Last month, the newspaper cited his decision to ice the Kansas Arts Commission as an example of the extreme austerity measures that states are taking. On Sunday, an editorial in the Times called Brownback foolish, indulgent and partisan — all before it reached the first period!
The editorial addressed Brownback’s decision to return a $31.5 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The grant related to the federal health-care reform that conservatives liken to a tumor of evil wrapped in pus-colored gauze.
Before Brownback developed a case of grant winner’s remorse, the Kansas Insurance Department was planning to use the money to design and implement a Web-based health-insurance exchange. Exchanges are supposed to help individuals and businesses shop for private health plans when the law goes into effect in 2014. (The law, commonly known as the Affordable Care Act, is being challenged in the courts.)
But there will be no innovation of this variety on Brownback’s watch. The governor cited the “uncertainty” of the federal government’s ability to meet its obligations as his reason for returning the grant.
The Times thinks Brownback is pissing away an opportunity. The editorial mocked his worries about Washington’s ability to pay its bills, noting that as a U.S. senator, he voted for the tax cuts and war spending that have contributed mightily to the nation’s deficit habit.
Brownback’s first impulse was not to grandstand. In December, Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger said Brownback wanted her to proceed with the planning for an insurance exchange.
But hard-liners pressured Brownback to return the money. “This administration should be fighting with every fiber to stop implementation of Obamacare,” state Rep. Charlotte O’Hara, an Overland Park Republican, told Secretary of State Kris Kobach on his Internet radio program, according to a report in The Topeka Capital-Journal.
House Speaker Mike O’Neal felt that O’Hara’s remarks were intemperate. He removed her from a legislative committee on health issues. His actions suggested a man who thinks that when the federal government plops $31.5 million on a tree stump, you put the money in your sack and slink back to Middle Earth.
But once the governor refused the grant money, O’Neal fell into line and started complaining about federal mandates and attached strings.
So, governor, your objection to Obamacare has been noted. Today it only cost the state’s IT professionals the chance for meaningful work.
Showing 1-9 of 9
$31.5 Million grant from the Fed to any state is $31.5 Million more in DEBT we are.
Or our Children-Granchildren are.
This Debt Balloon will POP!
And we will all be living on Fed foodstamps and rations.
Not to mention being told where and when we can work,go,live, or travel.
The Federal Govt looks a lot like Soviet Russia, or Nazi Germany in the not so distant future.
Kansas not pursuing federal prevention dollars
Major federal initiative will bypass Kansas because no one applied for grant
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” — Ben Franklin
The federal government is poised to start spending $900 million nationwide over the next five years in an effort to battle costly chronic ailments such as obesity and diabetes.
The initiative is considered the single largest push to date by the national government to encourage disease prevention. But Kansas likely won’t see a dollar of that money.
Why not? Well, one big reason is that no one here asked.
The July 15 deadline for submitting applications for the so-called Community Transformation Grants has come and gone
http://www.khi.org/news/2011/aug/08/kansas…
We should all be shaking in our boots right now, for Brownback went to Perry's gathering of religious zealots in TX. He was the only gov who showed up and my god the so called people were spouting off all kinds of scary stuff and worse yet they had an audience. If that is where Brownback wants to take his faith based gov. We all will need to move out of KS
Clarification (kind of to Jack ['s last name redacted because he's a Russian spy deep undercover]) about me:
i don't believe in the bible and don't believe it has any place in politics, i just think it's interesting how the modern incarnation of Repubs have convinced a generation of working class heroes to be pro-business in direct contrast to those peoples reliance on local industry to live, and based on selective focus of the policy a bearded superhero who reminded them to take care of each other and they would be taken care of.
btw(unrelated), Ron Paul is getting the shaft from conservatives. he's probably the best thing for the country right now and he's getting trampled and ignored because the buzzword spouting real estate advert looking "front-runners" are pandering to the sliver extremist factions and garnering sensationalist media coverage.
Re-Response to Jack [doesn't have a last name because he can't even convince himself he's right]:
on wealth:
"...it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Matthew 19:23-24, Mark 10:24-25, and Luke 18:24-25.
you got me on faith being the price of miracles. maybe after obamacare starts easing the cost burden and suffering of the inexplicably conservative working poor they'll start to have faith in progressive policy.
in closing, Mathew 25: 31-46 kind of goes on and on about feeding the hungry and clothing the poor and yada yada. Acts 4:32-37 is pretty clearly stating that "No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had."
come on, man, did you even read that book?
In response to Ryan Brinkerhoff's comment:
Jesus did not detest personal wealth. THE LOVE of money is the root of all evil.(Greed) He actually promoted the faith as a way to GAIN wealth. Secondly, miracles were not free. They required a faith in Christ, and that is a choice just like spending money is a choice. Mercy (miracles, etc.) were given, but again, at the price of faithful service. And... as far as political party or ideology, .... He was not 'a raging socialist.' He was a laissez-faire capitalist. Render unto caesar, remember....?
Next time, get your theology straight.
i adore the irony that low and middle class constituencies push back against programs designed specifically to help them. as a humanist i abhor the right-wing quasi-religious corporate influence that has warped these poor peoples ideas of how govt intervention works, but i'm one of the lucky ones that escaped Kansas. good luck, Kansans. may the FSM protect you all. always remember, Jesus was a raging socialist who detested the concept of personal property(wealth) and gave free health care(miracles) to everyone he could.
like
dislike
