Kansas views on purging voters, Medicaid expansion, poverty, Huelskamp
Purging voters – Secretary of State Kris Kobach plans to purge voter-registration rolls of more than 36,000 suspended voters. Kobach’s case for purging those people after 90 days is basically bureaucratic. He wants to let county clerks stop sending out letters encouraging the people to comply with the proof-of-citizenship law. Bless their hearts, county clerks are busy. But easing the workload in their offices is not reason enough for this constitutionally questionable purge.
Medicaid expansion – Hospitals are hurting throughout Kansas as well as every other state that refuses to expand its Medicaid program. Gov. Sam Brownback needs to listen to the experts in the health care industry. He needs to get off the tired “repeal Obamacare” political gimmick. That the hospital in Independence is being forced to close in part because of Topeka-inflicted financial duress is shameful. But when political games and blind faith in foolish and disproven economic theories take precedence over Kansans’ health care needs and a community’s well-being, one can’t expect anything else.
Poverty – Gov. Sam Brownback and his colleagues on the Midwestern Governors Association devoted two days recently to a meeting about alleviating poverty in their states. “We want to get the percentage of people in poverty down,” Brownback said during a news conference. “We want new tools, new strategies to do that.” Reducing the number of people living in poverty is a laudable goal. It isn’t going to be easy, however, and will require a lengthy commitment to the cause. One meeting can’t accomplish much, but it is a start and bodes well for the future if the governors and others involved continue their pursuit of the goal.
When Gov. Sam Brownback and company talk about government assistance for people, the conversation is about how those in poverty ought to work harder, stand on their own and get off the government dole. But when we apply that same logic to businesses, which enjoy a litany of incentives and tax breaks, the conversation shifts, and such government assistance miraculously becomes a sage investment in the state’s future well-being. When people need help, it’s a drain, but when business needs it, somehow the state’s leaders and many of their constituents abandon all logic and sing the praises of a little help from the government.
Huelskamp – Tim Huelskamp, the tea-party congressman from Kansas’ 1st District, relished news of fellow Republican and U.S. House Speaker John Boehner’s planned resignation. But former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole credited Boehner for passing key legislation, much of it bipartisan. Dole also took an understandable shot at Huels- kamp and company. “Since (Boehner’s) election to leadership, he has unfortunately been plagued by a group of Republican naysayers, including one from Kansas,” Dole said in a statement. Dole reached across the aisle to make progress in Congress. Too many legislators in Washington, D.C., and statehouses embrace the all-or-nothing approach, and won’t acknowledge how the art of compromise is essential to democracy.
This story was originally published October 4, 2015 at 7:08 PM with the headline "Kansas views on purging voters, Medicaid expansion, poverty, Huelskamp."