"Brownback spokeswoman Melika Willoughby said in an email Monday that it would be irresponsible to “expand ObamaCare when the program is in a death spiral.”
She went on to say, “And believe me, after looking at the results of the Supply Side tax-cutting we have been doing here in Kansas, our Governor knows all about death spirals.”
“We’d be entering into a contract with an unreliable partner,” said state Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican.
Somebody remind Susan Wagle her “unreliable partner” has bailed out Kansas since 1861.
Brownback has stopped short of saying he would veto the measure, but in a letter with other GOP governors to congressional leaders last week, he said expanding Medicaid under Obama’s policies moved the program away from its “core mission” of helping the truly vulnerable.
Yes, because there’s nothing “vulnerable” about people who need and cannot afford health care. Nope, nothing at all.
Brownback spokeswoman Melika Willoughby said in an email Monday that it would be irresponsible to “expand ObamaCare when the program is in a death spiral.”
So, do your best to inflict a “death spiral,” then use that as an excuse to not move forward? Someone should tell Melika Willoughby that, even if the premise were true, the “death spiral” only applies to insurance companies on the exchanges. It has nothing at all to do with Medicaid expansion, which would remain fully funded and viable.
Support the people, Republicans, or get out of the way.
— Ronald Reagan
Remember the Kochs own Sam Brownback. He just vetoed a tax increase designed to help the schools. He is a real ratf**ker.
When Finland extended dental coverage to all, it had a system that covered children and the elderly in place. That was closed by keeping the cohort of covered children covered forever after they passed the age of 18 while lowering the age from 55 for older people by one or two years each years. You had a 34 year gap closing at about 3 years per year. After 6 or 7 years they just closed the whole gap and covered everybody. Perhaps a similar strategy might be applicable in states unable to take an all at once transition to universal coverage.
Brownback,
Leading the way to demonstrate how draconian the logical extension of Randian-Right policies really look and operate - and how costly to the citizens of the state.
I hope, but doubt, that Brownback can see the writing on the wall (public sentiment swaying far away from him and his policies) and signs this if it ends up on his desk.
Kansas… Probably the single most pathetic state in the Union. I have visited countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that are better run and better organized than Kansas and come to think of it, the African Countries have more money too.
Kansas is a place where every Republican wet dream can come true, and look what has happened to the state. I read somewhere else that Brownback could be leaving to take some phony -baloney “Government job” with the Frankenputz administration. Talk about leaving a mess for someone else to clear up.
As to the people in Kansas, maybe I’ll start caring about them the day they have the common sense of fruit bats and turn the State blue. Otherwise, I really cannot understand after so many years of Republican-sponsored nonsesene why it just goes on and on the same way election after election.
Poverty has no politics. It is an equal opportunity destroyer of everything and everyone touched by it. Those in need anywhere and everywhere in America should be given the help they need.Only political hacks shovel politics into poverty like so much manure.
In the case of Kansas, the politicians who have just done the State to near death are well known. what I want to know is with so many people in so much need in Kansas why is this same greasy layer of political hacks still in office, and why are they RE-ELECTED to office time and again?
There comes a time when people really have to take charge of their own best interests.
They re-elected Brownback. I won’t bore you with the figures, but they did.
So, do I make an exception for Kansas, and not toss them into the “idiot basket” like North Carolina and all these other “Red” State populations that seem to have made a life out of cutting their own throats?
Sorry, I just can’t do that. Until the people of Kansas choose something different for themselves, I cannot say that I care much about them. They are getting the “government” they chose.
If the greasy hacks in Kansas were really committed to change over and above Brownback, they would pass the expansion, let him veto it (if he has the guts) and then really show the world that things are different by overriding his veto, and helping those in need. Until they do something very like that, it’s all typical Republican “smoke and mirrors”, and I simply do not care, because, for all the circus, the result is the same. Poor people getting screwed, and elected officials who put Party ahead of people doing nothing at all.
Baby steps. We drained a big part of Brownback’s swamp in 2016. Draining some more, and putting a Dem or moderate GOP in the Guv’s Mansion in 2018 is the next step. It is going to take a decade or two to claw back out of the hole Brownback dug for the state.