The feeling I get is that the Yankees are in, in a serious way, on Matty Machado. Now, Brian Caspern has said on this show, on other shows, you know, he's on the radar, I think he's more than on the radar. And I'm not sure that Brian is totally all in on it. It's hard to turn down a player that is that good, but it's an organizational thing as well. And he is somebody that is more than on their radar. He is somebody that they're probably looking at very seriously to sign. And in a way, it makes more sense than Harper, especially with D.D. being out, and probably freeze them up at some point, if they want to, to trade Miguel Andujar for a great pitcher, which is what they really need. But for those that are worried about all the nonsense that comes with Machado, well, I'm sure the Yankees are a little bit worried as well, but he is in the crosshairs. He is somebody that they are seriously considering, and I will, I will go as far as to say this. If they do their due diligence on him, which I'm sure they've done already, and if in fact things check out to their liking, and if Machado does in fact want to play for the Yankees, which is what you hear through the grapevine, then it's going to get done. Unless the price gets so outrageous and somebody jumps in like the Phillies and wants to give them 45 million, maybe the Yankees bow out because they don't think he's worth that. But if you could get them in the low 30s, I think the Yankees are going to sign him. I really do. Now, adding some intrigue to all of this, the owners' meetings are in Atlanta right now. And Ken Davidoff of the New York Post caught up with Yankees' managing general partner, Hal Steinberger. And Ken asked Hal about what everybody would acknowledge were the troubling comments that Machado made to Ken Rosenthal in the athletic about how he's not Johnny Hussle, doesn't run hard to first base all the time. This is what Hal said. If it's a 300 million dollar guy or a 10 million dollar guy, clearly those comments are troubling. But that's really Brian Caspin's job. If we're interested in a player, sit down with him face to face and ask him, where did this come from? What was the context around the entire interview? Was there a point you were trying to make? How do you justify it? Now, this is a money quote from Hal. Because that ain't going to sell where we play baseball. That conversation will happen no matter who it is. Interesting take by Hal. And I think that he's saying the right things. And here's what scares me, though, Don and Peter. If Machado really wants to play for the Yankees, and the Yankees really want Manny Machado, then Manny Machado is going to sit down and go, well, they took that the wrong way. I'm not like that. So he'll plead innocence or ignorance. And then in the 15th game of the year, he's going to jog to first base on the ground, ball of short, he just is. And then what do you do? And then you're stuck. Then you're stuck. So the Yankees have no kit coming if that happens, because what a guy says in your interview with him does not supersede everything that he's done in the six years in the big leagues. He is what we see he is. Well, Buck couldn't change him. Nope, and tried. The Dodgers go to the World Series didn't change him. That didn't change him. Impending free agency and massive wealth didn't change him. So maybe he's honest. When the Yankees sit him down and he says the exact same thing, doubles down on it, and the Yankees decide not to sign them. But what I'm curious about, Michael, is you have information that the Yankees are in, but you admit that Brian Cashman's probably not in that in love with doing it. It sounds like Hal's got his reservations. So where would this all be coming from if the owner of the team and the general manager of the team don't seem to be all in? I think they have their reservations because of what we're talking about, but they also know how freakishly talented the guy is. He is a great player. Right, right, but it doesn't solve your problem. And they need a shortstop. Well, it solves one problem. And when DD comes back and he signs them into a contract, because he's a free agent in 2019, then Machado slides over to third where he's far better defensively than he is as a shortstop, and you have a great left side of the infield for the next five years that you sign DD to a five-year deal. So I think they're all cautious, but I think that's on their wish list. That's not somebody that they're not... I don't even think they're entertaining Harper. That's not even on the list. I mean, they'll do their due diligence, and if it falls out of the sky, Joel Sherman had a very interesting column in the post today. You really want to get involved in two 10-year contracts? That's what you're doing. And you can say, well, they've got all the money in the world. It will hamstring you down the line. You've got nine years left with Stanton, and then it's going to be 10 years with Machado. And in a couple of years, you're going to deal with Sanchez. You're going to have to deal with Judge. Right. All of those guys are going to become free agents. What, are you going to have a $400 million payroll? I mean, you had a 100-win team this year that was probably saddled with 100 because of the loss of Judge. You lost DD. You had some injuries. You might have won even more games. But 100 games is what everybody pretty much aspires to do. Just turned out that the Red Sox won 100 in eight games. But by signing Machado, you're planning an exit strategy for Andrew Har, who was a major contributor to what you were as a team in the regular season, and maybe ushering the end of DD, who has been a major contributor to the last two years, in which you went to a game within the World Series and then getting to the second round of the playoffs last year. So you're bringing in somebody that clearly is a tremendous talent, but it could come at the expense of two really important guys that you've had this year and over the last couple of years in DD and Andrew Har. Both of those guys are probably going to be gone because of this move. I think you keep DD. I'm not sure. So you'd give him a contract too? Yeah, you'd give DD because DD's older than Machado. You give DD probably a four or five-year deal, have him play shortstop, and you're going to tell Machado when you sign him, you're playing shortstop for the first year, and then you move into third base when DD's... Which is something I don't think he really wants to do. But you know what? It's probably better for his long-term baseball career because he's 26 now, but he does have bad knees. He's had knee procedures before. I don't think he's a long-term answer at shortstop. And the analytics tell you he's so much better. He's a platinum glove third baseman. He's not even a gold glove shortstop. The question is, when is enough for this team? When they win the World Series. But the only way to get to win the World Series is to literally make your team an all-star team. There's no version of this in which, like, this year they just got beat. I mean, they couldn't have gone all the way this year. It does seem panicky. If they get Machado, you know, I would say it would seem panicky. And you guys know how I feel about Machado. I think it would seem panicky if DD was healthy. DD not healthy for as long as he might not be healthy, throws a complete wrench into this. Really does.  But maybe they don't worry about that stuff. I thought that stent was overkill last year. But maybe they feel they need this guy. Now, there are things about this that don't work. The fact that he is not a hustling ball player and that's not going to play well in New York. And he's right-handed. The Yankees are overwhelmingly right-handed in a ballpark that's built for left-handed sluggers. But Peter makes the right... Peter's making a great point. It doesn't guarantee you anything. We thought the Stanton guaranteed a championship, but it didn't. It didn't even guarantee a win in the division. But it enhances your chances. Well, everything enhances your chances, Michael. But there was nothing wrong, I think, with the team that you had. It's just that the Red Sox played... had a sixth season of 108 wins. I mean, normally 100 wins is going to win you a division going away and put you in an excellent chance to win a championship. I like Machado a lot. But if he's not going to hustle here, and that's going to be a problem, it makes you think, well, why didn't you just give the 10 years to Cano? I thought we were trying to get away from that. Because Cano was 32. But you thought you're trying to get away from those big long contracts. I don't think that the non-hustling... they did offer Cano $25 million a year, but they didn't want to give him 10 years. This guy's 26. And if you looked at A-Rod's initial contract, when he was 26, that was a great... it turned out to be a great contract for the Texas Rangers and the Yankees. He opted out after the seventh year. The mistake was the second 10-year deal, which was signed when he was 32 years old. You just can't crazily do that. So, both Harper and Machado, you can give a 10-year deal to because of their young age. But it's interesting. You saw what Dellen Patas said yesterday at his event. He texts Machado all the time. He played with him in the World League team. And, you know, he was a great teammate. Didn't see any instance of him being dirty or anything like that. The players would love it. Players just say add people, add people, add stars. I think that the thing that really will be interesting to watch is how, as said over and over on this area, said at the Ken and the New York Post story as well, they still would like to stay under the threshold, which this year is at 207. So, if they sign Machado, let's say Machado's 35 million. I'll just put that number on him. And then you go on and sign Corbin, who might be 25 million. You're going over the threshold. Right. And then you still have to sign Relievers. Because Robertson's gone. So, you got to sign a Reliever. I don't know if you signed Andrew Mill, if you signed Robertson back, whatever the case may be. And then you're going to make a trade for another starter. And he's not going to come for free. So, whether you get a Corey Kluber, or you get the Paxton in Seattle, that's adding money too. Payroll is going to be about 240. And Hal said he doesn't think you have to have a payroll that high. But it does come across as a bit of a panic move. Because again, you won 100 games. And I think this team is presently constituted. It could still make a run at the Red Sox. I agree. They were within a game of going to the World Series two years ago. They had Stanton and technically took a step back. Because that's how baseball is, Michael. It's about meshing. It's about character. It's about hitting in the right situations. It's about pitching in the right situations. It's not a fantasy baseball team where you just get all stars at every position and then collect stats. You know, his lack of hustle. The fact that every Yankee fan that we talked to when there was some rumor that they were going to trade for him last year was like, I don't want this guy. He doesn't hustle. I don't want somebody like that. Isn't that telling, though? The Yankee made a run at him. They tried to acquire him. Now, where would they have put him, right? This one, D.D. was healthy. And Anduar was one of the best players on the team. They would have put him in third because they just weren't in love with Anduar. Defensively. Defensively. Right. Now, in terms of the wish list, every team has a wish list. Now, I'm saying that they're serious about Machado. Doesn't mean they're going to get them. But this is the wish list to everybody. Sign Machado. Sign a free agent picture. And trade for one of the pictures that are available on the market. And signing Machado probably opens up the possibility of trading and do hard. Now you have to deal them with third base until D.D. comes back. Those are wish lists. It doesn't always work out that way. And maybe they had that interview with Machado when he goes, I'm not running hard all the time. That's how I stay healthy.  But at this point, they are very interested in Manning Machado. Not in Harper. So for those that don't want the Machado situation, don't think it's a good idea. Be prepared. It could happen.


Good morning and welcome to everybody here. We're starting a little bit late, and we have here six extraordinary personalities with us, and we only have now 35 minutes left. So there are not only many complexities in the world, but these add to the complexities that exist. Nevertheless, we're going to reach the goals that we have established for this session. In a very complex world that is marked by many conflicts, because there are global and regional complexities, well, nevertheless, Latin America is still very dynamic, and the landscape is very diverse. Latin America is still exploring different visions and policies to overcome different issues and create good conditions for good social and environmental development. In a global context, the region is also a source of opportunities and has solutions for the development and to overcome all the challenges that we have globally. With our panelists here, we will explore some of the priorities in our region, the emerging challenges, and how we're going to assure that our region can benefit effectively from this potential. We're going to start with you, Mr. President. Thank you very much for being here today with us. We are really grateful. Let's see how the situation is evolving in Colombia, and which are the two or three priorities that you would like to highlight here for your country in 2024. Well, the priorities are focused on solving the problems that are the most complex and deep ones. In the case of Colombia, they have to do with two main topics, peace, how to eliminate the causes and the factors that cause violence and inequalities, and these two are linked. Social inequalities, well, Colombia is the second or the third most unequal country in the world. Latin America, in general, is the most unequal country in the world, region in the world, and this inequality equals violence, violence that has changed along the history, along the decades. How to solve this? Well, this cannot be done just this year. It's a very long process. It's a very complex one. We would like this year to put the country on the right way of pacification and equality that are not reversible. But so peace has a counterpart, and violence and social inequality have a dark side. Another aspect, which is the territorial unequality. Colombia is a country that is really fragmented, regions that are very diverse, and part of these regions have been excluded for centuries, and this is the legacy of slavery. It's a way of production that persists until the 19th century in Colombia and Latin America. So if I take the violence and I add it to the territorial unequality, I have another couple of terms which are related because violence has to do with illegal economy, illegal economy, illicit economy in excluded territories. So territorial unequality is linked to violence or to the possibility of peace. The illegal economy is the product, among others, of an anti-drug economy, an anti-drug policy at a global level that has failed completely. And this has taken Latin America to a crisis in the coherence of the society and democracies. A million people have died due to wrong policy against drugs. So if I want peace, I have to overcome territorial unequality. And this carries me to transform illegal economies into legal economies in the region. I know I don't have enough time, but this transformation is for me the key this year because for two centuries it hasn't been possible to transform the excluded Colombian territory to prosperity. And I would like to end with this, the Pacific Coast. In Colombia, there is, at that region, the free slaves, the slaves that got freedom by themselves, mainly black ones, they arrive there. And it's the only region in the Pacific, which is really poor, extremely poor, because we have the legacy of slavery there, the white elites of the government, who are focused on Bogota, never cared about that region. And now it's the most important cocaine-producing region in the world, cocaine which is consumed by the rest of the world, and it's a poorest region in Colombia. So there we have the challenge of transforming the region. We have China and Japan on the other side, where there is no mountain separating them, or California or Alaska decided to help, to really help, we could put this region in the Pacific from poverty to prosperity, just crossing the sea. And we would have a possibility, or the possibility, to overcome violence. Thank you very much, President. The group is presiding APEC this year, and this will be a good opportunity to rebalance the relationships between the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America. President, you are coming from Guatemala now, and international support, given by, well, the president and other people that were there, was really decisive to assure this democratic transition in Guatemala. What is the importance of international support to guarantee more institutionality and to consolidate these democratic processes in our region? Well, the history in Guatemala and contemporary reality is very similar to Colombia's, due to social inequalities, the racial fragmentation in the society, racism, levels of violence that have been achieved, because there was a long revolutionary strife. There was a peace process. The process was not respected in Colombia by the states, because some prosecutors decided to destroy the basis of popular elections, because the state was fragmented. We tried to... There is a criminality in the government and power. The criminal organizations have seized political power, and part of the society and the state does not want that. They want to deepen democracy. So for all these reasons, the electoral triumph of the president, for instance, a minister of defense cannot go to Guatemala because he will be put in prison, because Dr. Velazquez guided a special investigation against corruption in Guatemala. So all these regions make our two countries very much alike. So the defense of democracy in Guatemala is also the defense of democracy in Colombia and in Latin America. So we need to work together. It was a very critical moment. I was about to not be able to come here. Up to now, things have gone well. Guatemala, as Colombia, needs, first of all, people that are active, that defend democracy, because if not, we're lost, and then we always need, we also need solidarity from the world with projects of democratization, like in Guatemala or in Colombia or in Latin America in general, of course, president. And this takes me to another question that I'm going to ask to the president of the Supreme Tribunal of Brazil, Mr. Barroso. It's a pleasure to have you here. And I would like to ask you, Latin America, the institutionality and the rule of law are still part of the great challenges in our region, as President Petra has just said. The judiciary is a very important branch, which are the institutional difficulties that we are living in our region. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. I was about to speak in English. I had prepared myself to speak in English, but I'd rather speak in Spanish. The truth is that Latin America has a colonial heritage and a past of slavery and a past of inadequate territorial occupation, which has led, which has left a legacy of poverty and inequality. Some factors, chronicle factors, which have always made institutionality difficult in Latin America are poverty. Almost 30 percent of the Latin American population lives below the poverty line. Extreme inequality, the past and the present to some extent of a private appropriation of public space by extractivistic elites, and sometimes that leads into corruption. We have a chronic educational problem. Latin America has not invested enough in education, especially in basic education, and I think that this is what has left us lagging behind in history. Agenda is low economic growth, which makes it difficult for health generation and distribution because of injustice internationally to some extent, but also because of several domestic circumstances, and it has become more severe with the problem of public security and violence. And I think that we have to include this concern into the agenda, including in the progressive agenda. Progressive thinking has always neglected public security to some extent, attributing it only to poverty and inequality. That's a fact, but poor people also need public security, not to remain just on negative aspects. I think that the Latin American continent today provides major potentials for the world, and I would like not to dwell only on negative comments. I think that Latin America can and should take up the leading role of global environmental position because we have biodiversity, we have the largest amount of drinking water around the world. Amazon, which is the greatest storage place for carbon in terms of global warming, we have peaceful living together of countries with well-established frontiers, except for a fright or another. In spite of all institutional problems, democracy has remained in most countries, the large countries like Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Chile have managed to preserve their democratic institutionality in spite of several difficulties. We have no relevant religious conflict, and we are a multicultural, multi-racial society with all of the prospects that offers to the world. So without neglecting chronic problems that afflict us, that have to be resolved, I think that Latin America provides major potentials to the world that can be well tapped into if we find the right pathway. Thank you. Thank you very much, Minister. You have talked about insecurity. I would also like to acknowledge... I would like to acknowledge the participation of Mrs. Sommerfeld, who is representing her minister, who cannot be here. So what is the situation in your country, and what would you like to command here in this international arena? Thank you very much for the invitation. On behalf of President Novoa, he's sending you his warm greetings. He cannot be here, but he's sent part of his cabinet to represent him here. We're all women here. It's the first cabinet with gender parity. So there we see the differences of our president. What I'm listening to here, what I'm hearing here, is no different to what is being lived today in Ecuador. But I would like to talk here about the perspective under which Ecuador is living today. The reality is that only seven of 10 Equatorians have a job. The presidents say that 250,000 young students come from college each year and don't have a job. They don't have activities. They don't have work. They don't have a job. They don't have work. We have lots of problems with immigration. Over 500,000 Venezuelan citizens are in Ecuador. We are a transit country. And we also have lots of immigrants or Ecuadorian immigrants that go outside the country. So we don't give them opportunities, job opportunities. There is also a lot of insecurity. So in this landscape, all the vulnerable communities have to work, have to do something, have to act. And if they don't have a job and they cannot study, so what do they do? They start committing crimes. And this has weakened the country because criminality has increased enormously in institutions public or private institutions in Ecuador. And this has weakened, terribly weakened all the institutions that deal with security and with the judicial system. And all this have taken the country to a point where criminals are in power. It's organized criminality. It's organized crime. And these organized crime groups, which are violent, they threaten citizens. And many shops have had to close. In 2022, 4,000 businesses have had to close partly because of the market, partly because of high costs and high financing costs, but partly because we had the so-called vaccines. Vaccines, that means that each shop that was polluted with this organized crime had to pay to keep open because if not, either they killed them or they destroyed the shops. So these small shops, these micro-businesses or small businesses couldn't keep on working because they couldn't pay for these vaccines. And this was institutionalized, so they had to close. And if we think that the first job generator are SMEs and micro-businesses, well, if we destroy the productive basis of a country, what can we expect from a country, from the economy and from the society of our country? Every day, more and more people start or part of organized crime. In December, and this is to conclude the idea I was expressing, it does just affect companies, but the civil society and the community because if people go out on the street, they're not sure if something is going to happen to them and if they will be robbed. And the country ended up paralyzed due to fear and lack of opportunities. So we were really down. And in December, the justice system together with the government, together with the prosecution office, it moved 900 officials to pursue corrupted elected people. And this changed a lot of things. And President Novoa issued a decree in January, beginning of January, that said that Ecuador was in a real state of shock. And by January, a second decree was issued where that state, but thanks to the actions taken the first day, because there were even television channels that were attacked by criminal bands, criminal gangs, there was a second decree was issued and declared things and called things with an armed non-international conflict. We have identified 22 terrorist groups within Ecuador. How can we help? How is Ecuador? What solution does Ecuador see? Yes, that's what I wanted to explain. Once all this happens, we gave power to the armed forces to help bringing order internally and this hadn't happened until now in Ecuador with the police. 95 percent of the population is in favor of the president's decision. So the citizenship was oppressed by criminal organized crime. And the population supports the government and the armed forces and the police so that they carry out their job in an opportune and efficient way. But the most beautiful thing we saw is that as we started calling things by their names and calling these people terrorists, Ecuador called for help. The whole international community responded and that's what I want to say. These are, of course, problems in a small country like Ecuador, but the responsibility is not just for Ecuador. This organized crime feeds from drug traffic and illegal mining. And this is a problem that affects many of our countries and both these industries, because they are industries, feed international organized crime. We're a transit country for drug. We don't produce or consume drugs, but this is not a producer country of drug. But we got the support of every country, and this is something I would like to point out. Yes, Minister Barroso and the president, Pedro, talked about the root cause of the problem and the international support to look for a solution. Vice president, this is your fourth year that you are working with your president, and what are the lessons you could share with us about your country, about what you succeeded that could be useful for the rest of Latin American countries? Yes, thank you, Marisol, for your invitation and warm greetings to my panelist colleagues on behalf of the president and on my own behalf. We're convinced that the learned lessons in government management revolve around strategic vision, as we did in the Dominican Republic. We recovered the economy and we guaranteed a better and greater social investment since 2020. And we saw that it was key as President Vuyami Naveed helped all of these sectors of society work on improving and we worked with the academia, with the state, but we gave a lot of relevance and support to the private sector without forgetting the civil society. This was greatly important for us to face the pandemic. We vaccinated the whole Dominican population and with this we succeeded to preserve lives. We are 10.7 million inhabitants, and if, as President Vuyami Naveed said, one casualty is too much. We had 4,500 people who died, unfortunately, due to COVID. So at the same time of this vaccination, we worked with the president Abinav Der. Let me work on the pandemic, and in the meantime he reactivated the economy. We didn't close tourism, we didn't lock tourism. And this was the best decision because today we may be proud of a collaboration model, a partnership between state, private and public initiatives. And last year we broke the record of 10 million visitors in the Dominican Republic. And this is a lesson we learned from ourselves but also from all our brother countries that surround us. We need to guarantee the institutionalization of our country and we need to reinforce democracy. And nothing is magic. The only magic is to keep on working from government in a transparent way to deal with corruption because fortune-free societies cannot accept corruption anymore because corruption means a bad standard of living for the inhabitants of our countries. So as President Abinav Der did, we fought corruption, we fought money laundering and we went to war against drug traffic as well. And all this, we translated it into a series of specific actions and public policies that improved the quality of life for all Dominicans. And we reinforced institutions and we kept working on influencing transparent and just policies, promoting companies and entrepreneurship, especially female entrepreneurship, youth entrepreneurship and training is essential. We need to help progress and innovation, yes, we need, of course, a technological transition and that's, yes, because of time we will be able to come back with a question so that you can tell us about the importance of innovation. I would also like to give the floor to the chair of the Inter-American Development Bank. What could we do to avoid a new lost decade as many believe? Here we all want to prevent this from happening. What can we do, President? Well, thank you for giving me the opportunity. It's a pleasure to be here. I think we're, to the contrary, we're facing unique opportunity. I think Latin America has the potential to be at a real turning point because for the first time I think we have a symmetrical relationship with the world. Latin America and the Caribbean was always kind of a side of the world and needed the world. But I think now the world needs Latin America and the Caribbean region because they are part of our revolution. I'm going to give you examples, the clean energy, and we know very well. Food production for the world, the Amazon and the biomass, or a sponge like President Petro says, these are world solutions. How can we make sure that we take this opportunity along? And I think that we need to be able to absorb influx and we need stability to take advantage of this opportunity. And the institutional relationships are quite relevant, as President Barroso said. And as many of you said, security is quite relevant because physical insecurity is prevailing and we need to stop that. And also we've had good growth periods from 23 to 2013, but this did not reflect in productivity here. We need to improve education and skills and once we have stability we need to generate productivity and innovation. Thank you, President. One very short question, integration in a region, in Latin America and the Caribbean region. In your opinion, what are the areas that have potential so that we can go forward in an effective and practical integration? This is where we see consensus. The IDB works where it sees that there are opportunities. I'll give you two examples. And for ever, this is a program we're carrying out and President Petru is here, other countries echoed or two, we've had, we saw a political will. And I think we have a unique opportunity of several players to play together. And I think that this is quite positive. And another example, in Mercosur they are discussing physical and digital integration. The route that comes from Brazil, Guyana and the Oceania, so the IDB is working and is going to invest $10 million to work on this. So I think that there's a moment where we can work on regional integration and the global context is quite polarized, fragmented, and this leads us to forces us to integrate more and more. Thank you for such a hopeful regional vision. I'd like to ask Marco Bulgaria about the role of the private sector, because it was already mentioned as a productivity and employment facilitator. In your opinion, what is the role of private sector and what is the sector of greater potential from your perspective, please? Thank you, Marisol. Yes, traditionally the role of the private sector is linked to investment and employment development, employment offer, but as President, Vice President Ebenia and as President of the IDB Elam said, we need to invest and we've seen examples where the private sector played a role of change player in Latin America. And I'll give you two examples, the food sector. The food sector doesn't usually offer much employment or uses much technology. And it presents low innovations, but in the last decades we've seen a revolution and this sector has started using new technologies and nowadays the food producer's work has totally changed. Direct sowing in Brazil and Argentina has helped and also the improvements of seeds has brought more productive hectares, which means more grain and therefore more food security for the world and also a better management of the earth, of the land. We also see innovation around the food companies. Nowadays a food producer as a processor is guided by GPS and uses digital technology and he monitors the hectares that he's sowing and cultivating with satellite images. And the sector where the private sector has been a change agent, but I think we need to continue to do it in the future. It is my sector, oil and gas. There's a great transformation that expects us, which is the energetic transformation. We need to be players of this energetic transition. We from Pan American are committed to it. We don't know which technology will help us to solve climate change, but we know that we need to produce as a sector, as an industry, we need to produce more energy for million consumers in order to support the growth of economies. But this needs to be an energy of lower emissions. We need to help decarbonize the energy used by our economies. We're doing it in the Americas and this is a way to be players and not victims of this process and we're investing in renewable energies, in bio fuel, in lithium as well and we see that throughout time, more and more companies are entering this process and therefore I'm convinced that private sector has a relevant role. Without an industry it will be harder to do and we have to self-impose to be leaders on the sector, in the sector. And I'd like to say that it is not just the private sector. We need a partnership with the public sector and of course with the financial bodies that need to finance these projects more and more. So I will ask you for more money and thank you very much. And this time for one closing remark, President Petro, as you all know, the central topic of a meeting in the World Economic Forum is rebuilding trust. How in a diverse and pluralized backdrop with players with different visions in a region, President, how can we reach consensus and progress towards more cooperation and a better integration? Well, there's always two ways, which is to increase division, fragmentation. In America, generally speaking, I'm not just speaking about the Chimney in the north with the CO2, but the forest in the south. So there's two ways to take it, either we continue this paradox and we separate again more north, which pollutes more and more, with greater levels of social destruction and the south, which keeps its potential without developing it. And a victim of violence, which is due to criminal organizations together with politics. So there's another way, which is the pact, the meeting up, looking for common objectives. And this way, together with a chimney, is a sponge, and it eliminates the chimney for the future of the planet. But we need to plan this option, and this means to reach agreement, to delocalize the American production towards Latin America. It means thinking of a common agreement as the president of the Inter-American Development Bank. It requires an integration in Latin America, but it requires also an American integration and in the European style and looking at Europe around a project. And what Europe did on carbon emissions, we need to do it with clean energy. Yes, we will do it, Mr. President. So we take this message on concern regarding public security that we need to solve in Latin America and also the relevance to finding consensus for a better integration and innovation and technology. Because I think that Latin America needs to push this, we can't be left behind. So thank you for such extraordinary personalities who have such a great responsibility to fulfill the Latin American dream. Thank you very much.


Hey everybody, Lisa Kearney here with FanDuel. Today we're gonna talk about betting on the total, which you might know as the over-under. That's when you bet on how many points both teams will score combined. A bet on the over means the two teams must combine to score more than the total. Betting on the under means the two teams must combine to score less than the total. Now what happens if the two teams combine for the same number as the total? Well, that's called a push and he'll get your money back. The cool thing about over-unders is they go far beyond just the final score. You can bet touchdowns, player points, strikeouts, and so much more. And that, my friends, is the total rundown on totals.


I'm able to continue to make content thanks in part by the wonderful support from Ironside Computers. Use code JOECAD for a discount on your next powerful PC. I am Gobo and I am proud. Father, I crave the medals for my giant robot. I will give you the medals sometime soon. We just low on resources right now. Don't worry, Gobo. For something. Yes, I need more cookies. Yes, more cookies. I also like the idea. This is perfect for the cookie use because it's like you're giving Gobo cookies like a treat in order. Can we order creamy spinach pizza? Creamy spinach pizza, maybe. I do like spinach on my pizza. I've downloaded this thing called Bikubot. It's currently in alpha, currently in development. But if you go to their Patreon, you can get access to the alpha. There was one VTuber who's like a cat VTuber. Their Twitch is MsMISS, JackieCR. That's the person I saw kind of doing this with their chat. They call chat cat. Hey, mods. Can we do something funny? Like, I don't know. Throw some dudads at the nice cat next to me.  And it got me inspired to want to do some of my own for Gobo. They... Can't have cookies? You can have cookies. You can have as many cookies as you want. Gobo's nutritional requirements are very easy to fulfill and food can really be nigh on anything. Shout out to JoeKat and Gobo, role models for us all. Thanks. I'm no role model. I'm just a guy. Don't use me as a role model. Use Gobo as a role model. But what do you guys think of the cost? Do you think the cost is okay? 10,000? Do you think I should turn it down, bump it up? I know there's going to be a lot of like regular time viewers who are going to have cookies saved up. Edit. Let's make it 10 cookies. I'm going to regret this, aren't I? It costs 10 cookies to make up. You're nice. I am amazed. I swear. Heck. I hope you have a filter. Hi. Moshi Moshi. Father, may I say a bad word? No. Grab. Bingo Bongo. Oh no. What could possibly go wrong? You're Gobo Gobo. Okay. Yay. I'm changing it to 200. Thank you, good man. Thank you. Gobo demands cookies. Gobo gets all the cookies now. Yes. All the cookies. Cookie. Jimmy a cookie. Father, I crave violence. I will... Hmm. Yes. I think you might need to make it more expensive. Yes, I think so as well. Cookie. Gobo's Rise and Medell. Mmm. D's nuts. Awful eye. Gobo McGoverson. Declare myself to be the supreme overlord of the entire round. I didn't vote on this. It orders Gobo loves Joe. Aw. Your peace from the jar please. Trans rights. Trans rights. Joe help I am small and green. Tell me, for whom do you fight? Humph. Oh gosh. For a great live. And do you believe in Goborsia? I do believe in Goborsia. I set Gobo into attack position and attack your life. Oh my God. Don't lie. Perhaps. Because I imagine... You do tool tips. I imagine that it's also... How does this sound hash currency percent hash percent and slash percent. Because I imagine... Because I imagine... Happy ending. It's also... Because everything's over now and all that's left is you and the infinite void. Tinta makes you want to play saxophone. Huh? I can't even read. I'm just making it up. Gobo can't read. He never had a formal education. Wrong. I would teach Gobo to read because reading is fundamental in this pattern. And it's important that we be able to read our customers' orders and also their messages. This is Gobo's show now. You guys come for Gobo now. I'm the sidekick. I'm the secondary character. I do it yesterday. I accidentally swallowed some food coloring. The healer says I'm okay, but I feel like I've died a little inside. Joe boy is Gobo's boy. He's a good boy. Oh, for feeding the Gobo. Gobo will be fine. I'll just have to go on the treadmill for a little bit. I'm not fat. I'm cute. You are. You're round and friend-shaped. My sprinkler goes like this. Gobo, no. You're going to get the talent all wet. Let me mortal. My friend's bakery burned down last night. Now his business is toast. Gobo, I don't know whether to be proud of you or disappointed in you. My friend's rights. Will I, Gobo, be able to speak during any lengthy streams? No, absolutely not. That would ruin the mood, unfortunately. You're going to have to sit in the pen while I run the BV game. Papa, is that me on the shelf? Why can't they be here too?  Let's see. Where is it? Here we go. It's like you've got a son. Do take care of them and make sure they grow up nice and big and strong like you and just as adorable, okay? Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Are you mocking me, Gobo? Father, replace me already? I shall destroy a little Gobo. I cast Fireball. You can't cast Fireball, Gobo. You don't know Fireball yet.  Nope. But I know Fireball. Papa. This tavern is made of wood. I explicitly made sure to not teach you any dangerous magic that would like displace a flame. I appreciate that. Yes. Yes. The pets are nice. You cannot fathom the endless darkness inside me. The blood inside me is greater than you will ever know. Amazing.


Here we are. So James, I'm going to turn to you to rights and democracy asked to have some testimony on health, you know, range of health care issues, saying that some people might want to come and tell their stories. Others might want to comment on particular initiatives or legislation. And so that's what I'm anticipating. Is there more that you would like to say as a way of introduction James and then I think we Alex and Lawrence were prepared to be heard. And so, maybe we've turned to them and and then turn to Peter after. Yeah, thank you so much. Chair Lippert and the members of the House health care committee. I do have some testimony that is from our organization that that will be able to present and then turn it over to Angela and Alex and Peter.  Thank you, you know for for welcome was today my name's James Haslam the executive director of rights and democracy. I actually usually don't provide this role for our organization but today is our first ever lobby day. And it has really spread thin through many committees, talking about current legislation and this new coalition called Vermont renews. And everyone knows I'm really passionate about health care so I was asked to do this and joining me are Angela Lawrence Alex Laning and Peter sterling will speak afterwards. But before I began we wanted to share a land acknowledgement with the committee rights and democracy acknowledges the Mahakan in southern Vermont in the abanaki people as the traditional land caretakers of the end. Which includes parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, New England and Quebec. As guests of this unseated territory of the Mahakan and abanaki people we honor their ancestors elders and relations past present and emerging. We also acknowledge that our nation has benefited from the uncompensated and exploited labor represented in the legacy of slavery and the present day reality of migrant farm workers. And we also recognize that we have a new rights and democracy, which we often call rad for short, and our sibling organization the rights and democracy Institute. We're both founded in 2015 on the theory of change that a sustained collective action of people powered organization year after year can help make big, bold, long term changes in this country to advance human rights and build a real democracy. The theory of change is that it takes political infrastructure in this case a membership organization to sustain the momentum necessary to do that throughout in between elections. Rad members and staff work on issues and matters to our communities that matter to our communities, organize for policy change at the state and national level and recruit and train people to run for office. Our members are from all walks of life intergenerational multicultural activists artists organizers, but most importantly they're passionate fighters for true social justice and meaningful change in our communities and across the state. We have chapters across Vermont and New Hampshire, and you can look for us for wherever you are. We know our current systems are deeply dysfunctional rooted in historic oppressions and fragile. When those fragile systems break it is Vermonters who have been systemically kept out of places of power that are the most impacted. We have an acting indigenous persons racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQIA individuals individuals with disabilities senior citizens new Americans migrant community youth young adults poor working poor are the ones who carry the weight of policies and systems gone wrong. We are nearly 80% of Vermont voting voting population, the least represented in our state government, and are in some cases wholly invisible to those who enact the policies that can provide deadly, they can prove deadly to their communities. We recognize that there are powerful forces that strategically use racism and hate to divide our communities but we know that when we come together we can build a strong multi racial democracy in which everyone can thrive. It's a pleasure to testify you today and to share our visions for collective liberation in a more just and vibrant Vermont. On a federal level we are working hard to promote the thrive agenda, the next generation of comprehensive reformed reform date birth in the transformative work of the Green New Deal. The Green New Democracy Institute has joined hundreds of organizations across New England who are joining forces to bring a shared agenda that amplifies the power and will of the people and have form and have formed the renew New England Alliance to push forward bold structural change across all six states. Today we are thrilled to roll out our Vermont's call to action Vermont renews. Vermont renews is a new and growing coalition of leading grassroots organizations, labor unions, racial justice groups frontline communities and environmental advocates. We've come together to address our state's overlapping crises of unemployment mass unemployment racial injustice the coronavirus pandemic and climate change globally a haunting truth must be reckoned with and addressed people on the global majority BIPOC and our poor bear the largest negative impacts of the environmental crisis and are the least contributors to the crisis itself. We believe strongly that any solutions proposed should be designed and help heal and restore our communities as an intentional priority rather than a hopeful aspiration on a trickle down approach. Right to democracy Institute is addressing this head on through a formation of a BIPOC centered advisory group of experts to guide this process and policy proposals that help us reach our climate goals. This Council recently submitted a letter to the state of Vermont and raise to raise the hope streams demands of those most impacted as the guidance for the work ahead. That letter has been shared with this committee, and I encourage you to review and hold words in that letter to your heart as you make your policy recommendations and decisions. Currently our coalition is working diligently to on innovative policy proposals and areas of housing justice food justice and green justice zones and emerging initiative that uses data mapping community design and participatory budgeting process to support community utilization. And of course we are ever present for the conversations relating to social justice issues. It is important that we lift voices of people today. And I'm been excited to be joined by some of our partners and amazing members today in this committee and throughout the legislature today. Two dozen individuals are speaking their truths and committees throughout the legislature, and I ask you to hear their stories on their courage and testifying their support that they went the time shared today. We're also asking, we're asked to speak specifically on a piece of current healthcare legislation, the joint legislative healthcare affordability commission in the budget bill age for three nine. The health rights and democracies and organization that it strongly believes in the right to healthcare to all people and believe fundamentally we must shift from treating healthcare as a commodity to as a public good. Given that we support any and all efforts to expand public health care programs as the current private health insurance marketplace is a major problem for far too many families. So we see the problem at as being a partly a financial one. A 2015 Harvard University study found that 62% of personal bankruptcy filings are due to medical bills. Other research has produced similar findings. Most from honors and their players would agree that the cost of health care is too high and the causes. Great financial hardship. In September of 2020 a poll commissioned by the Alliance for a better Vermont founder said that the are they are most concerned about the cost and availability of healthcare. 69% were very concerned over issues such as the economic impacts of coven 19. We still have a support for small businesses and the local economy and jobs and unemployment. We still have too many people uninsured and have a growing crisis of people under insured who simply can't afford the out of pocket costs that are expected to pay when they need care and medication. So this is why we think we need to act now. We have a health care reform friendly leadership in the US Congress and public opinion remains strongly behind the Biden administration pursuing big reforms funded by the federal government. Vermont needs to start preparing now to take advantage of this window of opportunity because Vermont needs federal financial support to enact any meaningful health care reforms. We believe it is also time for the states to signal that they're prepared to work with the federal government. We must begin immediately to begin legislative support for any sweeping changes to our health care system, including any significant expansion of our public health care programs. So this is why we think this commission is a good idea contained in both language in the preparation for a six member joint House Senate commission to hold public hearings in the fall of 2021 and study various options to expand public health care programs and other things move for monitors at a high cost private insurance plans into more affordable public option type coverage. The commission would directly engage for monitors who are most adversely impacted by lack of equitable access to health care through a series of community meetings. This is the kind of participatory democratic community based research that we believe is essential to development of public policy that meets the needs of our diverse communities. If we were to offer any recommendations to this committee would be to ensure that every adversely impacted can constituency can be represented, which sometimes might require removal of and all the barriers to community participation such as interpretation transportation and childcare. The commission has in its mission to explore ways to work with the Biden administration on these reforms, given that the Biden administration as well as Senator Bernie Sanders have both publicly supported an age bandit approach to expanding access to public health care programs, as opposed to solely relying on a single pair approach. The commission has charged the commission to specifically explore options around expanding access to Medicaid to allow enrollment for the 50 to 64 year old age age band potentially helping out about 110,000 people to be able to get more affordable access. The commission would hire experts do its research and hold eight public hearings and come back in the legislature in January 2022 with recommendations. This healthcare affordability commission included is the appropriate vehicle to jumpstart a necessary very necessary public conversation on what for monitors and their employers are paying for health care. To support their goal to consider practical and short term pathways to expand asset access to health public health care programs. For example, bringing more youth and those over 50 for into these public programs, while also more broadly reviewing Vermont's current approach to managing health care affordability. Our communities need both immediate options for reform and the opportunity to participate in community led reflection on our need for more systemic reforms. Who else is supporting this other organizations supporting this are conclude the Vermont in the AARP Vermont v perk United Professions of Vermont American Federations of Teachers, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, and Vermont Interfaith Action, who collectively represent 10s of 1000s of Vermonters. So thank you so much for hearing all of that and also for your service for Vermont with that I'll turn it over to Angela and Alex and Peter. Okay, thank you, James. I welcome you to. In turn, share your stories or your thoughts with our committee. Oh, I'm happy to go if folks want. I think I think I think Peter we were actually going to hear from Alex and Angela first. Good morning, everyone. I'm Alex Lenning. I'm a resident of St. Alvin city executive director of a mental health nonprofit and adjunct faculty member and a suicide prevention education and hospice volunteer. Thank you again for the opportunity to speak with you today and for rights and democracy Vermont for the invitation to share my thoughts. I'm sharing my testimony as a citizen and advocate, call to action for increased diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion across Vermont's health and mental health system of care. Your support for age 210 and the establishment of a health equity advisory commission has provided a vital opportunity for transparency around the data and stories which validate what we know to be true. Racism is a public health emergency. What we do is it a human rights issue. We know that our BIPOC communities have experienced disparities and outcomes related to COVID-19, as well as mental health. This is also occurring in our LGBTQ TIA to plus in other communities, which have experienced marginalization and barriers around access to critical care and information. The BIPOC has forced us to reassess and reassert community needs. Unfortunately, the evidence demonstrates that systemic inequality and discrimination means that many Vermonters remain underserved. The Vermont Department of Health recently shared data which documented this impact. And I was particularly moved by a line from a report by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, which concluded quote, we have a pandemic that is dramatically influencing minority and underserved communities to a much greater degree than the general population. And that means those individuals and those communities are essentially double at risk for what they're referring to as mental health challenges. They are more likely to have been impacted and they have existing risk factors that raise the risk of mental health consequences and quote. With this overall context and knowledge of those risks apparent before us, one community that I would like to share my perspective on today and my role as an educator, which has been especially affected by the pandemic are BIPOC college students. They have endured unique and compounded challenges facing unparalleled issues related to housing, learning and healthcare simultaneously. I'm here specifically to ask for your support of increased peer mental health services within our higher education system, a current gap and essential need. A 2020 NIH study found that 71% of students surveyed indicated increased mental health challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. They indicated that 91% reported negative impacts because of the outbreak. 89% identified difficulty in concentrating and disruption to sleep patterns. Public health measures such as social distancing also played a role. 86% reported decreased social interactions and 82% expressed concerns about academic performance. Overall reactions to these significant struggles were mixed with students adopting both positive and negative coping mechanisms to address those issues. According to the most recent national peer education survey, approximately 40% of students turned first to peer educators or counselors for support with their mental health concerns, or to address suicide prevention topics. That is to say, the first and perhaps most meaningful conversation that many students may have about their own struggles is with another student. As someone with their own lived experience of depression and anxiety, I know that the first conversation which perhaps saved my own life was not with my family, not with my doctor, not with a faculty member, it was with a friend. For over a year, our shared vision for a resilient Vermont has been stronger together. For recovery and survivor communities, it is clear that frontline peer support is effective, meaningful, and vital to mental health, well-being, and self-care. I urge you to consider additional funding, study, and legislative action to ensure that this remains a priority as life with COVID-19 begins to shift yet again, and we are asked to pivot yet again. For support, I would like to also offer my perspectives on the power and potential impact of online mental health services, for virtual mental health services. In my professional role, I am involved in workforce development and training for both new and established providers. Over and over, I hear that there are simply not enough counselors, social workers, and therapists to meet the needs of Vermonters, especially BIPOC Vermonters. The solution I would ask this committee to explore is expanding the capacity of telehealth services through an interstate licensing compact or similar arrangement. This will allow fully qualified practitioners who live outside of Vermont to provide critical care and support for our residents. It could also foster workforce recruitment and help advocate for expanded access to care by highlighting the important role of broadband infrastructure improvements. The ability, affordability, and insurance status should not privilege healing, especially during a global pandemic. In our shared grief, in our acknowledgement of and commitment to dismantling systemic racism, and in recognition of the needs of our patients, clients, and peers, I asked the legislature to continue to address healthcare inequity, and to address services for improving positive healthcare outcomes for our communities, especially BIPOC communities. I'm grateful for your time and attention today. Thank you. Thank you, Alex. And thank you for your sharing your thoughts as well as your personal experience as well. Perhaps turn to Angela, are you. We're prepared to hear from you Angela, if you wish to share. Hello, good morning, everybody. And the part in the health healthcare committee. My name is Angela Lawrence. I am currently live in Bretterboro. I'm a mom. We are a military family. Also a member of the rights democracy. And I'm a first American generation and a first of a minor generation as well. My personal issue today is healthcare. We need healthcare. It's a crisis. We all know it's a crisis in our state, in our country, specifically talking to people around my age. I have been put in a spectrum of disability, having disability and having mental health.  But I've come to tell you that I cannot do that. The reason why I cannot do that is one, I have a disability. Rheumatoid arthritis. I don't know if we, I know we have some doctors and nurses here. I hope they can rectify this information. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder affecting many joints, including those in hands and feet. This immune system attacks its own tissue, including joints. In severe cases, it attacks internal organs. Rheumatoid arthritis has more than 200,000 cases in the US per year. The information has this affects over long periods of time, information associated with our recalls, bone erosion and deformity. I have another one, fibromyalgia. It's a widespread muscle pain and tenderness. It affects about 3 million people per year in the US. As you don't know as well, my official pain syndrome. It's a chronic muscular pain disorder. It's a disorder in which pressure on sensitive joints in the muscles causes pain in similarly unrelated body parts. It also affects 200,000 people per year in the United States. I cannot have or get medication because of the insurance policies and the insurance, the whole insurance spectrum. I believe I'm in the low level of the Vermont Health Insurance. I believe it's called the Green Marine Care. And me and my team and my doctors have been trying for years and years to be able to get approved for a medication that is willing to help me be able to do the activities, daily activities that you guys do on a daily basis. Like picking up my own 20 month old, how hard it is and pay for it is just to pick them up from the floor to my to my hand. Another reason I can't even run. I can't run like I used to miles and miles and miles. I can't do that. My top, I can only walk for 10 minutes. I cannot long cannot walk longer than 10 minutes. If I do, I am swollen. I mean pain. I'm just at all. The medications that they've tried, we've tried, I've tried two medications. One called Symsia. Another one called Humera. Currently, I'm in one called Embrol. The medications are given to people who are breastfeeding as I am currently breastfeeding my 20 month old. There's all the only three medications are given to women who are breastfeeding while having this disability. One of my issues with this medications, the Humera, I was on my, the Humera for a while, it did not work. I'm on Embrol. It has progressed my disease drastically. The only one that I tried that did work was Symsia. But because I'm under Vermont insurance called Green Mountain Care, which is a loss. Vermont insurance has denied me numerous and numerous times to get this medication that would work and for me to be able to do what I need to do for my kids and for my family. This medication has been denied with the doctors been fighting and fighting and fighting to this day to try and get this medicine approved and cannot get approved. Why? Because of money. Money is the reason. Why do we have to choose between saving somebody's life and be able to have a healthy living style than having money? You know, it shouldn't be like that. You should be, we should be focusing on people's health, their concerns, their issues. Today I have a meeting with my pain management team. I'm meeting them for the first time because I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia recently. I practice at least every two weeks because of my back. My back is almost like they said of a 60-year-old old woman.  To me, that feels really disgraceful for me because I'm supposed to be a 31-year-old healthy human being and be able to do daily activities with my family. But I cannot do that because the insurance is telling me because the amount of medication is so expensive they're not willing to help me be a better person by being able to accept the medication. So I'm fighting and fighting for my life. I'm in pain every day, 24-7. I sleep less than six hours a night because of this pain. I have mental health. The mental health does not help at all. Having anxiety, having depression, having PTSD and all that stuff. It doesn't help because you can get, first of all, can get the doctors or the counselors you need because either out of the network or the insurance doesn't cover them. So you can get the help that you need. On top of it, I have four impacted teeth. It has taken me almost four years to try and find an oral surgeon or not alone even a dental office to see me because I'm under a state insurance. They do not take people under state insurance, especially green mountain care. And for me to be turned down for health needs because I'm on a state insurance and my family works a butt off to be able to be where we are. The reason why we ended up in a state insurance because we were laid off due to the pandemic, but because that's still going on, my husband had to be self employed and was still under state insurance. I couldn't find a dentist for my own son. My son was one at the time, took me at least almost another year and a half to get him into a dentist. The closest one that was available that was taking state insurance was in Bennington. If you guys know it's a now a drive from Brattleboro to Bennington. So I'm driving far away to get the care I need rather than getting the care I need here close to home. Tons of dental offices, we have done tons of oral surgeons, but we still been pushed back to go far away to get any health care needs, because all these people are taking away the part where people are in state insurance can get health care needs in local communities. I had to wait for two years to finally just got that month to call me for oral surgery. I have four impacted teeth I have had for almost over 10 years, and everybody keeps turning me down, they came pay for it because this insurance I'm on is on a spectrum. A low spectrum. This is a disgrace.  I need help. I need health care. I need, I don't want to be put in a spectrum a low spectrum where I cannot get doctors. I cannot get counselors. I cannot get the medicine I need because it's cost effective. I cannot. It's baffling. It's, it's, it's, it's to me, I'm tired. I'm tired to keep fighting for this needs. I'm tired to try and get help that I need. And it's gotten to the point where I have to see counselors all the time I have to see my therapy all the time, because I'm so worried where my health is going to be in the next, not two years, not three in the next six months. I'm worried that my health is progressing. But because the lack of having the insurance company giving me the best medication to help me. I cannot do that. I worried about how I'm going to be able to able to play with my kids when they're 10 when they're 12. That's when they're really active, very active kids, and I cannot do that. So think of, think when you think of doing all this healthcare bills, think about the future. Think about our kids. The rheumatoid arthritis also affects kids younger than 16. So I worry about my kid, my kids getting this and not getting the support they need from the healthcare system. It affects 50,000 kids younger than 16 in the US. So imagine those kids can be any of your kids, grandkids, great grandkids. We got to look out for them. You're not going to look out for me, at least look out for them. Please, please understand that we need a healthcare bill we need not to be put in a spectrum. We need to be acknowledged as one person. We are all human being. We're all one people will own one person. Let's acknowledge that first while all human being first. So let's take care of our health and let's take care of your future. Thank you for hearing that me today. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Angela. I deeply appreciate your willingness to come forward in this setting and share your personal life and your family's struggles. I can only say that it's important for us to hear you and to hear your family's struggles and stories as we try to make the changes that are going to result in healthcare being available for you as well as others. And I know that it takes a certain kind of courage or certain kind of willingness to put yourself out there, particularly when we can't even say hello face to face. I'm so sorry we're not able to do that, but I do want to say how much I appreciate your talking with us today. Thank you. And I would just say this before we hear from Peter as well that when you say think think as you're working on healthcare. I think as I work on healthcare, I will think of you and others. And that's what we need to do. We need to it needs to be personal. It needs to be real. And you help help make that very real and very personal. Thank you, Angela. Thank you. So I am going to turn to Peter. I think we have time still to hear from you, Peter. Okay. And, you know, I don't want to stand between legislators and their much needed break before you go to the floor and whatnot so I will move right along. My name is Peter Sterling and for about 10 years I worked on various healthcare reform efforts, including running a navigator organization and doing outreach and enrollment work where I got to hear from hundreds of reminders about their issues and enrolling, trying to get affordable healthcare. I'm here to say that after four long years of the Trump administration's opposition to expanding access to public healthcare programs with the election of President Biden. How is the time to reinvigorate and restart the important for mock conversation about expanding access to our public healthcare programs like Medicaid in order to lower people's premiums deductibles and other out of pocket costs and truly make healthcare more affordable for these costs to remodels and their employers are very, very real. Right now if you're in the healthcare exchange and you're not eligible for any subsidies and you're in a family of four, making about $105,000 that's the limit, you're out of pocket costs are capped at over $28,000 that's about 26% of your pre tax income.  And these expenses aren't necessarily any lower if you're receiving other employee employer sponsored insurance certainly it's been in the news that teachers health care has been increasing and state employees health care is cost costly to. The problem is there seemingly no end in sight to these increases over the last four years blue cross blue cross blue shield of Vermont has been granted general rate increases of 7.3% 9.2% 5.8% and 12.4% which needless to say is far larger than the rate that the state's economy or people's salaries are increasing. So, one of the ideas that's coming out of the by the administration is an eight bit age banded approach to expanding Medicare, or letting states do that for Medicaid I think James has mentioned the idea of expanding Medicaid in Vermont to the 50 to 64 year old crowd that would help about 10013,000 people move from high deductible or high out of pocket cost private insurance into a public plan. So, while the Kaiser Family Foundation has recently issued a study on what the impact of expanding Medicare would be which of course the states can't do that's a federal program we can do Medicaid but I think the comparable. The information is comparable to the impact you could have in Vermont so Kaiser Family Foundation found that lowering the age of Medicare eligibility down to 60 from 65 could reduce costs for employer health plans by up to 15%. If you were to lower the age of Medicare eligibility to everyone 50 and over that would reduce costs for employer plans by up to 43%. So there's potential real savings for employers there. And I think the necessary first step for the legislature to best understand its options for moving forward. If you're ready Vermont to take advantage of any opportunities created by the Biden administration is contained in the budget language, coming back to you from the Senate. There's language in the budget, take it from S 120 to create a new joint legislative healthcare affordable study committee, which would then be charged with doing public hearings and making recommendations to the 2022 legislature about various options for access to affordable health care programs like Medicaid. I'd like to wrap up by saying to ask you to please support the creation this commission so we can jumpstart our conversation about how we can reduce the burden of health care costs for import Vermont employers and how to move more Vermonters out of high cost private insurance plans and into much more affordable public health care programs. Many many thanks for sharing for allowing me to share my thoughts with you today. Thank you. Thank you, Peter. And I want to just, and I want to just acknowledge that we we will be review we are in the process of reviewing the budget language we had actually planned to review the language you're referencing. I don't want to compare to your testimony but because our questions and testimony ran longer we're going to we're going to return to that in the next several days. But we will be taking taking a look at that and in conjunction with our House Appropriations Committee of course. So thank you. It's been a few minutes and I see representative Goldman has her hand up is that so let's this is I'm going to take a few committee questions and then and then we are going to wrap up because we've gone a long time and we also have frankly need to make sure that everyone gets a break before we turn our attention right back to the floor. So represent Goldman. Thank you so much all for coming I think you know from going to the personal to the policy level really you know sort of defines it very well. I went to your website and looked at your health care justice, you know statements which are really great. I'm wondering if a small state like Vermont can really solve the problem on its own. I know that you're creating this coalition with other states and I was just wondering if you've had any thoughts about how we could work together maybe regionally to think about health care solutions. Thank you very much representative Goldman. I think absolutely we are we're we think that you know we should explore every every way we can to expand the access to health care and expand public programs and think that you know that that could be something down the road. We do think that you know that there is a role for for Vermont to play to continue to demonstrate. We can move forward, but you know absolutely see that as partly, you know, dominoes to actually turn this country around because ultimately, you know obviously a lot of the programs that we've discussed in Vermont that we discussed here today are best as programs, but the way to get there, you know, we believe is is starting with state action and moving from there but we are working you know in, as you said, you know in New Hampshire and across the region and are certainly open to helping, you know be part of a conversation about what regional systems could look like. But yeah, we do think the is Peter Stirling was just laying out and we spoke to this is a good start with this with this commission to really jumpstart this effort, and particularly because it's tied to a lot of the conversations that are happening now at a federal level that our senators and congressional delegation are part of. So it is not happening in isolation of others might have other set things to add to. Thank you. Other comments from those who refer to him today. Well, I would just jump in representative that when I was in the pro temps office I actually tried researching whether we could form a regional exchange. You know, Vermont has a very small pool we don't have that many people and our exchange at some level suffers from high rates because of the small pool. I looked into whether we can form a regional pool with Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine for our exchange and it never really took off. But the thing I would like to add is, we can only really move forward on any kind of healthcare form of flavor willing federal partner who's willing to allow us to get a verse necessary to use existing federal funding to fund other reforms and the bigger piece I would like to say is, is what we would do with any kind of Medicaid expansion is probably reduce premiums for some people and then shifted over to the public sphere so I like to think it was more as moving money around not creating new, new expenses for people so I think a small state like Vermont can do Medicaid expansions loan we did it for Dr dinosaur we did it for v half we did it for cat amount. I think we can do it again. Thank you represent Peterson. Yes. Thank you. Angela, I was thinking while you were giving your testimony. Have you been in touch with the Vermont health advocates. We have a health agency that you might want to contact and pose your problems to them. They may be of great help. I don't know if you've reached out to them. I'm Peterson I have not reached out to them. The only people I've been discussing with my doctors and they're teaming up with their own team. And that's how we've been trying to fight the medication issue is that but I will surely look that up and I'll try to do that. I would suggest that they they advocate for people. I think like you who have problems. The healthcare advocate and we can make sure that you have access to that information. I'm sure James has that information as well. Because they, they do, they advocate, not at the policy, well they have some of the policy that but they, they, there's their limits to what they can do but they they've been very successful in helping individuals as well. So, I hope you hope you do reach out to them. Thank you. For some of us it's it's been a long period of time, not having a partner at the federal level. In fact, having an adversarial relationship at the federal level around healthcare. Let's put it out there. And this committee has tried in that interim period to defend Vermont's healthcare progress. And I don't, I won't try to review what we've done but that. It's a different era, and we need to, we need to find ways to take advantage of opportunities that are presenting themselves, some of which will be, which are already underway. But I will take to heart and I do take to heart both the personal testimony here today as well as the advocacy for trying to find ways for for us it as the state of Vermont. We will use the openings provided by the Biden administration to make some additional systemic change on behalf of Vermont, Vermonters and healthcare. We'll look at the language and we'll, I mean, we may make some suggestions to that language to modify that language but we're, at least I as a chair, I'm open to understanding what the proposal is coming from the Senate. And we will, we will, we have time to do that still. And we will do that. I think at this point, I want to say thank you again to each of you. Apologies for the, I mean, at least we got to say hello to each other and introduce ourselves in that awkward early period without YouTube but thank you for being flexible and making time to take out of your lunch hour as well. I realize this is not just our lunch hour it's your lunch hour. So, thank you, Angela. Thank you, Alex. And James and Peter. I look forward to us staying connected and staying in touch as we continue what is going to what is indeed a journey. Unfortunately, it's not just a sprint, but it's a journey to getting where some of us believe we really belong which is healthcare for all. As a human right. As I say, I, based on my legislative and lived experience, I'm committed to taking steps that move us there. Even though we can't always take the leap that we'd like to do. And I would just, I hope you're aware of and I think you are probably, you must be. But we've taken a small step but I think an important step that is was initiated by this committee and just that House bill 430 to extend healthcare to extend medical care to some of the Vermont folks who we live with and work with who do not get access to aid and Dr. Dinosaur because of their immigration status and we're pleased that we're able to at least take a small but important step there and have that take place in the next period of time. So we will let's continue to work together. Let's continue to think together and advocate together. So with that, I think I'm going to suggest that we bring this to a close for what is now the afternoon and no longer the morning. So with that in mind, thank you for having us. Thank you, Alex, Angela, and Peter. Take care.


Income tax 2021-2022, software example, educator expenses. Get ready to get refunds to the max, dive into Income Tax 2021-2022. Lassert tax software. You don't need access to tax software to follow along, but you might wanna have the Form 1040, which you can find on the IRS website at irs.gov, irs.gov, starting point here, single filer, Adam Smith, living in Beverly Hills, 90210-100,000 at the W-2 income standard deduction, 12,550, getting us to the 87,450, mirroring that in our tax equation in Excel, 100,000, 12,550, getting us to that 87,450. The tax being calculated from the software page number two is gonna be that 1515. So if I go back on over here, net page 1515 for the tax. Now we're just gonna open up our schedule number one, and we're gonna go to page two. Schedule one, page two is what we're on, or part two, page two and part two. We're looking at the educator expenses. So anytime someone comes in, if this was Adam, Adam is an educator, for example, K through 12. And that's usually the biggest thing to, where there could be gray areas. So if they work in a school setting and they're not an educator, but they're a principal or an admin, that could be a little bit more confusing because you might not have to check the hours and so on. But if they're an educator and they're a teacher, then clearly you're gonna say, okay, they probably qualify for the deduction, which is capped at 250, which is an above the line deduction. Note that it is not an itemized deduction. So we don't have to worry if they itemize or not. It's specific to a particular industry because back when this was implemented a while back, you know, the teachers unions were able to push that through to have a specific industry kind of related deduction, which is a bit unusual here. Now they're gonna need the qualified expenses, but because this deduction's been around for a while and it hasn't really increased with inflation, it's quite likely that most educators have expended more than $250 for their, that would be qualified expenses, but they would wanna have that support in the event of an audit or something. I highly doubt that the IRS is gonna come after someone with a $250 deduction and be like, ah, did you spend $250? But obviously you do wanna log in the deductions that you have and have it ready as support in the event that there's a problem. So I'm gonna jump on over and say that we got the 250. Now, obviously, let's say they spent 500 and they're like, dude, I spend like thousands of dollars. I spent like $5,000 on educator stuff that I wasn't reimbursed by that would be qualified. Well, you're still gonna be capped at the 250. The 250 is the cap at that. So page number two, page number two, there's the 250. So put 5,000 in, it's capped at 250. The software, of course, helps you out. With that, that pulls over to page one of the 1040. 1040 now is down here. We're on line number 10, where we have the adjustments to income from schedule one, bringing us to the adjusted gross income 99,250. We can mirror that in our tax formula over here, looking at the adjustments to income, schedule one. So we've got the adding to again, income, adjustments to income. And I'll just add like one line item. This will be educator expenses. Educator expenses. Did I spell that right? Let's check out the spell check. Check out my spelling. Check it out, total, I spelled total wrong. What kind of and educators spelled wrong? Whatever, that's what spell checks for. I make sure to get my money out of my software. It checks my spelling and I put it to work. I spelled things on right on purpose. So we got the 2,000. Now you could put like an if then formula if you wanted to get kind of fancy here. So for example, if the client says, well I spent 5,000 on it, you could put the 5,000 here and then do a logic test over here formula that I'll put in white because I won't do the data input into it. And I'll say this is equals if and we'll do a logic test and say if this cell, if that cell is let's say greater than 250 then comma, we want you to put in some 250, the cap. So if that number is greater than 250 then comma, you put in the value of 250. If not, if it's less than 250 and other words, what do you wanna do? I want you to take whatever in that cell and that should cap it at 250. So then if this was like 100, which it almost never is, it's gonna be something over 250 generally. Then it would be there and if it was 5,000 it's gonna cap it at 250. It's gonna sum up down here total adjustments to income 250 pulling over to the first page of the 1040, there's the 250 bringing the adjusted gross income to the 99, 750 matching what's on the tax return. And then we've got the standard deduction, 12, 550 bringing us to the taxable income 87, two, 87, two. There we go, page two now. Calculating the tax at the 14, 955. So there's the tax calculation down here, 149, 555. And there we have it. Now if I go back on over, what if they were married? What if Adam got married to Eve and Adam met me Eve and he's like, madam, I'm Adam. And then they got married. And then they're both educators, let's say. So if I switch them up to say they're married now, they're married. And so now if I go back on, if I don't change anything I still put 5,000 that Adam spent. Now they're married filing joint and you've got two of them but I didn't change the two educators here. So on page two, it's still capped at the 250. Let's jump back on over and say that both Adam and spouse, so now I've got spouse over here is paying the 250 or spouse and even spouse, whatever you, whatever, not trying to, any case, I'm gonna go back on over to the forms. Now it's capped out at 500 because obviously you doubled it up there. And that could be a little confusing in our worksheet the way I did it in our worksheet over here, by the way. Cause if I go back on over here I might have to educate or expense spouse one. So then I can say educator expense maybe spouse two if applicable, which I'd have the same thing, copying that down. So now she spent another 5,000 and that gives us the 250 cap capped at the 500, pulls over to the page one of the 1040, there it is, bringing the 100,000 income down by 500 to the 99.5. Obviously I didn't double their income when they got married. We just left it at the 100,000 which we can assume two teachers earning 50 at this point, now married. The standard deduct, now we've got the 500 which is the adjustments to income which brings us to the AGI adjusted gross income of the 99.5, matching what we have on over here. The standard deduction has now going up because they're married. So we doubled it because there's two of them now. So that makes sense. So there we have that taxable income at the 74.4. 74.4, there it is, page two, page numero dose, tax calculated 8533, 8533. Substantial difference not because of the extra 250 deduction but because they got married and they got the standard deduction is now twice and the income stayed the same even though you got two people to it. But in essence, so keep that in mind obviously when you go from single to married. But if married, then you could be capped at the 500 if both of the people involved, the two spouses were educators, then you might have been up to the 500 as we see here.