Readers react to the Kansas Legislature, guns and health care
Kansas clown car
The clown car called the Kansas Legislature can’t take on any more passengers without blowing out the tires and becoming unable to go anywhere.
Oh, wait a minute.
That has already happened. I can’t imagine those who were elected to represent us are milling around like a bunch of lost sheep, wringing their hands, wondering how they are going to get out of the hole their fearless leader, Gov. Sam Brownback, dug and then threw them in.
They should think of something real soon because I think his holiness is starting to shovel dirt back into the hole.
Don Rinck Sr.
Mission
Long Kansas slide
There is a movie title that aptly describes what ultra-conservative Republicans are doing in the Kansas government, “The Empire Strikes Back.”
Having taken complete control of the state machinery, they are dramatically increasing the size of conservative government.
Big government has not disappeared. The political phrase “smaller government” is only a sound bite. It gets them elected.
Sadly, Kansans are in for several more years of “you ain’t seen nothing yet.” By the time the empire is finished, Kansas will be finished.
The people running the empire believe they are remaking Kansas to be right, righteous and right wing. Beliefs and ideals trump needs and responsibilities.
However, it’s all an elaborate fantasy.
What the empire will never admit is that the foundation of all it is doing is pure, unadulterated greed. It’s all about the protection — indeed worship and pursuit — of profit. Money.
Kansas residents have no idea what actual damage is happening. Real people are suffering. Truly needy citizens are rejected, ignored and forgotten.
By the time the carnage becomes evident, it will be too late. Kansas is destined to rank 50th in the nation in every positive category of economical, educational and governmental excellence.
Down the slippery slope we go.
Reggie Marselus
Lenexa
Punishing the poor
How sad that Kansas is destroying a system that supposedly helps those who have little. Some parts of the proposed law changes would be laughable if the law itself were not so sad and mean-spirited.
Drug testing will be required for those who receive benefits. If that is the case, then Gov. Sam Brownback; his secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, Phyllis Gilmore; and the politicians who voted for this law should be tested every three months to see whether they have used any prescription drugs or recreational drugs.
A 36-month period for a lifetime limit for welfare benefits means that politicians should serve no more than 36 months because politicians are basically welfare recipients. So after they serve 36 months, new elections should be held.
If a person professes to be a Christian or worships any other religion, he should come out strongly against this law. If I were governor, I would want to be paid expenses and nothing else.
This law is a joke, poorly thought out without giving any hope to those who are in need of help. Instead, they are kicked in the stomach again.
Jack Stultz
Lenexa
Training essential
If guns are tools, then the problem is that the people using them were not taught right from wrong. How can adults train their kids if the adults were not trained themselves?
The legal system is not helping either. A person can be found guilty, but then there are appeals making sure the criminals’ rights are protected.
What about the victims’ rights?
You could do away with guns, but then people would only go to other weapons such as knives, baseball bats, cars and bare hands.
Robert Stompoly
Lexington, Mo.
Health care
Now that Republicans have majorities in both houses, they are talking about ways to cut funding or do away with the Affordable Care Act.
Let’s take a closer look at our health care system.
According to the World Health Organization, our health care system is ranked 37th in the world. We rank 14th in heart attack survival.
We are 15th in mortality from preventable diseases. We lag behind France in lung, colon and breast cancer survival, and the French spend half of what we spend on health care.
We spend 17.7 percent of our gross national product on health care, and the No. 1 reason for bankruptcy in the U.S. is medical bills. We rank 56th in infant mortality.
So unless Republicans have a better plan, let’s fix the problems with the Affordable Care Act because any way you look at our health care system, it is too expensive and inefficient to be sustainable.
Richard Kesler
Dunnegan, Mo.
Ronnie Murray
Fair Play, Mo.
Republicans, Iraq war
It’s encouraging that Republican presidential candidates have chosen to admit that the Iraq war was a colossal blunder. The next step is to admit that Republican ideology was the main cause for that blunder.
The specious weapons-of-mass-destruction mistake is a problem typical of the Republican approach to both domestic and international concerns.
There’s an unfortunate tendency in our land to believe things because they are convenient or reassuring, not because they are true, and the GOP has made a habit of proceeding on that basis.
Why demand accurate evidence when a little of what Stephen Colbert calls “truthiness” will suffice to convince the public?
The Bush administration was a series of colossal blunders, starting with 9/11, which might have been avoided if the staff of President George W. Bush had paid proper attention to the warnings of Clinton’s security chief about Osama bin Laden, and ending with the Bush Great Recession, a direct result of Republican support of financial robber barons.
It’s all because of the callous, self-serving, lobbyist-greased ideology of a party that lost its credibility long ago.
Michael Zygmunt
Kansas City
Police shakedown
What would the framers of the Constitution think if they could see how modern-day politicians have interpreted it? Law enforcement is a glaring example.
In many municipalities, law-enforcement departments have become a part of revenue generation for government.
If you go to Las Vegas, only an idiot would risk taking cash. Whether you drive or fly, you risk it being confiscated, and it could be extremely costly to prove it was legitimately yours.
If you loan your Corvette to your brother-in-law and he gets caught with drugs or a pocket full of cash while being stopped, law enforcement can confiscate his cash and sell your Corvette and pocket the money.
In many places, law enforcement is the predator on the highways and streets, seeking revenue from enforcement. Government has found it is easier to take revenue by creating regulations and code enforcement than to ask taxpayers to contribute more.
Jerry Jackson
Kansas City
Militarized police
President Barack Obama wants to limit military hardware for police departments.
The list includes grenade launchers, tracked armored vehicles, armed aircraft, bayonets and guns and ammunition of .50-caliber or higher.
Other federally supplied equipment, such as armored vehicles, drones, helicopters, firearms and riot gear, will come with new strings attached for local police to ensure officers are trained in their use and in “community policing, constitutional policing and community input.”
I hope the Defense Department and National Guard are exempt from these restrictions. I want the National Guard to be fully equipped with whatever it needs to get the job done.
Declared states of emergency should follow military chain of command and orders.
I cannot explain the three training objectives to myself.
Those three items look like ways to handcuff police officers from ever making an arrest for civil disorder or rioting.
I think “Burn, baby! Burn!” just took on new meaning.
Richard Blaisdell
Kansas City
This story was originally published June 13, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Readers react to the Kansas Legislature, guns and health care."