A Senate compromise proposal to allow people between ages 55 and 64 to buy into Medicare now appears to be dead. The proposal had some support in Kansas, at least in principle, the Kansas Health Institute News Service reported. Though AARP Kansas wanted to know more details before taking an official position, it has long supported calls for expanding Medicare eligibility to include Americans ages 50 and older. Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger also wanted more detail but said “the concept is good, the approach is good.” But the Kansas Hospital Association was concerned about low reimbursement rates. “We’re not in favor of any public option — which is what this is — that’s based on existing Medicare payment rates because for a majority of Kansas hospitals, those rates don’t cover the cost of care for seniors,” spokeswoman Cindy Samuelson said.
Vicki Tiahrt, wife of Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, “continues to be something of a loose cannon on Twitter,” reported the Hill. The congressional newspaper noted that she has tweeted derisively about Republican Sens. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, John McCain of Arizona and John Thune of South Dakota — all of whom could be her husband’s colleagues if he wins his race for the U.S. Senate next year. She also disparaged Club for Growth, a fiscally conservative group that recently gave Todd Tiahrt a low 29 percent rating on the organization’s RePORK Card (and gave Tiahrt’s GOP opponent, Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, a high 96 percent ranking).
On this 218th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights, Americans continue to cherish — and debate — the rights to speak, worship, assemble peacefully, petition the government; to own guns and private property; to avoid self-incrimination and unreasonable search and seizure; and to have a fair, speedy trial by an impartial jury of their peers and with the benefit of counsel. Virginia planter George Mason surely would be proud to know that the declaration of rights he championed not only endures today but gets a workout daily in our courts, legislative chambers and public square.
