“There is a lot of misinformation” about health care reform, but there are “a lot of good benefits that people are already availing themselves of,” Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger said last week — a couple of days before all of Kansas’ congressional representatives supported a procedural vote to repeal the law. Some of the benefits Praeger mentioned include children being able to stay on their parents’ insurance plan until age 26, early retiree benefits (which Koch Industries is taking advantage of), payments to help close the Medicare prescription-drug “doughnut hole,” and Medicare coverage of some preventive care. She also noted how Kansas and other states are starting to set up insurance exchanges where individuals and companies can compare plans.
Why is it good that Navy Capt. Owen Honors was relieved of his duties for making raunchy videos, and why is the movie “The King’s Speech” such a hit with audiences? “The questions are united by a theme,” wrote columnist Peggy Noonan. “It is that no one knows how to act anymore, and people miss people who knew how to act.” She noted how Honors acted as if “it was important to him to be seen as one of the guys, with regular standards, like everyone else.” In contrast, the story of King George VI overcoming his debilitating stuttering problem to lead England is “about someone being a grown-up, someone doing his job, someone assuming responsibility,” Noonan wrote. “It is about a time when someone was taking on the mantle of leadership, someone was sacrificing his comfort for his country.”
On the eve of a new administration taking over in Topeka, it is important to recognize and thank Mike Hayden for his many years of public service to this state and country. Hayden was a state lawmaker, serving as speaker of the House for five years. He was Kansas governor from 1987 to 1991. He served in the George H.W. Bush administration as assistant secretary for fish and wildlife. The past eight years he has been secretary of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. His strong opinions led to some conflicts, but his love of Kansas and nature were evident and infectious.
GOP House members plan to use the same procedural tacks that they condemned Democrats for using, and they are loading up their staffs with lobbyists and holding high-dollar fundraisers (such as a $2,500-per-person event this week benefiting Kansas Rep. Kevin Yoder and other House freshmen). Columnist Dana Milbank’s conclusion: “Republicans are determined to form just as arrogant and overreaching a majority as the one they defeated.”
