Health reform - finally

Obama signed the final portion of the health care reform legislation yesterday. Been chomping at the bit to post about this: The law certainly is far from perfect, but it is an overall benefit and step in the right direction for a variety of reasons. YES, it is expensive, but it is paid for with a variety of fees, taxes and cuts, none of which is levied on the middle class.

Yes, it requires an individual mandate to purchase insurance BECAUSE people already are offered health care whether they pay or not. We ALREADY mandate free health care. Requiring people to pay into something into that is, actually, a conservative principal. And just the fact that 30 million more americans will have insurance and not face the fears of getting sick or going bankrupt is the morally right thing to do. Another plus is that now people won't be stuck in a job or prevented from trying something new because they have to protect their employer provided coverage. With a reasonably priced individual market and coverage of pre-existing conditions, this will unleash more economic freedom - something that sounds pretty conservative.

Cries of unconstitutional and socialist are demogoguery based on fears about the economic state of our country or simple political motives. If they are true we'd better scrap medicare and social security. In fact I think most americans wanted to go further. They supported a public option to compete with private insurers. And I'll bet you the country as a whole would support a single payer system if it were something like medicare for all.

Creekstone Crazy

Kind of neat that fancy New York City restaurants think Creekstone beef is the steak of choice. The NYTimes story is the kind of publicity that money can't buy. Creekstone really has carved that niche of premium beef. Wish we could get it more easily right here in Cowley County!

I also like that it gives some recognition to a company that is, let's be honest, maligned my some local residents because of the immigrant make up of its workforce. I hope that the workers there take some pride in this success. Not saying there isn't some downsides to using immigrant labor, but all in all, would Ark City be better off if that land where still wheat and we had 700-900 smaller workforce in Cowley County?

Hiatus - taxes

HIATUS: Had to go on an extended hiatus for family purposes, but my goal is to get the blog back on a daily update schedule, or close to it. Sorry for the stoppage in play, so to speak. Missed some big local, state and national issues but we'll just pick up from here.


TAXES:
Sounds like the local legislators got an earful this weekend in Winfield. I wonder whether they would have gotten the same response in Ark City. I think Ark City is more conservative in general and more repellent of tax increases, (although it did approve the road and hospital sales taxes) But statewide there does seem to be a growing sentiment of accepting a sales tax, or sin tax, increase to avoid more cuts to education and health.

Gov. Parkinson, backed by a few Republican moderates, which gives the proposal steam, has made some ground arguing that higher taxes would be better than more cuts. When you talk to people who serve medicaid patients, and think about whether you want your children's school to lose afterschool programing or have fewer academic counselors, etc..., you begin to think that paying a few cents more for that happy meal, microwave, or pair of socks might not be such a bad thing.

County counters

This won't help the case of Ark City officials looking to expand the Cowley County Commission to give more say to city folk.

Woo hoo, over here!

Whether this is a real attempt to change the commission or just an effort to get the county's attention is an interesting question. Apparently there was no effort on Ark City's part to lay ground work for this behind the scenes by talking to county commissioners. They seem genuinely surprised.

There really hasn't been any big issue where Ark Citians felt left out by the county that I can see driving this proposal. There is some concern about the condition of the Chestnut Ave. Bridge, but I can't think of anything else. I'm probably missing something.

What I hope doesn't happen is that this doesn't ignite a Winfield-Ark City rivalry. That said, the districts do seem awfully gerrymandered and three people representing such a large area does seem to stretch representation thin.

Wagnon train

Revenue secretary Joan Wagnon is making the case for scraping many tax exemptions. And, it's a pretty good one. There's a fairness issue here that I think rings nicely in people's ear. Even Sen. Abrams, no pro-tax guy, said it seems exemptions are not handed out evenly, and that breaks for new businesses aren't fair to existing ones.

The argument for "broadening" the tax base makes lots of sense. The more exemptions we give, the fewer people or properties have to make up the rest. This whole talk about taxes actually sets up a nice entry for Brownback, if and when he becomes governor, to propose a major revamp of state tax code and attempt to scrape the income tax (and I suppose replace it with higher sales tax?)

Those druggie lawmakers ....

Looks like Kasha is calling the bluff of some critics of her proposal to drug test welfare recipients. She's proposed adding elected officials to the mandatory drug testing requirements.

Pretty gusty, but does this stamp "ridiculous" on the bill and stall it from moving forward.

I personally don't see a need for this, and am leery of scapegoating people who get government aid. Welfare reform in the 1990s basically ended major abuse of the system and forced recipients to look for work, go to school and get help they need.

Hospital unrest

Follow up to yesterday's story on hospital CEO being let go. We're told she wasn't "fired" per say. This might be technically true, since her contract is still in affect, but the raw reality is that she was terminated, fired, let go, dismissed, axed, canned, etc.

Let's hope this turmoil doesn't undermine the progress being made at SCKRMC. The new hospital is a great boon to the community and the fact that taxpayers go behind it give is great legitimacy.

Hospital CEO out

Phyllis Macy-Mills was fired last week. Here's today's story. More probably later this week.

What has always seemed weird about this ongoing saga is that there is such tension between the board and the CEO, while at the same time such progress in making the hospital profitable and getting the bonds approved and construction started on the new facility.

We should all have such productive conflict.

Something tells me this is just the latest chapter in this story.