Daily Archives: Oct. 29, 2012

How would Romney be handling Sandy?

Oct. 29, 201212:07 p.m.

Hurricane Sandy is prompting questions about how Mitt Romney would approach emergency management, especially given that he said during a 2011 primary debate that disaster relief might be better handled by states. “Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better,” he said then, adding that it was “simply immoral” to rack up debts and pass them onto our children. A Romney campaign official said Monday that the candidate would not abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but that “as the first responders, states are in the best position to aid affected individuals and communities, and to direct resources and assistance to where they are needed most. This includes help from the federal government and FEMA.”

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under Presidential race | Comments Off

Kansas could see big drop in Medicaid funding

Oct. 29, 20126:00 a.m.

Kansas could see a 36 percent reduction in federal Medicaid dollars over the 2013-22 period, or about $12 billion, if policies advocated by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and running mate Paul Ryan go into effect, the Kansas Health Institute News Service reported. Nationwide, federal Medicaid spending would drop $1.7 trillion between 2013 and 2022 if the policies are implemented, according to a new report from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. Of that total, $932 billion would come from repealing the Affordable Care Act, and $810 billion would come from converting Medicaid to a block grant program for states and capping the amount of federal aid each state could receive.

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Congress, Health and safety, Presidential race | Comments Off