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Four Seasons Politics

Packed house but few fireworks in Meadows town hall

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

Forty years later, Edwards gets his FFA jacket

Almost 40 years later, North Carolina Sen. Chuck Edwards received his Future Farmers of America jacket.FFA is backed by the Farm Bureau, and Dana farmer Danny McConnell serves as president of the Henderson County Farm Bureau branch.   Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

NYT columnist David Brooks to keynote UNCA Founders Day

New York Times columnist David Brooks, a leading analyst of American culture and politics, will deliver the keynotes remarks at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12, at UNC Asheville’s Founders Day celebration of its 90th anniversary. Advance tickets will be available on Aug. 12 at events.unca.edu. Doors open at 6 p.m. Supported by the David and Lin Brown Visionary Lecture Series and the Van Winkle Law Firm Public Policy Lectures, the event is in Kimmel Arena on campus. Brooks is regularly featured in The New York Times op-ed pages, where his columns have appeared biweekly since 2003; on NBC’s Meet the Press; on the PBS Newshour, where he discusses politics with liberal counterpoint Mark Shields; and NPR where he is a regular Friday contributor on All Things Considered. As a public speaker, Brooks addresses contemporary culture and issues with humor and quiet passion. His commentaries examine American ways of life as a window into present-day politics. After graduating from The University of Chicago in 1983 with a degree in history, Brooks stayed in Chicago to begin his professional career as a police reporter, an experience which he says had a conservatizing influence upon him. The next year, he accepted an internship at the prominent conservative journal, National Review, and then was hired as a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, where he remained for nine years, ultimately becoming editorial page editor. He also was senior editor at The Weekly Standard before accepting his current position with The New York Times. In addition to his journalism work, Brooks is a senior Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, and has taught courses at Yale on humility. His thinking on that subject led to his 2015 book, The Road to Character, which he describes as an attempt “to shift the conversation a bit. We live in a culture that focuses on external success … a fast, distracted culture. We’ve lost some of the vocabulary other generations had to describe the inner confrontation with weakness that produces good character. I am hoping this book can help people better understand their own inner lives, their own moral adventures and their own roads to character.” Brooks’ other books include The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement; On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense; and Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There. Brooks is also the editor of the 1996 anthology, Backward and Upward: The New Conservative Writing. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, the University of Chicago, and on the Board of Advisors of the university’s Institute of Politics.   Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

Meadows hosts Veterans Solutions Seminars next week

U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows will host a time for veterans to ask questions and bring up concerns about health care coverage during his fourth annual NC-11 Veterans’ Solutions Seminars next week, including one from 1 to 5 p.m. at Fletcher Town Hall, 300 Old Cane Creek Road. In partnership with the Charles George VA Medical Center staff, the NC Division of Veteran’s Affairs and the Veterans’ Affairs Winston-Salem Regional Benefit Office, Meadows host the events for veterans and their families. Constituents will be invited to meet with members of Meadows’ staff, representatives from the VA hospital, the benefit office and the NC division of Veterans Affairs to get assistance with issues surrounding VA benefits, healthcare and disability. Meadows has other Veterans’ Solutions Seminars scheduled for Waynesville and Morganton.     Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

'No, I'm not resigning,' Absher says

The Henderson County School Board took just eight minutes to call for the resignation of board member Michael Absher on Monday afternoon — delivering a form of public censure that Absher immediately vowed to defy.   Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

Elections board upholds ruling on candidate's age

The Henderson County Board of Elections on Thursday unanimously upheld a ruling by elections administrators that 20-year-old John F. Moore Jr. is too young to run for the Hendersonville City Council.   Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

Defense attorney denounces call for Absher resignation

The attorney for embattled School Board member Michael Absher on Tuesday strongly denounced a potential vote by the board to demand the resignation of Absher, who faces a criminal charge related to a group home his nonprofit agency operates and a civil complaint filed by a high school teacher.   Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

Health care bill lacks the votes, Meadows says

The Republican-backed Senate health care bill released on Thursday lacks the votes to pass in either the House or Senate, U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows told reporters in a conference call on Friday. “We don’t have enough support among conservatives or moderates in either chamber to get it to the president’s desk,” Meadows said.His main concerns are, “How do we make sure that we bring premiums down substantially, and how do we solidify the insurance markets so that there’s enough insurance to provide coverage,” he said.The Senate bill provided a little stability, Meadows said, by adding funds for CSR payments, which would help those on Obamacare and reducing the percentage of people that receive subsidies to those at 350 percent of the poverty line.“That reduction doesn’t affect a great amount of people in terms of the threshold,” he said. “Most people are covered through employer health plans. One of the recommendations is to look at subsidies looking at 400 percent and being able to buy premiums out of a health savings account.”“A number of us that believe there should be an amendment for people to buy Obamacare plans or other non-compliant plans that would accurately reflect the risk that they have, for example someone in their 50s would have more coverage on certain types of illness than others,” Meadows said. “Having flexibility as a health care provider and insurance provider is important. It’ll have the greatest effect on rates and affordability,” he added.In terms of Medicaid, because North Carolina isn’t a Medicaid expansion state, the impact here wouldn’t be great, Meadows said. But what is of concern to him is that North Carolina would receive its “fair share” in compensation."I’m optimistic that we can improve the bill and get consensus among moderates and ultimately get it to President Trump,” he concluded.In response to Trump’s calling of the bill “mean”, Meadows isn’t focused on the labels it will receive, and has a different interpretation of Trump’s response.“I think what he’s responding to is that we not only handle preexisting conditions, but we fund it in a way to not give people anxiety,” he said. “I support him fully in that. They want to make sure we adequately fund it, make sure there is no anxiety for people with preexisting conditions. I see it as a push to get the Senate to increase dollars on some critical areas.”With regard to preexisting conditions, a heated topic within the bill, Meadows says they need to be covered. “A preexisting conditions provision in the House and Senate bill was never bypassed,” he said. “If I have a preexisting condition and go to an insurance provider I would get the same rate as someone who doesn’t have a preexisting condition.”The bill looks to decrease government support for Medicaid.“I would prefer to see greater flexibility for every state to deploy Medicaid dollars in a less prescriptive manner,” Meadows said. “Medicaid today is broken. We somehow think that Medicaid is working the way that it is, Medicaid doesn’t work the way it currently is. The real key is allowing dollars to be deployed by legislature to meet the needs. The trajectory now is not sustainable for the health care provider. They’re getting reimbursed less and less. There’s more work to be done, but it’s a broader Medicaid reform package outside of an ACA repeal and replace measure.”Meadows would like to see some changes in the bill before it is passed.“The biggest thing I would like to see in terms of amendments is to have flexibility for consumers where they can buy one of 20 plans that insurance providers are allowed by law to provide those plans and still qualify for subsidies offered by the federal government,” he said. “The second part is to expand the ability of HSAs to allow more people to buy those types of coverage.” Health savings accounts are untaxed, but only those with a high deductible health plan are allowed to have them.Critics of the bill criticize its process and the nature in which it was made.“I don’t have a problem with the speed of which it’s being brought forth,” Meadows said. “We’ve (Republicans) talked about repeal and replace for seven years. I do have a concern with trying to make sure legislation has top priority with does it lower premiums and does it stop hardworking tax payers from choosing between putting food on the table and paying premiums. Most people can agree that insurance premiums have continued to skyrocket. We need to do something about that and to make sure preexisting conditions are protected and covered. We will do those two things in a bill that has my approval.” As for the secrecy from the Senate, “I’m for open process and transparency,” he added. “I think the more transparent the deliberation process, the better the product.”The bill will undergo the voting process next week.Meadows also briefly discussed tax reform.“The biggest budget concerns are increasing the amount of money for defense and non-defense discretionary dollars,” Meadows said. “Those numbers right now are to increase defense spending by 75 billion, keep non-defense discretionary at current levels, where most of the consensus is building in the House. If we’re doing tax reform, we have mandatory spending cuts.”Next week will be critical for settling on a budget and final numbers, he added.“There is growing pressure to sequester for the military,” he said. “If we did that, it would be a monumental vote that we haven’t seen in the House or Senate in at least the last three congresses. It’s a work in progress in terms of the budget. There are three different camps in the House: fiscal hawks, defense hawks and those that are more moderate in spending habits wanting to increase non-defense spending levels. We need to try to bring those groups together.”   Read Story »

Hendersonville Four Seasons Politics

NC budget grants money for downtown, AVL, Muddy Sneakers

The new state budget contains $100,000 for public improvements to downtown Hendersonville, $200,000 to fight the woolly adelgid scourge that is killing hemlocks, $4 million for capital improvements at Asheville Regional Airport, $100,000 to expand a legal program for veterans and $500,000 for the Muddy Sneakers program among other benefits for the Henderson County area, state Rep. Chuck McGrady announced.   Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

McCrory not ruling out rematch in 2020

RALEIGH — Former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory says Roy Cooper, his Democratic successor, is repaying his trial lawyer campaign contributors by hiring them for expensive, politically motivated lawsuits against the GOP-led General Assembly.   Read Story »

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