News & Brews November 20, 2024
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From former GOP Senate nominee to CMS head
Two years after falling short in his Pa. U.S. Senate race against Democrat Sen. John Fetterman, Dr. Mehmet Oz may be going to Washington after all. Yesterday, news broke that President-elect Trump has selected Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Although best known for his television show, Oz is also a cardiothoracic surgeon who was director of the Cardiovascular Institute at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Wharton Business School.
Sen. Ward looks to next session
The Delaware Valley Journal spoke with Republican Pa. Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward about her priorities heading into the 2025-2026 legislative session. “This election spoke volumes,” Ward said. “People … want to hear about how you will help them put food on the table and pay their utility bills.” When asked whether it’s difficult working with Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, Ward said, “No, I can’t call it difficult. I would say that it’s a challenge to get him to commit to one side or the other.” (This sounds familiar!)
How to fix Pa.’s looming budget dilemma
Yesterday, I shared the recent Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) report warning that Pennsylvania faces a growing budget deficit. The Commonwealth Foundation’s Andrew Holman writes that with the deficit at $3.6 billion, “there is no easy way to fix [it]…. Put simply, a structural deficit requires structural reform.” And while the choices lawmakers will have to make will be “tough,” Andrew explains how enacting the Taxpayer Protection Act “would help prevent future budget deficits.”
Shapiro breaks his SEPTA silence (sort of)
In yet another example of Shapiro staying on the sidelines, for years we’ve been hearing SEPTA clamor for more money, even as the state has thrown hundreds of millions of dollars a year to prop up the transit agency. But yesterday, Shapiro said “the most … [he] has said publicly about the agency’s funding woes,” promising he “would not let SEPTA fail.” Spotlight PA reports, “While he praised mass transit as ‘critically important to those who ride it’ and to local economies, the Democrat stopped short of saying what his exact course of action would be.” He said his administration would “have some more to say on that over the coming weeks.”
Nippon Steel would fight presidential block of U.S. Steel sale
The Post-Gazette reports that “Nippon Steel Vice Chairman Takahiro Mori said he would not accept a potential decision by President Joe Biden to block the Japanese steelmaker’s proposed purchase of U.S. Steel,” telling the newspaper, “I will never give up.” Among the tools at Mori’s disposal is a potential lawsuit. While many steelworkers support the deal, the story continues, the head of the United Steelworkers union does not and “has refused to meet with Nippon leadership while continuing to publicly bash the deal and lobby Washington against it.”