of American Whiteness." https://www.jstor.org/stable/4124437?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

The magnitude of Vermont’s public pension debt problem puts us among the bottom third of the states, and it has caused two major rating agencies to downgrade the state's bond rating. We are a critical point of this debt crisis -- pensioners could lose access to funds and Vermonters are likely to see doubling or even tripling of income taxes if the state seriously attempts to fund the growing pension liabilities. Meanwhile, legislative leaders responded by scolding the rating agencies, and the media lauded high schoolers who shut down a major intersection in Montpelier while demanding climate justice. In other words, the adults get away with zero accountability for their fiscal mismanagement and for brainwashing today's teens who don’t realize that they have to pay for this accumulating debt out of their own pockets in the near future.