TheChat: Will the Ted Cruz-John Kasich deal pay dividends?

Let’s do this.

▪ “Quickly ran into speed bumps.” — The Washington Post assessing the new-found alliance between Ted Cruz and John Kasich.

The two have struck a deal designed to stop Donald Trump from winning the GOP nomination on the first ballot. But just hours into the new agreement, analysts were questioning whether it would work.

▪ “We really believe that by now it’s impossible to have a rational discussion about reproductive justice and women’s health care.” — Renee Maxwell, the founder of the Guild of Silly Heathen, a pro-choice group speaking at a rally in Columbia, Missouri.

Activists on both sides of the abortion issue turned out for yet another faceoff. Maxwell’s words ring true. The issue has become so politicized that rational conversation can’t happen.

▪ “It is wrong to take away the liberty of every law-abiding citizen to stop a very few from breaking the law, especially when they are putting their own lives at risk by doing so.” — Missouri state Sen. Rob Schaaf, a St. Joseph Republican, opposing a bill that would let doctors check a database before giving patients a prescription for opioid painkillers.

Lawmakers are locked up over a prescription drug monitoring program as Missouri remains the only state in the nation without one.

▪ “We’ve dug a pretty good hole.” — Kansas state Rep. Mark Hutton, a Wichita Republican, on the budget issues facing lawmakers as they returned this week for a wrap-up session.

Hutton and others from both parties want to reverse a key policy of Gov. Sam Brownback that exempts more than 330,000 farmers and business owners from personal income taxes. Brownback isn’t budging, and the budget crunch continues.

This story was originally published April 27, 2016 at 12:47 AM.