To Fix the Economy and Unemployment Rate, First Help the States
Addressing local economies is key to solving the national mess.
 Richard Ravitch is the lieutenant governor of New York.   Until
recently, the political system was preoccupied with a seemingly
inevitable national healthcare reform and state Medicaid
expansion. Now President Obama's effort to revive health reform
is an uphill battle because the most visible subjects of
discussion in Washington are unemployment and the federal
deficit. But one thing hasn't changed: the huge disconnect
between the problems faced by the states of the United States
and the responses of federal policymakers.  The healthcare bills
had many sound ideas but made a mistake in not focusing more
closely on the fiscal effects of Medicaid expansion on the
states. In the same way, the current discussion of unemployment
and the federal deficit makes no mention of today's deep,
widespread state budget crisis. Yet the issues of jobs and the
federal deficit cannot be separated f