Ten Random PA Policy Points

Oftentimes when debating or discussing politics and policy, facts are tossed aside in favor of more emotional arguments. Even worse, when one side of a legitimate but spirited debate falters, it has somehow become acceptable to either refuse to accept the facts as accurate or point out some comparable flaw in an effort to make two wrongs make a right.

By way of experimentation, here are 10 totally unrelated facts about issues we deal with in Pennsylvania government. Let’s see what happens:

1. The U.S. Government Accountability Office reported an audit program meant to combat Medicaid fraud has cost taxpayers about $102 million since 2008 while identifying less than $20 million in over-payments.

2. State and local spending nationwide has decreased 0.8 percent this year, a drop of 2.7 percent when adjusted for inflation to an annual rate of $2.4 trillion. According to U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data, this spending drop represents the longest sustained period of financial restraint since the early 1980s.

3. Among fathers with a wife in the workforce, 32 percent took care of their kids at least one day a week in 2010, up from 26 percent in 2002. Of those with kids younger than five, 20 percent of dads in 2010 were the primary caretaker in light of high childcare costs, stagnant wages and unemployment.

4. The American Academy of Dermatology has said that more than a million people in the United States use tanning beds every day with nearly 70 percent of them being young women ages 16 to 29. 

5. A report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that extended family members and close family friends care for more than 2.7 million children in the United States, an increase of almost 18 percent over the past decade and 4 percent of all children. Pennsylvania ranks seventh nationally with more than 101,000 children in such care.

6. Over the last decade, the state's crime rate has dropped by 15 percent, but the prison population has increased 40 percent.

7.The state Fish and Boat Commission manages 18 dams that are currently or previously classified as high hazard and unsafe because they cannot handle 50 percent of the estimated maximum precipitation its area could receive in a 24-hour period. Failure of these dams could cause significant risk of property damage and loss of life.

8. With more than 450 juveniles serving life-without-parole sentences for crimes committed while younger than 18, Pennsylvania has nearly 20 percent of the nationwide total and tops all states in this area and for crimes committed while under the age of 15. 

9. A McDonald’s employee in China has to work 85 minutes to earn enough to buy a Big Mac. It takes 27 minutes in the United States.

10. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Pennsylvania's smoking rate among adults is 18.4 percent. Research has concluded that the lifetime cost of smoking to a 24-year-old male is $183,000 and it increases to $220,000 after adding in the costs absorbed by taxpayers for public health care. This translates to almost $40 per pack for a lifetime of smoking.