Al Martino (1927-2009) Biography

Al Martino Biography

Steve Huey

Al Martino was one of the great Italian-American pop crooners, boasting a string of hit singles and LPs that stretched from the early '50s all the way into the mid-'70s. However, he is perhaps even better known for his role in The Godfather as singer Johnny Fontane, a character supposedly based on Frank Sinatra but with eerie similarities to Martino's own career. Martino's 1952 debut smash, "Here in My Heart," made him the first American artist to top the charts in Great Britain, but his career was interrupted by gangster interference, which kept him out of the U.S. for much of the '50s. He later returned and rejuvenated his career, scoring his signature hit with 1965's classic "Spanish Eyes" and reaching a whole new audience via The Godfather in 1972.

Martino was born Alfred Cini in Philadelphia on October 7, 1927. His Italian immigrant parents ran a masonry business, and he worked alongside his brothers as a bricklayer while growing up. However, he was more interested in music, and was inspired by Al Jolson and Perry Como to try his own hand at singing. When his boyhood friend Alfredo Cocozza changed his name to Mario Lanza and became an international opera star, the possibility of a career in music suddenly seemed plausible. Adopting the stage name Al Martino (after his maternal grandfather's last name), he performed in local nightclubs for a time, and moved to New York City in 1948 with Lanza's encouragement. He went on to win first place on the Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts show, thanks to a rendition of Perry Como's "If." That exposure helped him land a record deal with the Philadelphia-based independent label BBS.

In 1952, Martino recorded a ballad called "Here in My Heart" as his debut single. When he heard that Lanza was set to cut his own version, Martino called him and begged him not to, knowing that Lanza's record would immediately eclipse his own. Lanza relented, and "Here in My Heart" became a breakthrough smash for Martino, selling over a million copies and topping the charts in both the U.S. and U.K. Its success earned Martino a major-label deal with Capitol, and he released three more singles -- "Take My Heart," "Rachel," and "When You're Mine" -- through 1953, all of which hit the Top 40..

Unfortunately, a few of Martino's new fans wanted in on the action; according to legend, Martino's contract was forcibly taken over by a new, Mafia-connected management team, which then ordered Martino to pay a 75,000 dollar fee upfront, as a safeguard for their investment. Martino made a down payment to ensure his family's safety, then fled to England, where his popularity allowed him to perform successfully for a time; he even headlined the London Palladium. He continued to record in Britain with moderate success, but his work received no exposure back in the U.S. In 1958, thanks to the intervention of a family friend with the local Philadelphia boss, Martino was allowed to return home and resume his recording career.

By this time, Martino's initial momentum had long since cooled, and he faced an uphill battle re-establishing himself, especially since he hadn't been forced to contend with rock & roll the first time around. He recorded for 20th Century Fox during the late '50s, but none of his ten-plus singles reached the Top 40, and the label wound up dropping him. Undaunted, Martino financed the recording of a new album, The Exciting Voice of Al Martino, all on his own. It wound up landing him a new deal with Capitol, which issued the LP in 1962; its updated version of "Here in My Heart" was also released as a single, and barely scraped the charts. Martino quickly followed it with a mostly Italian-language LP, The Italian Voice of Al Martino, and made several high-profile television appearances to re-establish his visibility..

Thanks in part to those TV performances, Martino was able to score a major comeback smash with 1963's "I Love You Because," which heralded a newly understated vocal style and had previously been a country hit for honky tonk singer/songwriter Leon Payne. Arranged by Belford Hendricks, Martino's pop version went to number three on the pop charts, and all the way to the top of the easy listening charts. The accompanying album of the same name went Top Ten, and Martino remained a regular visitor to the charts for over a decade afterward, at first concentrating on country-tinged pop material with musical director Peter DeAngelis. 1963 brought more hits in "Painted, Tainted Rose" (Top 20 pop, Top Five easy listening) and "Living a Lie," and the accompanying Painted, Tainted Rose album became his second Top Ten. He charted four more times in 1964 with "Always Together," "I Love You More and More Every Day" (pop Top Ten), "Tears and Roses" (pop Top 20), and "We Could"; all were Top Ten easy listening hits..

In 1966, Martino recorded what would become his signature song, "Spanish Eyes," an adaptation of an instrumental piece by German conductor/composer Bert Kaempfert originally titled "Moon Over Naples." Although "Spanish Eyes" only made number 15 on the pop charts, it spent a month at number one easy listening, found tremendous success all across Europe, and was covered by countless other traditional pop artists over the years. The album of the same name went gold and became Martino's third (and final) Top Ten LP. He scored two more big easy listening hits that year with "Think I'll Go Home and Cry Myself to Sleep" and "Wiederseh'n," and in 1967 topped those charts twice with the folk-styled "Mary in the Morning" and the Bob Crewe-penned "More Than the Eye Can See.".

Martino had a few more easy listening hits through the end of the '60s, including a vocal version of Paul Mauriat's instrumental "Love Is Blue" (1968) and a cover of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love" (1970). However, his career momentum was slowing down, and his albums failed to attain their usual Top 100 chart placements. Fortunately, his longtime friend Phyllis McGuire (of the McGuire Sisters) was familiar with Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather. When Paramount decided to make a film version, McGuire brought the character of Johnny Fontane -- a fading pop idol who needs mob intervention to land the film role that would resurrect his career -- to Martino's attention. Although rumor had it that Fontane was based on Frank Sinatra, and his Oscar-winning turn in From Here to Eternity, the role resonated deeply with Martino, and he wound up winning the part. The Godfather, of course, was a huge critical and commercial success, and Martino's appearance -- not to mention his recording of the film's love theme, "Speak Softly Love" -- refreshed his reputation and even made him something of a cult icon..

Despite radically shifting tastes in pop music, Martino was able to parlay his Godfather role into a few more years of recording success. He returned to the pop Top 20 for the first time since "Spanish Eyes" with 1975's "To the Door of the Sun (Alle Porte del Sole)," an English translation of a popular Italian song. He also scored a highly unlikely dance-club hit that year with a disco-fied version of the Italian pop standard "Volare," which was especially popular in Europe. Martino toured the nightclub circuit extensively during the '70s, and managed one more easy listening hit in 1978's "The Next Hundred Years." Faced with diminishing returns, he and Capitol finally parted ways in 1982. Martino continued to perform in clubs, lounges, and casinos for some time afterward, and returned to recording in 2000 with the album Style. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide .

Captain Lou Albano Stats & Biography

Captain Lou Albano Stats

Height: 5 foot 10
From: Carmel, N.Y.
Career Highlights: United States Tag Team Champion, managed Ivan Koloff to the WWE Championship, managed over a dozen teams to the World Tag Team Championship. Associates: The Wild Samoans, The Valiant Brothers, numerous other tag teams, Ivan Koloff, Pat Patterson, Cyndi Lauper
WWE Debut: 1963 (formation)

He was “often imitated, never duplicated” and rightfully so, because the legendary Captain Lou Albano will always be one of a kind. With his open Hawaiian shirts, outrageous facial hair and trademark rubber bands hanging from his cheek, Captain Lou may not have looked like much of a success, but his record speaks for itself.

Albano was an excellent athlete as a youth, attending the University of Tennessee on a football scholarship. After a stint in the United States Army, he began his sports-entertainment career in Canada in 1953. Albano soon began teaming with Tony Altimore; together they were known as “The Sicilians.” After coming to the WWWF in the 1960s, they defeated the legendary Bruno Sammartino & Spiros Arion to win the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship in 1967.

After the breakup of The Sicilians, Albano transformed himself into a manager, making it his sole mission to end the lengthy WWE Championship reign of Bruno Sammartino. This made him perhaps the most hated man in the promotion, but in 1971, he accomplished his goal; protégé Ivan Koloff defeated Sammartino in Madison Square Garden to end the Italian champion’s seven-plus year reign. Koloff’s reign lasted only three weeks, and despite managing several other Hall of Famers, Koloff was the only World Champion Albano ever managed. He would lead Don Muraco, Greg Valentine and Pat Patterson to the Intercontinental Championship, but never again tasted a World title.

Having been a tag team star himself, though, it was in managing duos where Albano excelled. In the span of 20 years, he managed 15 different teams to the World Tag Team Championship, earning the nickname “The Guiding Light” and a record that may never be broken. Several of his championship duos featured Hall of Famers, including fellow 1996 Hall of Fame inductees The Valiant Brothers and 2007 inductees The Wild Samoans. Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito, The Executioners and The Moondogs were just of few of the other teams to become World Tag Team Champions under Captain Lou’s guidance.

After 15 years of being one of the most hated men in sports-entertainment, however, Albano had a change of heart. In 1983, he appeared in Cyndi Lauper’s music video for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” and later claimed to be the catalyst to Lauper’s success. Thus began the legendary “Rock n’ Wrestling” Era in WWE, which combined with Hulkamania helped launch WWE into a new stratosphere in the mid-1980s. After a lengthy rivalry with the singer (which saw Lauper’s pal Wendi Richter win the Women’s Championship from Albano’s client The Fabulous Moolah), Captain Lou apologized to Lauper and became an instant fan favorite. Once the Rock n’ Wrestling phenomenon began to wind down, Albano led the British Bulldogs to the World Tag Team Championship in 1986 before leaving WWE.

In his time away from WWE, Albano capitalized on his newfound celebrity. He appeared in several episodes of shows such as Miami Vice before starring in the film Body Slam alongside fellow Hall of Famer “Rowdy” Roddy Piper in 1987. Albano also managed and performed with rock group NRBQ, who wrote the song “Captain Lou” in his honor. Later, the Captain starred in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, a hybrid live-action/animated show; Albano played Nintendo legend Mario in the live portion while also voicing his cartoon counterpart.

After nearly a decade away from the ring, however, Captain Lou returned for one final hurrah. In 1994, Albano joined former protégé Afa the Wild Samoan as advisor of Samu & Fatu, the Headshrinkers. Together, Albano & Afa had success once more, leading Samu & Fatu to the World Tag Team Championship. The Headshrinkers thus became the final team on Captain Lou’s legendary list of World Tag Team Champions.

In 1996, Albano claimed his rightful place in the pantheon of the elite, the WWE Hall of Fame. Inducted by legendary New York media personality Joe Franklin, Albano was finally truly recognized as one of sports-entertainment’s elite. He was often imitated but never duplicated, and he certainly will never be forgotten either.

Capt. Lou Albano Passes

Capt. Lou Albano Passes

Written: October 14, 2009

World Wrestling Entertainment was saddened to learn of the passing of one of the company’s most popular and charismatic legends, “Captain Lou Albano.” WWE extends its deepest condolences to the Albano family.

“Captain Lou” was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1996. He performed for WWE from 1983 to 1996. Albano began his storied career with Vincent J. McMahon in the 1960’s as one half of “The Sicilians” tag team with his partner, Tony Altimore. He will be greatly missed by the WWE and his fans.

And the Bible is Best By Joseph Michael Wasik

Source: http://blogs.citypaper.net/articles/011896/article022.shtml

January 18–25, 1996

Letters To The Editor

Recently, a thief ran through a neighbor's yard and broke his neck on the family's clothesline after a robbery attempt. He sued the neighbor for negligence and the liberal judge awarded the thief $30,000.

In NYC, a thief sued the city and was awarded $1,300,000 because a police officer shot and paralyzed him as he was running away after a purse snatch.

With insane decisions like these, we should not be surprised that there is little respect for the law or that criminals are not deterred by the threat of capture.

When our country's laws were based on the Bible, and the ten commandments were taught in schools as standards for behavior, we had far less crime. During the last 75 years some of the brightest men and women have become lawyers, judges and educators and have turned the First Amendment upside down. Now more attention is centered on the criminal rather than on the victim.

Who's to blame? The 52 percent of Christians who don't bother to vote and the 18 percent who vote for liberals such as our President. To effect a return to law and order, it's time Christians assumed their God-given and constitutional responsibility by getting out to vote and by electing those who share our moral values.

Joseph Michael Wasik

Marlton, NJ

Obama's in over his head By Joseph Michael Wasik

Source: http://www.phillyburbs.com/opinions/blog_post/article/113/2009/april/16/apologize-to-your-people.html

April 16, 2009

Burlington County Times

I would like to apologize to the American people for the president of our country, Barack H. Obama, for his inexperience and ineptness in apologizing to the European people when he referred to the American people as arrogant.

And he, for whatever reason or for political expediency, must have forgotten that it was the American people who saved the European people twice through two World Wars.

It was the American people who bought and flew all the life savings supplies that kept the people of West Berlin alive in what was called the Berlin Airlift. It was the American people who died at Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge [My uncle was there].

It was the American people who were greeted throughout Italy as liberators. The Italian people then hung their dead leader Benito Mussolini and his mistress by their feet from a lamp post [1943; part of my reality]. Italy lost three million people in the war.

It was the American people who drove the Nazi invaders out of Paris.

So why did Barack H. Obama call the American people arrogant before all the peoples of Europe?

He's [in] way, way, over his head as the leader of the greatest country in the world.

Joseph Michael Wasik
Evesham

Question of the day: Why are liberals so angry? By Joseph Michael Wasik

Source: http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/578/2009/october/05/question-of-the-day-why-are-liberals-so-angry.html

October 05, 2009

By: Shirley Nixon
Burlington County Times

Guest opinion: Will breaking things down to its simplest level be the best way to solve this dilemma? All intelligent people know this to be true. I read this simple story somewhere, some time ago, that shows the basic differences between liberals and conservatives.

The story used to be:

The ant (the conservative) works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper (the liberal) thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays all the summer long.

Here comes winter and the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper, however, has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

Moral of this story is: Be responsible for yourself.

The contemporary version of this same story is:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying in supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays all the summer long.

Here comes the winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN and PBS show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. Americans are stunned by the sharp contrast. A picture is worth a thousand words.

How can this be, that in a country as wealthy as ours, can this poor grasshopper be allowed to suffer so much?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody sympathizes and tears flow when they sing, "Its Not Easy Being Green.''

Acorn stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome,'' while Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group curse God for the grasshopper's dilemma.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid complain in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs, and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while in the government house, which just happened to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he didn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared into the snow.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug-related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

Moral of the story: Be careful how you vote in 2010 and 2012.

Can I ask what you do for this country? I'm not saying you don't work or pay taxes, but so many liberals just take and take and take and take and think it's their right.

I used to think it was just liberals who are immature.

But a disturbing pattern was noticed over and over and over: Most liberals can't even engage in civil discourse, and when they are confronted with positions that don't match theirs, they lash out like crazed pit bulls.

This oddity was noticed for a long time and like others before me has concluded that liberalism really is a mental disorder based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions. "Contemporary liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded,'' paraphrasing Dr. Lyle Rossiter, author of the book, "The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness.''

"Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave.''

While political activists on the other side of the spectrum have made similar observations, Rossiter boasts professional credentials and a life virtually free of activism and links to "the vast right-wing conspiracy.''

For more than 35 years he has diagnosed and treated more than 1,500 patients as a board-certified clinical psychiatrist and examined more than 2,700 civil and criminal cases as a board-certified forensic psychiatrist. He received his medical and psychiatric training at the University of Chicago.

Ronald Reagan once said, "The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.''

Reagan had hit upon something really important and eye opening. Liberals seem to have a very, very tenuous grasp of things. Therefore, they figuratively dig their claws in and fight tooth and nail against anything that doesn't fit their viewpoint of the world.

The liberal mind is about as stable as a house of cards. On some levels, they realize that confronting reality will destroy their entire view of the world, much like someone in the 1200s finally realizing the shocking truth that the world isn't flat, after all,.

Imagine how difficult it was for frightened sailors to finally accept the truth; they lived frightened lives unnecessarily. The horizon wasn't full of sea serpents. There was no edge of the world.

Conservatives absolutely baffle and exasperate liberals. Why? Because conservatives appear to have solid beliefs while the liberal is lucky if he can formulate some vague, hazy philosophy of things.

When a conservative argues with a liberal, the liberal feels he must lash out for fear of discovering that his whole imaginary world is just that: fiction.

So, liberals preach "tolerance,'' but only tolerance for their viewpoints. Anything else is heresy. Just try confronting a liberal with the facts about global warming and he'll practically start foaming at the mouth.

The mind of the liberal cannot acknowledge that a conservative is right because the fuzzy liberal mind is like a shaky house of cards. If the liberal realizes he's wrong about one thing, it totally destroys their whole imagined reality he has constructed for himself.

So when liberals scream like threatened children when you talk about Fox News, or Rush Limbaugh, it is because their brains are not wired to accept contradictory information.

Liberals don't get their information from the left and the right, putting their beliefs to the test by checking if they are based on fact and not on conjecture or psychological construction.

Liberals cannot do this. It would destroy their carefully crafted dream world existence.

What do you think?

Joseph Michael Wasik lives in Evesham.

A Political Pick

Watch Don't Make Me Laugh in Animation  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Source: http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=508711#

10/09/2009

Honoraria: The world seems stunned that President Obama was chosen as this year's recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. But given the worldview of the selection committee, this really should come as no surprise at all.

A rundown of recent winners indicates a trend. In 1990, Communist Mikhail Gorbachev was given the prize though Ronald Reagan had far more to do with the liberation of Eastern Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Two years later, the honor went to Rigoberta Menchu, a Guatemalan author whose writings turned out to be a fraud. That didn't faze the committee, however. What mattered was she was a leftist.

In 1994, Yasser Arafat, darling of global leftists, took the prize, though his idea of peace was Israel prostrate before radical Islam.

Jimmy Carter, who failed his country as president, won in 2002.

How a man who spent his career as a toady to tyrants won a "peace" prize befuddled us. It only made sense later when Gunnar Berge, the Norwegian committee chairman, admitted the choice of the left-leaning Carter was meant to tweak President Bush.

In 2004, Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan tree-planter, beat out Pope John Paul II, who was nominated for his lifelong opposition to communism. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were nominated that year as well.

In 2005, the prize went to U.N. head weapons inspector Mohamed ElBaradei. London Times editor Bronwen Maddox called it "a slap in the face for the United States," noting ElBaradei's International Atomic Energy Agency had "failed to detect covert nuclear programs in at least three countries — and failed to get diplomatic purchase on the problems when others have finally brought them to light. That does not amount to a contribution to world peace."

Al Gore didn't invent the Nobel Peace Prize, but he did share it in 2007 with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Neither has done anything to further peace. But both are accomplished at scaring a lot of people with their man-made global warming scam, a swindle that the political left is heavily invested in.

Rather than insult the U.S., the Nobel selection panel this time chose to manipulate American politics with its choice. In picking the U.S. president, it has made a preemptive strike on the 2012 presidential election. After all, how could American voters toss a Nobel Laureate from the White House after only one term?

We think the preening, leftist Nobel panel did a disservice to our president by giving him an award he knows he didn't deserve. But this isn't the first time they've gone off the rails. It's a sad thing to see a once-proud peace prize sullied by petty left-wing politics.

The Coming Reset in State Government: My fellow governors and I are likely facing a permanent reduction in tax revenues. By Mitch Daniels

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204731804574390603114939642.html

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

State government finances are a wreck. The drop in tax receipts is the worst in a half century. Fewer than 10 states ended the last fiscal year with significant reserves, and three-fourths have deficits exceeding 10% of their budgets. Only an emergency infusion of printed federal funny money is keeping most state boats afloat right now.

Most governors I've talked to are so busy bailing that they haven't checked the long-range forecast. What the radar tells me is that we ain't seen nothin' yet. What we are being hit by isn't a tropical storm that will come and go, with sunshine soon to follow. It's much more likely that we're facing a near permanent reduction in state tax revenues that will require us to reduce the size and scope of our state governments. And the time to prepare for this new reality is already at hand.

The coming state government reset will be particularly wrenching after the happy binge that preceded this recession. During the last decade, states increased their spending by an average of 6% per year, gusting to 8% during 2007-08. Much of the government institutions built up in those years will now have to be dismantled.

For now, my state's situation is far better than most, but it won't stay that way if we fail to act in Indiana. At present, we are meeting our obligations, without raising taxes, and still have over $1 billion in reserve. But the dominant reality is that even assuming the official revenue projections are accurate (and they have been consistently too rosy for the past two years), the state of Indiana will have fewer dollars to work with in 2011 than it did in 2007. Most other states face similar or worse prospects.

And, unlike the aftermath of past recessions, odds are that revenues will take a long time to catch back up to their previous trend lines—if they ever do. Tax payments have fallen so far that it would require a rousing economic rally to restore them. This at a time when the Obama administration's policies on taxes, spending and more seem designed to produce the opposite result. From 1930 to 2008, our national average annual real GDP growth rate was 3.49%. After crunching the numbers, my team has estimated that it would take GDP growth of at least twice the historical average to return state tax revenues to their previous long-term trend line by 2012.

I doubt even that would suffice to rescue most states. Instead, historical forecasting models need to be revised. One-third of state revenues (over half in seven states) come from sales taxes, but it's hard to imagine them snapping all the way back up to where they were just a few years ago. Americans are now saving much more then they used to relative to how much they are spending. This sudden shift will mean that even in good economic times to come consumers will likely spend less and therefore pay less in sales taxes than they did during bubble years.

Even if Americans wanted to go back to their high-spending, high-borrowing ways, will anyone lend them the funds to spend like it's 2007 all over again? Consumer credit will remain tighter as a matter of both sound business practice and new government regulation. Home equity appreciation is gone as a huge source of collateral, even if lenders were either willing or permitted to loan freely against it.

The "progressive" states that built their enormous public burdens by soaking the wealthy will hit the wall first and hardest. California, which extracts more than half its income taxes from a fraction of 1% of its citizens, is extreme but hardly alone in its overreliance on a few, highly mobile taxpayers. Both individuals and businesses are fleeing soak-the-rich states already. Those who remain in high-tax states will be making few if any capital gains tax payments in the years to come. Even if the stock market comes roaring back to life, the best it could do is speed the deduction of recent losses.

Sadly, the political impulse to protect government largess leads many states to aggravate their dilemma. Already more than half have raised taxes, often on businesses, serving only to chase them and their tax payments away and into the open arms of states like Indiana. Our traffic flow of interested investors is as heavy as it was in 2007. Since January we have welcomed the consolidation of more than 30 firms that closed up shop elsewhere and chose us as the low-cost, enterprise-friendly environment among their current locations.

Indiana was near bankruptcy five years ago but is relatively solvent today because we have spent the intervening years making hard choices. We have reformed state procurement, contracted out some jobs, cut costs, and relentlessly scrutinized expenditures in pushing for annual improvement in departments large and small. We've also reduced the number of state employees by some 5,000 from the 2004 level.

In contrast to the national pattern, our per capita state spending has cut, on average, 1.4% each of the past five years. Indiana is now the sixth thriftiest state by this measure. And if we Hoosiers are realizing that we need to re-examine what we can afford to have our government do, what must they be thinking in Albany, Lansing or Trenton?

Truth be told, officials in those cities are probably not thinking about this at all. But they will because state governments will soon have to choose between a major downsizing or consigning themselves to permanent decline. Wishing for an improbably huge boom while chasing your own tail through self-destructive taxes won't prove much of a strategy.

Unlike the federal government, states cannot deny reality by borrowing without limit. The Obama administration's "stimulus" package in effect shared the use of Uncle Sam's printing press for two years. But after that money runs out, the states will be back where they were. Even if Congress goes for a second round of stimulus funding, driven by the political panic of bankrupt Democratic governors, it would only postpone the reckoning.

The time to plan and debate is now. This is a test of our adulthood as a democracy. Washington, as long as our Chinese lenders enable it, can practice denial for a while longer. But for states the real world is about to arrive.

Mr. Daniels, a Republican, is the governor of Indiana.

The Conservative Case for Reform By Bobby Jindal

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/04/AR2009100402003_pf.html

October 5, 2009

A majority of so-called Republican strategists believe that health care is a Democratic issue. They are wrong; health care is an American issue, and the Republican Party has an opportunity to demonstrate that conservative principles work when applied to real-world problems.

But memo to Washington: The debate on health care has moved on. Democratic plans for a government takeover are passé. The people don't want it. Believe the polls, the town halls, the voters. Only Democrats in Washington would propose new taxes on businesses and families in the middle of a recession, $900 billion in new spending at a time of record deficits, and increased taxes on health insurance and products to reduce health-care costs.

Washington is the only place in the country that doesn't realize that this debate is over. Democrats may march forward anyway, but they will do so without the people, and at their own peril.

Yet hope for meaningful reform need not be lost. Only two things need to happen. First, Democrats have to give up on their grand experiment and get serious about bipartisan solutions. Second, Republicans have to join the battle of ideas.

To be clear, the Republicans in Congress who have led the opposition to the Obama-Pelosi vision of health-care reform have done the right thing for our country. If they had rolled over, the results could have been devastating for our health-care system and our nation's budget.

But Republicans must shift gears. Conservatives should seize the mantle of reform and lead. Conservatives either genuinely believe that conservative principles will work to solve real-world problems such as health care or they don't. I believe they will.

The people do not want Republicans to offer their own thousand-page plan to overhaul health care, and that is not what the nation needs.

So here are 10 ideas to increase the affordability and quality of health care. Some of these are buried within various Republican and Democratic plans that have been floated. They offer a path forward toward significant bipartisan reform. These proposals would require insurance companies to do their jobs and spread risk over large populations, restore patients' power to make their own health-care decisions, and focus our system on quality instead of activity.


-- Voluntary purchasing pools: Give individuals and small businesses the opportunities that large businesses and the government have to seek lower insurance costs.


-- Portability: As people change jobs or move across state lines, they change insurance plans. By allowing consumers to "own" their policies, insurers would have incentive to make more investments in prevention and in managing chronic conditions.


-- Lawsuit reform: It makes no sense to ignore one of the biggest cost drivers in the system -- the cost of defensive medicine, largely driven by lawsuits. Worse, many doctors have stopped performing high-risk procedures for fear of liability.


-- Require coverage of preexisting conditions: Insurance should not be least accessible when it is needed most. Companies should be incentivized to focus on delivering high-quality effective care, not to avoid covering the sick.


-- Transparency and payment reform: Consumers have more information when choosing a car or restaurant than when selecting a health-care provider. Provider quality and cost should be plainly available to consumers, and payment systems should be based on outcomes, not volume. Today's system results in wide variations in treatment instead of the consistent application of best practices. We must reward efficiency and quality.


-- Electronic medical records: The current system of paper records threatens patient privacy and leads to bad outcomes and higher costs.


-- Tax-free health savings accounts: HSAs have helped reduce costs for employers and consumers. Some businesses have seen their costs decrease by double-digit percentages. But current regulations discourage individuals and small businesses from utilizing HSAs.


-- Reward healthy lifestyle choices: Providing premium rebates and other incentives to people who make healthy choices or participate in management of their chronic diseases has been shown to reduce costs and improve health.


-- Cover young adults: A large portion of the uninsured are people who cannot afford coverage after they have "aged out" of their parents' policies. Permitting young people to stay on their parents' plans longer would reduce the number of uninsured and keep healthy people in insurance risk pools -- helping to lower premiums for everyone.


-- Refundable tax credits (for the uninsured and those who would benefit from greater flexibility of coverage): Redirecting some of the billions already spent on the uninsured will help make non-emergency care outside the emergency room affordable for millions and will provide choices of coverage through the private market rather than forcing people into a government-run system. We should trust American families to make choices for themselves while we ensure they have access to quality, affordable health care.

In short, ideas matter. The public is interested in solutions that will improve America's health-care system, not dismantle it. Republicans can lead on this.

The writer, a Republican, is governor of Louisiana.