Jerry Moran, Kansas needs to hear your response to Donald Trump’s lies | Opinion
Answers, please
I have emailed and called Sen. Jerry Moran about 10 times since the first of the year with no response. I have pared down my questions to two that are timely and relevant:
- On March 11, Donald Trump said the price of chicken, cheese, eggs and other items are “lower today by a lot” than when he took office. Where can I shop to experience these declines in price? I believe this is false and the president is lying (again).
- If the Iran war is “already won” and Iran “is toast” as Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have said, why can’t oil tankers get through the Strait of Hormuz? What is the plan to rectify the situation quickly?
Thanks in advance, Senator, for your thorough and knowledgeable answers so the people of Kansas can read and understand how you are representing us in Washington, D.C.
- Dennis Armstrong, DeSoto
No middlemen
The role of pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, is failing people with diabetes who rely on the influential prescription drug middlemen for affordable insulin.
That’s why we applaud Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway for suing 19 PBMs she claims have been conspiring to increase insulin prices. She said in a statement that their actions have driven up costs for uninsured residents over the past 15 years. Patients were charged upward of $400 for the same insulin that sold abroad for less than $5.
This hits hard because nearly 450,000 Missourians are uninsured, and about 81,000 of them have diabetes. They count on PBMs to use the deep discounts and rebates they receive from drug manufacturers to construct formularies designed to improve their health, not inflate list prices. It can have dire consequences, with patients rationing or even skipping doses of their prescribed medication because of high costs.
Recent bipartisan PBM reform is a meaningful step toward lowering costs and increasing transparency so patients, not middlemen, come first. Missouri lawmakers are also pursuing reforms, including preventing patients from being forced to use PBM-owned mail-order pharmacies.
Elected officials at all levels of government must ensure patients can afford the medications they need and get them where they live.
- Connie Farrow, Missouri executive director, Patients Come First, Columbia
Hold onto hope
Maybe this is who we really are. I am past the point of embarrassment, shame, frustration and disgust with the Trump administration. I am losing hope that congressional Republicans will ever find courage and morality.
I once thought America was a great country. Since 2016, I have had to rethink that notion. Maybe this is what the United States really is. Our history includes stolen land, the Trail of Tears, slavery, the KKK, segregation, racism, the burning of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, the fight for civil rights, Emmett Till, Rosa Parks and the Kent State National Guard shootings.
Under the Trump administration, we are experiencing war, corruption, protection of pedophiles, lies, cruelty and crimes against humanity. U.S. citizens are being murdered by their own government for exercising their rights given to them by that government. Congressional Republicans violate their oath of office to support the Constitution. Instead, they support a cruel, corrupt president who is a felon and who worships dictators.
I am struggling to hold onto hope. I do hope our better angels will prevail. I do hope integrity, honesty and humanity will return. But things must change before it is too late.
Contact your elected representatives — regularly. Stand up and speak out — now.
- Janet Mays, Kansas City
Fight Parkinson’s
“You have Parkinson’s disease.” I never expected to hear that diagnosis, even though I was struggling with uncontrollable movements, a tremor in my right hand and changes in my handwriting. This conversation took place 24 years ago, when I began the long journey of living with Parkinson’s.
Today, it is the fastest growing neurological disease in the world. The reasons vary from an aging population to environmental contaminants. Recent research has shown a genetic factor might be involved. In my case, the presumed cause was exposure to Agent Orange during the year I served as a nurse in a hospital in Vietnam.
I make you aware of this as I prepare to spend three days in Washington, D.C., March 15-18, joining 300 others from across the country for the 2026 Parkinson’s Policy Forum. Our goal is bringing awareness to the plight of those of us living with this progressive disease. We hope to meet with members of Congress to encourage funding further research, passing legislation to reduce the use of herbicides and pesticides as well as bringing awareness to the ever-expanding challenge of this disease. Will you be its next victim?
- Lou Eisenbrandt, Leawood
Too bananas
Earlier this month, I went to eat breakfast at the Denny’s restaurant in Raytown. I sat at a table facing a TV on the wall. A baseball game was in session between the Texas Tailgaters and the Savannah Bananas. I had never seen these teams, but it didn’t seem like any pro baseball game I had ever watched .
The players were performing sideshows along with the game, an odd thing. As it progressed, things got more chaotic. Then, all of a sudden, the men were prancing around in their underwear and flaunting themselves sexually, doing all sorts of unbecoming public displays that were an affront to decency and normal public behavior. And there were children and mothers in the bleachers cheering and egging the behavior along.
I thought the Federal Communications Commission regulated the airwaves against indecent and obscene behavior and language. The TV did not show what channel it was. I quickly brought this to the attention of one the workers, who changed the channel.
Just who is the watchdog for such programming? Someone in government needs to wake up and deal with such obscenities.
- William A. Ingram, Kansas City
Editor’s note: The Tailgaters and Bananas are teams in the exhibition Banana Ball Championship League.