Kansas views on Medicaid expansion, Medicare takeover, same-sex marriage, Kobach, voting laws, Royals
Medicaid expansion – Pride is a dangerous thing. And when you are governor of a state, it’s a trait that can harm everyone who lives under your leadership. Such is the situation with Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s steadfast refusal to accept a federal expansion of Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income people. Kansans should vote him out of office if for no other reason than his personal pride has denied health care to about 100,000 of our citizens, $200 million a year in revenue to Kansas hospitals, and jobs to thousands of Kansans in a state that desperately needs jobs to boost state coffers crippled by Brownback’s massive income tax cuts.
Medicare takeover – Gov. Sam Brownback has put Kansas in a compact of states wanting to turn Medicare into a state block-grant-style program so private, for-profit companies can run the programs. Kansas has already taken over Medicaid, the health care program for the poor, and the three companies running that program in Kansas called KanCare are struggling with it, losing $110 million last year and another $72.6 million in the first half of this year. Given that Medicaid disaster, why should Kansas be taking over Medicare, the federal health care program for seniors?
Same-sex marriage – Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said he wanted to have legal issues surrounding same-sex marriage resolved in an orderly fashion, which prompted him to ask the Kansas Supreme Court to block issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples in this state. Given what transpired in Kansas after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to accept cases for review from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled Utah and Oklahoma same-sex marriage bans were unconstitutional, Schmidt’s action was appropriate.
We expected the grumbling about sanctity of marriage between a man and woman, the assault on the institution, and various religious dogma to come from many state and federal officeholders in the Sunflower State. They did not disappoint.
Kobach – Kris Kobach, Kansas secretary of state, is our top election umpire. Yet for hundreds of Kansans he’s made a farce of elections through new laws that complicate voting. Let’s use the vote on Nov. 4 to prevent Kobach from limiting our constitutional rights any further.
Voting laws – Voter ID is part of an American Legislative Exchange Council blueprint followed by ultraconservative Republicans in Kansas and beyond. ALEC, part of the Koch brothers-Americans for Prosperity-Kansas Chamber political faction, pitches cookie-cutter legislation on voting requirements as a way to give ultraconservatives an electoral advantage. That quest also gave us a proof-of-citizenship law pushed by Secretary of State Kris Kobach that has suspended more than 22,000 would-be voters. And he claims there’s no deliberate attempt to suppress the vote.
Royals – Hello, World Series, we meet again. A full 29 years after their only world championship, the Kansas City Royals on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon at a rocking Kauffman Stadium completed an improbable four-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles. It took a total team effort to secure the American League Championship Series. The Royals now have an unprecedented streak of eight victories at the start of postseason baseball. To quote so many Royals players after Wednesday’s win: “It’s unbelievable.”
This story was originally published October 19, 2014 at 7:08 PM with the headline "Kansas views on Medicaid expansion, Medicare takeover, same-sex marriage, Kobach, voting laws, Royals."