As proof of how they aren’t just sitting on the sidelines and saying “no” to health care reform, GOP lawmakers point to all the amendments they have offered, and how Democratic lawmakers aren’t interested in making the bills more bipartisan. But Dana Milbank of the Washington Post reported that many of the GOP amendments are aimed at playing to the GOP base or some special-interest concern. For example, Sen. Orrin Hatch (in photo), R-Utah, offered an amendment, apparently facetiously, that would have added “transition relief for the excise tax on high-cost insurance plans for any state with a name that begins with the letter ‘U.’” Rep. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, offered an amendment that Milbank said sounded like a GOP parody: It would eliminate fees charged to private health insurance companies and make up the shortfall by reducing benefits to poor people. The amendment was defeated on a party-line vote.
Columnist Bill Roy recently recalled, with some astonishment, having met a man at a town meeting held by Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Topeka, who said he relied on government-paid dialysis, which cost $28,000 a month, but strongly opposed government-run medicine. Roy wrote: “It is not uncommon for people to grow to dislike those they are totally dependent upon.”
The man, Matthew Asher of Holton, responded in a letter to the Topeka Capital-Journal: “I hate that my treatment is paid for by the government. Yes, I said ‘hate.’ The more the government pays, the more control it wants. And that control will be between you and your doctor. Is that the kind of care you want?” He also wrote: “I may have lost control of my medical treatment, but I have not lost the right to voice my concerns about the direction some in Washington, D.C., are trying to take us.”
It may be “too early to panic” about the state’s budget problems, as Gov. Mark Parkinson said Wednesday. But it’s not too early to prepare for cutting budget allotments. According to preliminary figures, the state collected $67 million less in revenue in September than forecast. If revenue is down significantly again next month, Parkinson should move to cut funding, rather than wait until the Legislature convenes in January. Delaying the cuts only makes them more difficult to absorb.
