Letters on Medicaid expansion, liquor bill, conservative agenda, Koch gift, disturbing call

Medicaid expansion helps citizens, state

I support Medicaid expansion for multiple reasons. First of all, this expansion would cover Kansans up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, which would enable about 150,000 additional low-income Kansans to obtain health insurance and would reduce health disparities in our state. Medicaid expansion has been shown to be medically and fiscally responsible and helpful.

As a health care provider and constituent, I encourage Gov. Sam Brownback and the Legislature to expand the state’s Medicaid program, KanCare, and consider the financial aspects of returning Kansans’ hard-earned dollars to our state by participating in the expansion. KanCare expansion will create jobs, increase state revenue and provide cost savings by reducing the need for state-only funding in areas such as mental health, substance-abuse treatment and safety-net clinics.

‘No’ to liquor bill

It is time to send the well-paid lobbyists home. For several years now they have been in the state pushing relentlessly for legislation that would allow for the sale of strong beer, wine and spirits in our grocery and convenience stores.

At a time when Kansans are concerned about creating jobs and keeping jobs in our state, why make a change that would lead to the loss of locally owned and operated liquor stores?

Why make a change that would have an additional economic impact by sending money now earned by locally owned and operated liquor stores and spent locally by their owners and employees into the hands of big businesses located outside of the state of Kansas?

The lobbyists and the companies they represent need to be told that the answer to this is “no” and “don’t ask again.” It is ridiculous that so much time, money and effort continue to be spent in the hopes that the people of Kansas will be worn down and finally accept this change. Urge your legislator to vote “no” on House Bill 2200.

Liquor in Subway?

Besides at grocery stores, can’t the Legislature allow all liquor at Subway, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Braum’s?

Claptrap agenda

Unless you’re one of the few who reaped great rewards from our Legislature’s giveaway to business and the well-off, and unless you’re one of the few who believe that public education, roads, pensions and teachers are just too darn expensive and need to be cut, then you may think as I do: We have pursued this claptrap conservative agenda too far, and if we don’t stop it soon we may never be able to.

Folks like me do not have billionaires in our corner, cowing our state legislators into submission. We do not have policy-advocating think tanks spewing out sophistry that is for the benefit of the very few at the expense of all we care about.

We are watching our public schools be underfunded and our teachers attacked based on a firm belief that only privately funding schools can do the task.

We do have the power to change this sorrowful situation if we choose to do so. We can vote. No matter how far the current wrecking crew gets, we can vote out its members in the next election.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that many of us are not bothering to vote, and the consequences for not voting are destructive to our schools, roads and public safety nets.

Won’t miss money

A recent Opinion Line contributor was impressed by the Koch Industries gift of $2.6 million to Kansas State University (March 3 Local & State). Though I am sure K-State was grateful, and it was a nice gesture, it is not that big a deal to the Koch brothers.

Their combined wealth is an estimated $84 billion, so a gift of $2.6 million is the equivalent of a gift of only $3.10 from someone whose wealth is $100,000.

Put another way, if their wealth were a mile long, the gift would be only 1.96 inches of that mile. If they spent $1 million a day, it would take just more than 230 years before their wealth was exhausted.

Though I am glad Koch Industries gave the gift, I doubt the Koch brothers will miss the money.

The Koch brothers’ political network hopes to raise $900 million for conservative causes in the upcoming 2016 elections. Even if all that money came from the Koch brothers, their lifestyle would not change, as they would still be worth more than $83 billion.

Disturbing call

March 5 would have been my deceased husband’s 81st birthday. My son and his wife came by after work, and we went to the cemetery to put flowers on his grave. When we returned to the house, I noticed I had a message on the phone. I waited until the kids left to listen to it. It was so disturbing.

A lady sang “Happy Birthday” to my husband (using his name). There was clapping and numbers to push. It was very upsetting.

I think there should be some way we could punish these scammers. They made a bad day worse.

So if you get a call from 937-428-4121 and you’ve lost a loved one within the past year, don’t even listen. Maybe someone else can be spared having a bad day made worse.

This story was originally published March 19, 2015 at 7:03 PM with the headline "Letters on Medicaid expansion, liquor bill, conservative agenda, Koch gift, disturbing call."