Health Care For Utah’s Neediest People

As Utah grapples with escalating health care costs and various reform proposals, there is one little health care institution that is quietly doing its best to help meet the enormous needs that exist. The Maliheh Free Clinic at 415 East 3900 South serves low-income patients – at no cost -- who have no health insurance. The clinic has a small staff, headed by Dr. Mansoor Emam, and a modest budget of around $400,000 annually. But millions of dollars of medical services are provided each year, thanks to the staff and hundreds of volunteers, including doctors, nurses, counselors, interpreters and many others.

At the clinic’s annual fundraising gala at Little America Hotel Tuesday evening, it was noted that more than 30,000 patient visits have been served since the clinic opened three years ago. Volunteers have donated more than 30,000 hours. Speakers at the gala included University of Utah President Michael K. Young, who introduced keynote speaker Cecil O. Samuelson, president of Brigham Young University. The free clinic was made possible through donations from the Semnani Foundation, funded by Utah businessman Khosrow Semnani. Many other contributors and volunteers have provided help to keep the clinic operating effectively.

Washington Watch

Hatch: Suspend Oil Purchases
Sen. Orrin Hatch joins his Senate colleagues "in approving an amendment to temporarily suspend government oil purchases for the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Adopted by a 97-1 margin, the Reid Amendment to the Flood Insurance Bill is aimed at lowering gas prices by halting the filling of the reserve for the remainder of year if the cost of crude oil remains more than $75 a barrel" (see press release); Hatch introduces a Public Employee Bill of Rights amendment that "would protect the rights of public safety workers who are not currently unionized" (press release).

Today in Political History

May 14, 1948:  The independent state of Israel is proclaimed as British rule in Palestine comes to an end.

May 14, 1955:   Representatives from the Soviet Union and seven other Communist bloc countries sign the Warsaw Pact in Poland.  (Source:  NY Times) 

Wise Words

"There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

-- James Madison, speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 16, 1788  (Source:  George Mason University) 

Campaign Tip

Poor Budgeting Hurts Campaigns

By  Benjamin A Katz and Jeremy Geltman

Imagine it’s two weeks before the election and your entire budget is spent…just when the final push approaches your campaign has run out of steam.  The reverse scenario would be losing the election with money still in the bank – having attempted to hold back until the final push of the election, only to realize you were over-conservative in your budgeting. Both of these situations have happened and will continue, so long as a campaign’s finances are plagued with poor budgeting.

How can the likelihood of these situations be minimized?  The finances of a campaign are complex, but unlike a business, where overshooting incoming funds is not an issue, a campaign must time all the finances, income and expenditures, exactly right.  To help the campaign manager make the most informed decisions, finance information must be at his or her fingertips.  Financial data must be quickly accessible and up-to-date.  To help ensure both of these requirements, it is advantageous to use a single database so that instant updates are provided any time income and expenditures are entered. With the campaign manager having immediate and constant access to complete and accurate data, correct decisions can be made. (Source:  Complete Campaigns) 

National Politics

Best Stories From . . .

-- Associated Press: "Barack Obama's wave of superdelegate endorsements puts him within reach of the Democratic presidential nomination by the end of the primary season on June 3 -- even if he loses half of the remaining six contests."
 
-- The Hill: "Terry McAuliffe, campaign chairman for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), said Tuesday that the former first lady is hamstrung by a biased media. ... McAuliffe estimated that about 90 percent of the media favor Obama."

-- National Review editorial says John McCain's support for a "cap-and-trade" approach to global warming "is the biggest mistake his campaign has made so far" and "indicates a foolish willingness to sacrifice trillions of dollars on the altar of fashionable, though uniformed, opinion and political expediency."

-- Politico: "President Bush in a Tuesday interview expressed in unusually frank terms his disappointment over flawed pre-[Iraq War] intelligence and acknowledged his fears about leaving an unfinished war to a Democratic successor."

Blog Watch

-- Utah League of Cities and Towns lobbyist Lincoln Shurtz says: "In a single day of news, it is amazing to see the contradictions that are omnipresent in local government politics. While the US Senate is getting set to seriously debate mandatory collective bargaining legislation HR980/S2123, which would compel states and cities and towns to enter into collective bargaining arrangements for local public safety employees, we are also seeing news out of Vallejo, California, where this city of 117,000 people is soon to become California's largest city to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. So where is the irony? Well, one of the major contributing factors for the decision to file bankruptcy is a $16 Million shortfall in funds that is largely attributed to overly generous pay and benefits packages that have been foisted on the city through collective bargaining arrangements with various public safety employee groups. …it should be noted that Utah cities and towns are also seeing continuous increases in the cost of employee compensation and benefits. So, is any Utah City on the verge of bankruptcy? Unequivocally -- NO, but we too need to be worried about the threats that such congressional action could impose on Utah's ability to pay for employees, while also taking care of the day-to-day needs of city residents...."

Lighter Side

“Capitalism without failure is like Christianity without hell.”

-- Warren Buffet, famed investor, at his annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting (Time magazine)