We are finally getting down to business; that is the lives Americans are leading in the richest country on earth.
To pick up The Letter's thread about Mississippi:
‘Every Medicaid expansion bill dies without debate or vote’
‘More than 15 bills that would have expanded Medicaid to provide health care coverage to primarily the working poor d…
We are finally getting down to business; that is the lives Americans are leading in the richest country on earth.
To pick up The Letter's thread about Mississippi:
‘Every Medicaid expansion bill dies without debate or vote’
‘More than 15 bills that would have expanded Medicaid to provide health care coverage to primarily the working poor died on Tuesday night without debate or a vote.’
‘No committee chair in either the Senate or House held a hearing on those Medicaid expansion bills. The House Medicaid Committee, where Speaker of the House Philip Gunn assigned all of the his chamber’s expansion bills, did not even meet a single time before the Jan. 31 deadline to consider general bills.’
‘Legislative leaders killed the bills as a worsening hospital crisis grips the state and Mississippi continues to be among the unhealthiest states with the highest percentages of uninsured residents.’
‘State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney told lawmakers in late 2022 that 38 hospitals across the state are in danger of closing, and all are facing financial hardships. ‘Physicians and hospital leaders have said expanding Medicaid, which would result in more than $1 billion annually in additional federal health care dollars coming to the state, would help hospitals pay their bills. Beyond just helping hospitals, expanding Medicaid would provide health care coverage to many more Mississippians — up to 300,000, according to some studies.’
‘But many in the Republican leadership of the state, primarily Gunn and Gov. Tate Reeves, have been adamant in their opposition to expanding Medicaid as 39 other states have done, including many led by Republican politicians.’
‘Meanwhile, data shows that support for Medicaid expansion is growing among voters. A Mississippi Today/Siena College poll conducted in early January indicated that the vast majority of the general public, including 70% of Republican voters, favor expansion.’ (MississippiToday)
READ MORE: Poll: 80% of Mississippians favor Medicaid expansion
'As hundreds of thousands of working Mississippians struggle to afford healthcare, state lawmakers have again decided not to consider Medicaid expansion and do not seem poised to do so anytime soon.'
'States have had the option to expand Medicaid eligibility to most people with incomes under a certain level — about $30,300 annually for a family of three — since 2014. Mississippi remains one of 12 states not to expand despite profound financial benefits and an increased federal matching rate under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.'
PS Take a look at the mortality rate for Americans.
'The Number One Health Story From 2022 Is The Troubling Decline In Life Expectancy'
'The biggest health story from 2022 isn’t Covid-19. It isn’t RSV or influenza, either. It isn’t cancer, diabetes, or cardiovascular disease. It’s something that encompasses all these diseases and much more. It’s the troubling decline in U.S. life expectancy.'
'Life expectancy in the U.S. is at the lowest point in 26 years. To solely blame this on Covid-19 is wrong. U.S. life expectancy was stagnant between 2012 and 2019. And, prior to 2012, beginning around 1990, the upward slope was much flatter in the U.S. than any of our peers. Washington DC, we have a major life expectancy problem that needs to be taken much more seriously.'
'This is not about healthcare expenditures per se. The U.S. spends much more per-person on healthcare than any other large wealthy country, yet its residents die an average of at least four years younger. For decades the gap has been widening. This damning statistic “never seems to sink in with the public and policymakers.” (forbes)
Correct about Mississippi being the poorest state in the USA. Here is the list of the poorest and the least poor among us:
Poverty rates were highest in the states of Mississippi (19.58%), Louisiana (18.65%), New Mexico (18.55%), West Virginia (17.10%), Kentucky (16.61%), and Arkansas (16.08%), and they were lowest in the states of New Hampshire (7.42%), Maryland (9.02%), Utah (9.13%), Hawaii (9.26%), and Minnesota (9.33%). (Wikipedia)
Thanks Fern. It’s a helpful list that spurs the question...can someone please explain the process of how those wealthier states actually send money to support the poorer states?
Here's how that works: we pay our federal taxes as a percentage of our income. Minnesota, where I live, has a larger percentage of our population above the poverty level. So, there are more tax dollars flowing from Minnesota to the federal government than in states like Mississippi. When federal programs, created by Congress, distribute funds, those funds are sent out to the States based on the details of the law, often need-based. The needs of the poor in states like Mississippi often mean that more of the funds go to poor states.
Interesting...in light of the Republican idea of giving more rights to the states and cutting federal “socialist” programs, what would happen to those poor states? What if the Republicans get their way...no more redistribution of wealth? (Just wondering if the poorest states are run by republican legislatures?)
Those Republican lawmakers create a class system that keeps poor people down, over generations, and provides opportunities only to people who are in the "right groups," politically-connected, wealthy, white, male, related to the important families.
California and most of the Blue States subsidize the Red States. I think a change is needed: A state gets back no more than it pays into the federal government (natural disasters excluded). 20-25% is taken from all tax revenue to fund the federal government and DOD; the rest returned to the States. Past tTime for the Red States, and their voters, to get the kind of government intervention they want--none
In Va. the first question to any sick person trying to see a doctor, nurse ,or health care person is “ what insurance do you have?”Not , let’s take a look and start to find out why you are sick.
There are blocks in Va. where one provider takes your insurance but in the next zip code they don’t. The insurance companies have “big business of profit only” tied up. It is easier to die than to see a doctor.
Doctors with a true calling to help those suffering could demand of their very exclusive “Union” the AMA that they won’t be controlled like that.
I once wrote to my “ insurance survey” , “I got better care at the gas station, and it was self -serve”!
We are sick because the disease of “ losing hope” has taken over.
Sad, sad, sad because there is no shame!
Go home Mike One Pence, two Pence, three Pence, of total uselessness!
Concierge medical care is a growth industry here in CA. Pay a retainer to a doc and you’ve got all the attention you want. I equate it to owning a share in a private jet and an expensive tropical resort home (ick!).
My family has been very happy Kaiser Permanente members for years. Our doctors treat us with thorough care and genuine kindness without having to deal with the bureaucracy.This should be the model for medical services nationwide.
Marg Mac, Same here in Colorado. Permanente physicians are salaried (denounced as "socialism" by those profit mongers in the FFS world of medical practice), thus they escape the perverse incentives of profit-driven medical care. This was the original HMO model, sadly corrupted once the for-profit insurance companies (KP is non-profit) smelled the sweet odor of boundless riches through the mechanism of ruthless claims denial.
Kaiser recommended amputating my 90 year old father's leg when the pressure ulcers Kaiser Hospital allowed him to get wouldn't heal. "He's already mostly in a wheelchair." UCLA saved his leg. I got Kaiser to pay for UCLA's care, too. Caveat Emptor w/ Kaiser
Citizen 60, as you must know, anecdotes are not the substitute for data. I'm sorry for your 90 yo father's situation. Non-healing leg ulcers are often the result of poor circulation.
I called on hospitals 15 years. I have dozens of hospital pt care horror stories, Kaiser in the Western States has pride of place for the highest number.
It’s most recent is to put the NICU resuscitation station in 1/2 of an “active” labor and delivery room without building a wall in the room. Pt and family in labor got to hear preemie pronounced dead after all the staff and machines behind the curtain tried to save it (SF).
Jean, exactly “It is easier to die than to see a doctor.” And most Mississippi residents living below poverty line would agree. Just ask Dr. Google. And this might be a repeat of Fern’s comprehensive assessment of Mississippi, but never too many times to hear and see the Truth. “Life expectancy at birth in Mississippi is the lowest of all states and has historically been low. As is generally the case in states with low life expectancy, Mississippi struggles with poverty, and residents report relatively unhealthy behaviors. At 19.8 percent, no state has a higher poverty rate. Mississippi also has the largest share of adults who do not exercise, at more than a third of the local adult population.” https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2019/02/21/life-expectancy-us-where-does-mississippi-rank/2937070002/
We might like to believe that doctors with 'true calling' have that kind of power. They don't. Corporatocracy really does control everything in our lives. Most of us are not aware of the extent of this.
Deborah, as I was reading Dr Richardson’s post about the Republicans labeling everything the government does for ordinary Americans as socialism, I immediately thought - yeah, they prefer a system much like feudalism, where the people are kept “in their place” to serve and support the wealthy, the feudal lords.
Truman said it best: "Republicans called public power socialism. They called water purification socialism. They called Social Security socialism. Republicans call anything that helps people socialism."
Another of my Truman favorites: "Democrats want to help people who need help. Republicans want to help people who don't need help."
The Republican view of government "socialism" seems very selective--Social Security and Medicare are socialist, but $4.5B in FEMA funds to Florida are not.
I used the term "neo-feudalism" for our neo-liberal system nearly a quarter-century ago. But it was unfair to a system that did at least provide some protection in exchange for provisions and services.
I agree but I think it is important to be very clear what we are dealing with here. The term class warfare raises the hackles of the abusers and brings out the deniers en masse. The powers to be want the people to believe it’s the immigrants or welfare queen or the Democrats or Republicans that we need to fight and bring order and fairness to the masses. When the poster I replied to mentioned that the prison sentence for murder may be significantly less than that for robbery , there is a reason for that. The moneyed powers want to stop any theft of their property, they don’t care if the people kill each other. We need to be looking up at the real criminals, not our neighbors.
Anyway I wholly agree with you on another post, we are one, with similar goals and concerns as most peoples on this Earth. Just that recognition alone would be a great start.
Christine. Thank you. Excellent link. Right now I’m listening to Politics Girl in conversation with American Political journalist, David Corn, discussing one of his books, “American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy.” Crazy? “It’s not new, he says. According to David’s research, the insanity currently going on with the GOP is not so much a departure from the norms, as a logical conclusion of an established pattern. Since the 1950’s, the Republicans have knowingly encouraged and exploited extremism, bigotry, and paranoia to retain or gain power. As one review put it, “American Psychosis is a sobering look at the ideological destruction, born of cynicism and opportunism, of a once principled party.”
Please do not insult feudalism, a system that made some allowance for social reciprocity. Even chattel slavery housed and fed its human beasts of burden.
As for religion, people do like to believe that if they're well-off, they're saved; while, moving down to the poorest of the poor, if you can't afford to eat properly or to get medical help, you'll always be free to pray. And rest assured, your betters will always be there, kindly reminding you that you are in their prayers...
You are on an ultra hot roll, Peter. It's a relief for me to read your posts because you are among a number of us who have the words to characterize inhumanity on obedient subjects who have been well schooled on their worthlessness. We know that this isn't only about Mississippi. It's old and new again.
I answered this but think I understand why Substack couldn't handle my comment.
No matter.
Feudal barbarity is indeed succinct, other terms might be even more so, yet nothing in the thesaurus can come close to expressing the depths to which some human beings' perverseness can descend.
Years ago, I was very struck by the words of Saadi Shirazi which, I learned, are inscribed above the entrance to the Hall of Nations in the UN Building. The content resonated deeply for me. The content, but none of the English translations that I found. I know no Farsi, lost contact with Iranian friends long ago... I ought to have contacted a good friend of my son but, to cut a long story short, I read a literal transcription of these lines, together with all the renderings I could find, and put together what is bound to be a variation on Saadi's theme:
*
Men are members of one body
From one essence they were made
If one single member suffers
The whole body feels the pain.
Those who do not feel for others
Are but beasts, and not our brothers.
*
Yes, my rendering is harsh, but while I see the first two lines as well expressing the deep underlying equality of mankind, the last two tell how far men can descend in betraying our Truth.
I wonder if this could be brought to the attention of Rowshan Nemazee or anyone among HCR's readership familiar with Farsi and Iranian poetry... I'd value comments on this.
Also Jackson is one of the most difficult Capitol cities to get to. They have no commercial airport, the closest one is 30 miles away. When I was a traveling consultant I hate being assigned there for that very reason.
Sorry, while Jackson MS is indeed hard to get to and Medgar Wiley Evers [International] Airport doesn't merit the word I've put in brackets, it is only 6 miles out from downtown...
Thank you, my apologies, I was confusing Jackson MS with Jefferson City MO. I did use the Medgar Evers airport in Jackson, It was with Jefferson City MO that I had to use Columbia MO to get to Jefferson City. Unfortunately my mind blurs (too often) because I traveled so much back then.
Fern, how do we hit these numbers home? Billboards? Easily understood graphics? It’s not rocket science. I worked for fifty years and get $2,200 per month. I could not exist without this money, which I earned and paid into from my first job at 18, in 1967. I thank Frances Perkins and Heather for her history, everyday. First thought when I wake up: “Thank you, Frances, for starting Social Security!”
More importantly, how do we get Mississippians to vote out those who refuse to expand Medicaid? Do they—and other citizens—not see the connection b/t those “leaders” who vote for their citizens to die, or remain poor or uneducated—and voting? BTW TN, where I live, has refused to take Medicaid too, three times, once when asked by a Repub governor who even got some tweaks from HHS that should have made it more palatable to a red legislature. And rural hospitals in TN have closed too.
First of all they have to know about Medicaid and or any other government function that is here to help us be a Democracy. Very few people really have the facts about the government agencies and or what they do for us.
Many do not understand SS, Medicare, EPA, IRS.... go through our agencies and ask your community of family and or friends to tell you or describe the purpose of each. Again, the Republicans like dumb. What do you , America , like?
Carole, I live in Vermont, where billboards are prohibited. Thankfully! Only in small older communities are there poles for electricity and telephone, too. Otherwise all lines are underground. It's a beautiful state, and there are modern ways to communicate: SMS, emails, media and marches are a few..
As a psychiatric RN, I spent ~20% of my time making what we called "insurance calls", which mainly consisted of keeping insurance companies from discharging still suicidal patients. What ever agent I spoke to would usually back down when I asked for their name to put on the discharge paperwork, though sometimes one of the psychiatrists would have to call as well. This almost never happened with our medicaid and medicare patients. Tricare was great also.
The reality is a very messy, very inefficient health care insurance system, coupled with very little regulation of prices for health care services has made our system very expensive with poor to middling outcomes. We paid for a brand new Cadillac and got a used Pinto. "Socialized Medicine" could actually realize huge savings for all involved, as all hospitals have to absorb the costs of treating the uninsured.
We became Kaiser members when a family member need mental health services. Long before the ACA made mental health care equal to physical health care, Kaiser treated the brain as it would any other body part, giving mental health patients the care and dignity they deserve.
With our previous coverage, only $25 of the $750 psychiatric initial appointment was eligible for reimbursement. That was an insult and I told the insurance rep that!
If such a large percentage of Mississippi citizens want the Medicaid expansion, why do they keep electing the same-old-same-old politicians to “represent” them?
We have it in Georgia too. Also, Blatant gerrymandering. National elections have shown our overall electorate is pretty much evenly split 50/50. Yet in our statehouse, Democrats have been overwhelmingly sidelined. Shouldn't our state-wide representation also somehow be able to reflect the numbers we put up in national elections? It's trumpeted about that Georgia is a "swing state" and "purple". One look at our state and local representation easily shows this is NOT true. Why the discrepancy, y'all??
Let's look at the numbers of Georgia's representatives. Nationally, in the US Senate, both our Senators are Democrats, elected via statewide elections. Keep that fact in mind, please. When it comes to the 14 districts that send representatives to the US House, the make up is 9 Republicans and 5 Democrats. Also, keep that number in mind.
In the Georgia General Assembly, in the State Senate of 56 Senators, the make-up is 32 Republicans to 23 Democrats (with one vacancy, but it is in a district that is quite red, so add another Senator to the Republican total). In the State House of 180 representatives, the make-up is 98 Republicans to 79 Democrats, with 3 vacancies (not sure right off-hand where those are). In the past election, in the statewide executive branch elections, Governor Kemp won VERY handily over Stacey Abrams, and all the other races--Lt. Governor, Sec'y of State, etc. etc.--were all won by Republicans in races that were not at all close. Again, these were statewide elections. Georgia has 159 counties--a huge total, all things considered--and aside from counties in the cities that are blue (Atlanta metro area of roughly 26 (!) counties, Columbus, Augusta, Savannah, Macon, Athens), in the overwhelming majority of the other counties they are run unanimously by Republicans. In my own corner of the world, pulling a couple of totals out of the hat, in a county of 200,000+ population, in 2020 T***p won by 64,000 to 25,000. In the US Senate runoff in 2022, Walker won by 52,000 to Warnock's 19,000. ALL the government positions in this county are held by Republicans. I'm living in a sea of red. This is true in the overwhelming majority of the remaining red counties in the state, which, considering the rest of Georgia's 159 counties (easily 100+), is a lot.
So, *IF* Georgia were truly a "purple" state, my point is: shouldn't then state and local election results be more reflective of our "purple" status? It is my opinion that the numbers in Georgia show quite clearly there is not a fair and equal representation throughout the rest of the state. The urban vs rural divide in Georgia is extreme and Republicans are using it to their advantage. Yes, nationally, Georgia has shown it has stirrings of becoming "blue/purple", but to me that does not at all reflect who holds the balance of power in this state, and it seems to me that if a state is going to become well and truly "purple" this needs to be shown as being true in the down ballot and local races as well.
Yes, it mostly answers me. The balance of power has to be resolved in your state. There appears to be change occurring. It nay spread if more people support it.
Just pulled up Ballotpedia, my sometimes go to for election info. One point I will make is I lived in Michigan for 27 years and saw the Gerrymandering going on there. Our representatives were mostly Repub and our Senators were Dems (except for one instance) going back till 2000. That we had Dem Senators for so long kind of tells the story of how the state was leaning,
Since 1984, the Repubs had control of the state Senate till just recently. Since 1990, the Repubs had control of the state House. Repubs had the Governorship in 1990, 2000, and 2010. Those years allowed the formation of voting districts in Michigan. Packing and Gerrymandering were the orders of the day. Until 2020. I'll explain.
You can't Gerrymander a national election; but you can mess with the voting rolls just like Kemp and Raffensperger did. National news talked of the tens of thousands or voters being dropped from the voting rolls. I wonder why they would do such?
Now, what happened in Michigan? Why did Michigan realign its voting districts? Katie Fahey, a Michigan resident and political novice posted a message on Facebook two days after the 2016 presidential election. She wanted to take on gerrymandering. She recruited more than 14,000 volunteers to campaign for an amendment to the state’s constitution. It passed with 61% of the vote and created the commission (Guardian).
Now Michigan has a Democratic Governor, House, and Senate populated with such people as Mallory McMorrow. Repubs in my Township appointed me (Dem) to the Planning commission. I pretty much know how the sausage is made in small communities of 25,000.
As you stated, you have two Dem Senators in Congress. That is an achievement and a marker of things changing. You are on the brink of change. I believe what may be needed in Georgia is a Katie Fahey or Mallory McMorrow. Warnock a[[ears to have some grit in him.
I admit I leaped before I thought about this and looked at more of the history of Georgia. If anything Georgia could parallel what Michigan did. Good luck.
I have to compose a letter to the City Council asking them why the submission of a Plat would be acceptable if the streets were all mismarked with different names then the county Plat, the builder unknown, the developer unknown, and you can not find the piece of land? The City Manager already went off on me in a public meeting where I would have been declared "out-of-order if I answered. A part of Roberts Rule of Order . . . I guess that only applies to me.
I took the discussion points to be in the opposite direction. I would have offered up the Secretary of State and the Governor's efforts in purging the voter rolls. Thank you though.
I realize that gerrymandering and voter suppression are widespread and have real impact and consequences.
In this instance however, if the survey data presented are accurate (always a big if) then neither should prevent the Republican and Democratic voters from voting out the reps that refuse to expand Medicaid. Either the survey data are very far off, or access to healthcare is not in the top tier of people’s reasons to vote for or against particular candidates. I suspect it is the latter. I expect that a large percentage of the struggling hospitals and medical practices will close. Then people will be screaming. It is a case of you don’t know what you’ve got till it is gone. Although I also suspect that there are many that would be covered for out patient routine medical care with expansion that do not realize what they have been missing.
No, Heather Chase, HCR is not an anti-Republican American. She is an historian who tells the truth. Facts are what you seem to see as anti-Republican. HCR reports what they do. She also reports what Dems do, and that is not always stellar either.
I agree, Patricia. So let's see: is my accusation of Heather Richardson an insult or a fact? I just wrote her to ask that she send me pieces in which she is not an anti-Republican American. More to the point, please note the following insults from readers of today's post--just today's! Because according to your Rousseau quotation, all these readers are "in the wrong": "the toxic republican vermin"
"Every time I hear the term “States rights” I see slavery and the confederate flag."
"The Repugnants are ignorance and hearsay."
"The greatest danger to this country is the imbecilc, retrograde republican party and climate change."
"I think the Repugnants are even MORE dangerous than climate change...."
"Further proof that the only 'good Republicans' are six feet under."
Hmmmmm? How does your comment stand up in this readership?
Our voting history is supposed to be a private matter unless we ourselves choose to reveal it.
And if you think only people who vote as you do can speak truthfully, you will never know truth, and you certainly won't want to live in a democracy, which needs debate and at least respect for other ideas in order to exist.
Mis/dis information…They aren’t reading Heather, Joyce Vance, Robert Hubbell, etc. Those same-old-politicians lies, Fox News, talk radio, NewsMax, etc are where they get their information. This includes the upper middle class as well as the lower. I live in Texas and I would bet that very few Texans are aware that our Governor declines Medicare Expansion.
You could edit your original comment to reduce confusion, but the positive side is that they have an opportunity to correct someone. Either way, your comment is a public service. It's also true. I know because I live in TX.
Please be careful when describing these medical care programs. MediCARE is the national health insurance program for the elderly and disabled which is part of our FICA contribution with every paycheck. MediCAID is federal money which can be sent to the states to help provide medical care service to the part of the population that meets poverty guidelines. By refusing MediCAID, states are actually punishing the poor.
Jane Myers. Thank you for that very important comment on the terms/language. I liked Deborah Minyard’s comment, realized her “misspeak” and was then relieved to see her correction. An example on how our language can throw us off “into the weeds”
Maybe the poor deserve punishment. They failed at choosing the right ancestors, didn’t they. They could have been born into a wealthy family if they had had more sense.
IMO, stress could well be a health factor to those who have been paying attention to what has transpired over the past few decades. Anger and negativity has to be taking a toll on the health of many who claim to be republicans. When that is manifested through withholding health care social safety nets, and basic decency the lifespans of even more groups are reduced. Just a thought.
Janet, Dick Cheney leaps to mind with his six heart transplants….but supporting policies his entire career to keep medical care to a minimum for most Americans. Stress should kill all those evil Repugnants dismantling our society. I will not shed a tear.
DLM Back in 2012 the surgeon was surprised to find that Dick Cheney had a heart. I wonder whether his personality changed with a ‘new heart.’ I’m humming the song ‘You gotta have heart.’
A good friend of mine is still alive long after his original heart was removed and replaced. You might want to show more compassion for the folks who survive to live longer lives from transplants, despite the occasional stinker like Cheney. Greater still, those that gave their organs did so selflessly, through organ donor cards or notations on their drivers’ licenses, giving the recipients another lease on life. You demean the amazing medical breakthroughs, and the talented surgeons, who extend life for those who survive.
Apropos of my comment is the announcement that Bonnie Raitt has the Grammy Song of the Year nomination for “Just Like That”, a moving and simple tune dealing with just this very subject. Read about the process she came by to craft this wonderful song here:
Janet the Republicans I know are staying insulated from the facts and relying more or less on really old party lines. They seem confused as to who todays republicans even are. Health care is fine as most of them are on Medicare and their retirements are wrapped around social security. As to what is actually driving the economy they are pretty sure the tax cuts are holding the country together. Most agree that they would be unable to pay any more taxes on their limited incomes and they are very confused that democrats want more taxes. Perfect storm.
The proximal and gentle questions for those Republicans fearing loss of income from taxes are: How would their taxes actually increase? Would it be the income taxes - are their social security and other retirement account income considered taxable income? (Am I incorrect that working income is taxed but not passive income, i.e. retirement income?) Or would they pay more taxes through a sales tax of 30%? For instance, if we buy $200 in groceries a week for a year (52 x $200 = $10,400/year), then at 30% taxes (10,400 x .3 is $3,210) we would have to pay $13,520 ($10,400 + $3,120) to get $10,400 in groceries. Not only that, but we would feel it each time we buy anything, for instance $200 in groceries get either $140 in groceries, or pay $260 for groceries. I know arguments are not helpful, but it still feels like calm, thoughtful conversations stand a chance to create change.
Yes, I see your point; as you may know, the idea of passive income is a term from economics, I guess. We could say retirement income, social security money (is that really income?), or income from investments. I do agree with you, we need to speak the language of our audience.
Retirement needs a champion. Social security is well below poverty levels. Most will never see an investment portfolio and many who do will lose in the marketplace. The business community is an uneven jumble of minimalist retirement provision. Here today and gone tomorrow retirement programs seem to work only for those who are employed by one entity for their entire professional career. While certain provisions can be carried forth from employer to employer often there will come an unforeseen blocking provision which jeopardizes even well thought out retirement programs. The rank and file labor market must have a retirement which is unimpeachable rather than ending in a peach tree dish as someone’s experimental failure. We cannot operate under the provision that people who lose retirement deserve what they get. Or people who plan for no retirement deserve what they get. I am going to work myself to death is not an acceptable retirement vehicle. In this respect someone has to be his brothers keeper. Such a dialogue as you propose should be in the shopping cart along side of racism mitigation, gun violence, health care, women's rights, peace on earth ( let’s not pretend we are the nexus ), disarmament, human rights, wilderness preservation, mental health care, homelessness, sustainable energy, environmental protection, educational opportunities, equality, global warming and perhaps we could turn homeland security into an offensive force which destroys the monsters both foreign and domestic who stalk us all relentlessly. Ok, That was a bridge too far. Can we ask for these obtainable objectives? Can we implement them? Who will represent us? Why isn’t this the focus of this particular congress. Personally I am tired of counting MTG’s three toes.
FOR AN OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE OF HOW WHITE SUPREMACY IS ENDAGERING AND ROBBING THE CITIZENS OF JACKSON WHO ARE PREDOMINANTLY BLACK __ read this!
'JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi House voted Thursday to further restrict how the capital city of Jackson, which has struggled with water problems, can spend money from a 1% local sales tax — the latest effort in the Republican-led Legislature to control actions of the Democratic-led city.'
'Jackson voters approved the tax in 2014, with the money designated for roads, bridges, water and sewer. Under House Bill 1168 that passed the House Thursday, all of the money would go toward the city's struggling water system.'
'Jackson lawmakers and other Democrats opposed the plan. They said directing all the 1% sales tax revenue to water would hinder Jackson’s ability to fix heavily damaged roads and bridges, including those pockmarked by potholes deep enough to flatten tires.'
“Our streets will go to the devil,” said Democratic Rep. Earle Banks of Jackson.'
'Jackson has had water problems for years and most of the city lost running water for several days in late August and early September after heavy rainfall exacerbated problems in the main water treatment plant. Parts of Jackson lost water again after a cold snap in December.'
'House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Trey Lamar, a Republican from Senatobia, sponsored the bill. He said ensuring clean, fresh drinking water is a higher priority now than fixing potholes.'
“There is a serious need to spend money on water and sewer in the city of Jackson,” Lamar said.
'Opponents of the bill pointed out that Jackson is set to receive $600 million from the federal government for water system improvements. Lamar said he does not know when the federal money will arrive. He also acknowledged he has not spoken with Ted Henifin, who was appointed by the federal government to oversee improvements to the Jackson water system.'
'Democratic Rep. Robert Johnson of Natchez pointed out that money generated by the 1% sales tax in Jackson is already overseen by a commission with members chosen by the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker. Critics of that commission say it was created by the majority-white Legislature to curb the power of elected officials in a city that is more than 80% Black.'
'Speaking of Lamar's new proposal, Johnson said: “This is another one of those paternalistic ideas that, 'We’re going to tell y'all what to do because we want to punish you while we're doing it.'”
'House Bill 1168 passed 76-41. The vote was largely along party lines, with support from Republicans and most of the opposition from Democrats.'
'The bill was held for the possibility of more House debate and it eventually would have to go to the Senate for more work.'
'The Republican-controlled state Senate recently passed a bill that would transfer the ownership and management of the Jackson water system to a regional board after the federally-appointed administrator leaves.'
'A bill that awaits House debate would create a new court system in parts of Jackson with appointed rather than elected judges. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said the court proposal reminds him of apartheid. He has also sharply criticized the regional water board proposal.'
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thank you, Fern. We should all be speechless. Maybe too many are. Mississippi has been one of or THE poorest state in our nation for years. Forever? It’s obvious its own government keeps the people poor.
HCR makes it clear today that American democracy does not always provide its citizens with what is in their best interests and what repeated polling indicates they want. The Mississippi story about that State’s refusing federal Medicaid dollars extends much further into the nation’s social and economic fabric. For example, HCR points out that ‘the theory behind it also says that the government should also stay out of the business of protecting civil rights, because state governments are the centerpiece of American democracy.’
That is the crux of the problem. State governments are NOT the centerpiece of American democracy. The national government in Washington IS its centerpiece.
The ambiguous Tenth Amendment (‘The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people’) was only one of the many compromises which were made to gain the support of the slaveholding states in 1789 for the new Constitution and is the basis for this misguided theory about what is the ‘centerpiece’ of American democracy, presently adopted by Republicans nationwide.
That is why we had thirteen stars on the American flag in 1789 and fifty today, perpetuating the words of the Tenth Amendment. We should only have one big star on the flag. Just as Republicans ignore the first thirteen words of the Second Amendment (as does the Supreme Court), they choose to ignore the final four words of the Tenth Amendment, ‘or to the people.’
Compromises made for slaveowners in 1789 are not pertinent today and must be remedied because so long as this misused belief in State governments persists, our democracy will rest on wet and shifting sands rather than upon solid rock.
There is no actual ambiguity in either the 2nd or the 10th Amendments, the ambiguity has been introduced, as you note, by the Courts, particularly the Supreme Court and could be cured just as easily either by that Court or by the do-nothing Congress if they chose to perform the tasks for which they were elected. Maybe if we had pictorial coloring books of the Constitution with embedded videos it would help them figure it out.
Fern, this scenario is mind blowing in its stupidity and mystery. But sometimes the simplest answer is the best one?
"Poll: 80% of Mississippians favor Medicaid expansion" - The refusal to accept Federal money is a refusal to save hospitals and therefore save lives. When the river floods and kills, they are quick to accept Federal money and help. Why not for illness?
Perhaps we should look again at the Jackson water problem. I think the brains of the people in this state have been addled by something in the water. Lead? PFAs? Little brain eating worms? Something we haven't identified yet?
How else to explain the utter stupidity of voting for idiots who deny them adequate healthcare? That denies them life itself.
My point is that the voters of Mississippi continually vote against their better interests. They vote for these fools who deny them proper health care. If 80% of them want Medicaid, why don't they vote for it? Why do they put up with such self destructive nonsense?
Maybe their brains have been rendered useless by a pollutant. But I am open to any other explanation.
If any of you are videographers, or documentarians (or know someone who is one), Fern’s last paragraph would make a stunning visual for people to emotionally connect with on a personal level. Losing 4 years of your life, at the tail end of your life. What will you miss out on? Grandchildren being born, grandchildren growing up, being there for your family, for your friends, for your fur babies, passing along your wisdom when it is sought, seeing 1460 more sunrises and sunsets, being in nature for 1460 more days, just being - celebrating, caring, consoling, contributing and making the world a little bit better because you lived 4 more years.
It so happens that, only two days ago I attended a lecture in France on Progress and Regressions in Science. One of the major disappointments mentioned was the entire area of public health throughout the world, entailing—among other things—no improvement in the treatment or control of TB and malaria endemic in 3rd-World countries, variable failures to prevent or tackle Covid and future zoonoses, a massive worldwide increase in obesity, starting in childhood, which spread from the US outwards and has incalculable effects on overall health and healthcare costs, falling life expectancy in several countries, including America... Russia, of course, is a dreadful case, even without the totally absurd war waged by a deranged dictator... Nevertheless, Americans, no matter the state they live in, die younger than people in many other industrialized countries...
Drugs, whether sold over the counter or by criminal cartels, were not mentioned in this context, neither were lead bullets in civilian bodies, both adults and children.
As for social security, in Britain, the Liberal politician David Lloyd George introduced a national retirement pension in 1906 and followed it up in 1911 with the National Insurance Act providing "British workers with insurance against illness and unemployment. All wage-earners had to join his health scheme in which each worker made a weekly contribution, with both the employer and state adding an amount. In return for these payments, free medical attention and medicines were made available, as well as a guaranteed 7-shillings per week unemployment benefit" [https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Lloyd-George/] America, of course, had to wait until 1935 and FDR's New Deal (which the Republican Party has been increasingly committed to uprooting on the grounds that it is “socialism”... Of course. A great success in Socialist countries like Switzerland and Japan...
This idea of the Infallible Market God as the great magical economic, social and political panacea is, of course, utter BS, bargain-basement mythology, a bouquet of abstractions designed for the exclusive benefit of non-human entities (regardless of how they have been raised to “personhood” by a corrupted US Supreme Court). Competition and “choice” were supposed to make for greater efficiency in all areas of life and to limit the evils of bureaucracy. In reality, aided and abetted by IT “improvements”, privatized bureaucracy is making the citizen's life (or should I say “the subject's life”) into one long training in masochism. Worse, it has infected public bureaucracy, which no longer aims to serve both citizens and economic actors while keeping a beady eye focused on the spending of taxpayers' money, but is obsessed with exclusive service to those in need of no help. Government bureaucrats once employed understandable language but now spout jargon worthy of Komintern at its worst, the only difference being the equally invalid content. Looking Glass Land nonsense.
In economic terms, the bias has been towards extreme inequality accompanied by cartel monopolies. And everywhere, bureaucracy. But bureaucracy whose sole aim is to maximize institutional and other major investors' quarterly returns—and to hell with all else.
How this heavy, self-serving, IT-aided-and-compounded bureaucracy is supposed to square with, for instance, the provision of all the most basic services, social, health, transport, communications, infrastructural, etc. to the public, I think we have all seen too well by now.
We have seen the Present and no, it doesn't work. As for future prospects provided by the current dispensation, the only promise is… KAPUTT.
The estimable Marx and Engels may have failed to sway this bourgeois from his boring, middle-of-the-road fence-sitting politics... but the world has developed such a wild rightward tilt that views that were deadly dull and conventional in the 1960s are now distinctly Leftie. So, if I end a long life clinging to the left edge of the playing field, also inhabited by too many narcissistic nutcases, it's neither Lenin, Mao nor Gramsci I have to thank for this seeming conversion which is no conversion at all, but Sainted Ronald Reagan, Holy Maggie, and such luminaries as the All-That-Glitters-Coney-Island-Critter that last occupied the White House...
Thank you, Angela and Fern, HCR and all of us here who not only care, but actively work for a more socially and economically equitable future and healthy environment. The picture is crystal clear. I add politically, but truly caring and making a difference is more than political rhetoric. It’s action that at this time is a Democratic party practice. And repubs talk and dismantling of anything that helps people is their action. Citizens who vote repub continue to support a kind of nonviolent resurrection, causing poverty and inequality to continue in this wealthy country where the poor and middle class pay taxes and the wealthy benefit. It should be shocking. To all Voters. Should be.
Fern, thank you for these details. I read the bit about Mississippi with despair. I don't see any of that changing soon, unfortunately. The water problem in Jackson, mentioned below, is also deplorable. I know some of this has to be about race, but it must affect poor white people in Mississippi too. Heath care in this country is a joke, but if we try to fix it, it's that dreaded word, socialism. Once again the Rs prove themselves to be the party of death.
I seem to recall that, a few years ago, people from Iranian health services were providing help and organizational advice to the poorer public hospitals in Mississippi.
I never heard what happened after that, but can't help wondering if ways were not found of putting a stop to such assistance, coming from a country whose regime commonly leads to its being labeled an enemy of the US. Besides being an embarrassment, this interest on the part of benevolent foreigners must have had the undesirable effect of giving poor Mississippians the impression that they merit attention as sentient human beings.
I live in Austin, TX metro area and about once a month there is a post on the social app, Nextdoor Neighbor, that goes something like this: “My wife(husband, father, son, etc) was just diagnosed with _____ (fill in the blank) and looking for help finding insurance to help us pay for surgery/treatment. Any suggestions?” Not only is this heartbreaking, but it should never occur in the richest country in the world, but it does, daily, in the good ‘ol USofA!
Heart breaking? Yes. I would also call it inhumane and essentially criminal. Dozens of other countries with nowhere near the resources of the good Ole US of A... simply don't have that problem. And we spend more than double per capita on something that is broken beyond repair. It's stupid and very cruel.
Thank you, Eileen, for posting this painful, too, common failing of America's exceptionalism. It is OUR STORY. The lives of many Americans, how many? are too dark and too in the dark, and that's what 'it' is all about!
To put it succinctly, the state government opposes the will of 80% of Mississippians on an issue with life or death implications.
That sounds like a firm foundation for a political campaign to me.
If it was 55%, or the issue wasn't a central one like health care, I could understand how Republicans could continue to distract the voting public and remain in power.
But 80%? Hospitals closing and people dying as a result of deliberate government policy decisions?
There should be no issue more important for the vast majority of that 80% of Mississippi voters than the increased likelihood of their preventable death or the preventable death of their loved ones because of intentional decisions made by the party in power against the will of the people.
How do these barbarians keep winning elections? Democrats in Mississippi should be hammering home this point to the exclusion of all others in every election cycle until the voters get the point, realize their stake in the fight, and turn out to vote these scoundrels out of office.
Oh, and the other states, mostly with Republican leadership, who turn down federal money for Medicaid expansion?
You ask 'how do these barbarians keep winning elections?' They do it by campaigning on cultural issues such as the dangers of CRT, of books they object to, of abortions, of someone taking away their guns, of LGBTQ citizens having rights, of vaccinations, of weakening the police, of mixed marriages, of racial, ethnic, or religious groups other than their own taking their place ....
They ignore real issues such as providing health care, climate change, protecting the environment, voting rights, equal opportunity for all, tax policies that give a fair shake to all, and government regulation of things that must be regulated such as the financial marketplace, food, drug and product safety and working conditions.
That's how they keep winning elections. The barbarians cannot be fought on the cultural battlefields of their choice, listed above, which is what they desire. We keep making that mistake.
A pro-choice demonstration never changes the mind of a pro-lifer, or a legislator. They must be defeated by stressing real issues with postitions which are in the interest of most citizens. In Mississippi, they must campaign on the absolute need to particiapate in federal Medicare benefits, and not waste their breath, time and resources on those who oppose taking advantage of them.
Yes, you're absolutely right. Republicans sank the Clinton healthcare plan by changing the debate from the Democrat's wonky policy arguments to the dishonest kitchen table discussions of Harry and Louise (and the misogynistic demonization of Hlilary, but that's another story).
Personalize the issues and you'll win the voters. Unlike the abortion rights movement you mention, the provision of health care is a personal experience that directly affects everyone, all the time, and there's plenty of opportunity to bring the fight to every living room, or kitchen table.
Republicans in eleven states have given Democrats the perfect wedge issue. Ignore the culture wars, and this big thing remains: if you side with Republicans, you'd better hope you don't get sick. Or your kids, or your aging parents. And eleven states is a big enough sample on which to hang a national campaign.
This is a better wedge than Social Security, in which Republicans have already destroyed the confidence of anyone under the age of 50. This is the direct lived experience of every American, literally a matter of life and death for everyone.
From a selfish, personalized point of view, there should be no more important issue to anyone with the power to vote. From an altruistic, help-everyone point of view, or a public health point or view, the same is true.
And Democrats are unambiguously on the right side, and Republicans have given them eleven fat, juicy targets to attack, not counting Congressional races and municipal contests. If we blow this one, we deserve perpetual government by MAGAt, and we will probably get it.
The problem is that Democrats are also politicians, and being such, all of their motivation is not altruistic. An effort should be made to keep this above party identity, and as you point out, health care is an ideal personalized wedge issue (as opposed to the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid individually that can become politicized).
YES! To all you have written, along with the URGENCY of communicating the LIFE and DEATH decisions that are being made for Mississippians by the Governor and state legislators. The case against Mississippi's Republican elected representatives is clear and the foundation for the national campaign exposing the Republican Party's goal to obtain autocratic control over the American people as they have done in Mississippi.
It seems to me the elephant in the room is Tom Perez. Where was he when all this was going on? What happened in Mississippi has been a long standing problem. Democratic leadership has been asleep at the switch.
Eadie, I don't think I understand your comment I agree that Tom Perez didn't do the job. Democrats didn't follow Howard Dean's call to be local everywhere in the country - to grow the party where it wasn't a presence. Mississippi is the poorest state and blood red. In general, I would say that the Democratic Party was the problem but I don't want to call the donkeys 'elephants in the room'.
This was a perfect opportunity for the DNC to expose the hypocrisy and utter disregard of rethuglican leadership for the poorest among us. If you hadn't brought the whole issue in Mississippi to my attention again, I would have continued to ignore one more important reason the democrats are losing the message war.
You would think that the GQP was committing political suicide with this. But there are a couple of other factors. These voters are not the brightest bulbs on the planet. And more importantly, they vote based on emotional cultural warfare issues. Like fetus fables and the national security threat of drag queens.
As you say, they're being brainwashed to vote based on abstract fictions. That's why forcing them to pay attention to reality they can't ignore, like their own and their family's health and the lack of concern their government has for them, should be a winning strategy.
When your child gets the flu or meningitis and can't get hospital treatment, the cultural impact of drag queen story hour gets put in perspective real quick.
You're right about what should be campaign talking points but aren't and, if the Democrats don't update their approach, the status will remain quo or deteriorate.
For the record, 39 states and D.C. did expand Medicaid and 11, including Mississippi did not.
The Governor of Mississippi seems well-versed in the venerable traditions of his state and guided by the spirit that sits firmly ensconced where the heart of his party ought to be. He would surely have inspired Jonathan Swift to write a most memorable panegyric. At a stroke (of inaction), he has found the perfect way to correct those confounded poverty statistics while ensuring that Mississippians will forever vote as they are required to: a new, improved and sanitized approach to lynching, the mass elimination of the undeserving black poor, all without recourse to any of the customary paraphernalia.
’Tis a pity this Elegant Solution seems better to accord with Social Darwinism than with our True Religion, which tells us Darwin lied, wherefore we are enjoin’d in Commination to burn all accursed copies of The Origin of the Species (along with most of the books in our Public Libraries).
We are finally getting down to business; that is the lives Americans are leading in the richest country on earth.
To pick up The Letter's thread about Mississippi:
‘Every Medicaid expansion bill dies without debate or vote’
‘More than 15 bills that would have expanded Medicaid to provide health care coverage to primarily the working poor died on Tuesday night without debate or a vote.’
‘No committee chair in either the Senate or House held a hearing on those Medicaid expansion bills. The House Medicaid Committee, where Speaker of the House Philip Gunn assigned all of the his chamber’s expansion bills, did not even meet a single time before the Jan. 31 deadline to consider general bills.’
‘Legislative leaders killed the bills as a worsening hospital crisis grips the state and Mississippi continues to be among the unhealthiest states with the highest percentages of uninsured residents.’
‘State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney told lawmakers in late 2022 that 38 hospitals across the state are in danger of closing, and all are facing financial hardships. ‘Physicians and hospital leaders have said expanding Medicaid, which would result in more than $1 billion annually in additional federal health care dollars coming to the state, would help hospitals pay their bills. Beyond just helping hospitals, expanding Medicaid would provide health care coverage to many more Mississippians — up to 300,000, according to some studies.’
‘But many in the Republican leadership of the state, primarily Gunn and Gov. Tate Reeves, have been adamant in their opposition to expanding Medicaid as 39 other states have done, including many led by Republican politicians.’
‘Meanwhile, data shows that support for Medicaid expansion is growing among voters. A Mississippi Today/Siena College poll conducted in early January indicated that the vast majority of the general public, including 70% of Republican voters, favor expansion.’ (MississippiToday)
READ MORE: Poll: 80% of Mississippians favor Medicaid expansion
'As hundreds of thousands of working Mississippians struggle to afford healthcare, state lawmakers have again decided not to consider Medicaid expansion and do not seem poised to do so anytime soon.'
'States have had the option to expand Medicaid eligibility to most people with incomes under a certain level — about $30,300 annually for a family of three — since 2014. Mississippi remains one of 12 states not to expand despite profound financial benefits and an increased federal matching rate under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.'
PS Take a look at the mortality rate for Americans.
'The Number One Health Story From 2022 Is The Troubling Decline In Life Expectancy'
'The biggest health story from 2022 isn’t Covid-19. It isn’t RSV or influenza, either. It isn’t cancer, diabetes, or cardiovascular disease. It’s something that encompasses all these diseases and much more. It’s the troubling decline in U.S. life expectancy.'
'Life expectancy in the U.S. is at the lowest point in 26 years. To solely blame this on Covid-19 is wrong. U.S. life expectancy was stagnant between 2012 and 2019. And, prior to 2012, beginning around 1990, the upward slope was much flatter in the U.S. than any of our peers. Washington DC, we have a major life expectancy problem that needs to be taken much more seriously.'
'This is not about healthcare expenditures per se. The U.S. spends much more per-person on healthcare than any other large wealthy country, yet its residents die an average of at least four years younger. For decades the gap has been widening. This damning statistic “never seems to sink in with the public and policymakers.” (forbes)
I believe Mississippi is the poorest state in the country (and also the most fervently religious).
Meanwhile, I believe Jackson, Mississippi is still in the throes of a water crisis, in addition to the deplorable state of its hospitals.
The cruelty displayed by the governor and legislature is feudal in its barbarity.
Correct about Mississippi being the poorest state in the USA. Here is the list of the poorest and the least poor among us:
Poverty rates were highest in the states of Mississippi (19.58%), Louisiana (18.65%), New Mexico (18.55%), West Virginia (17.10%), Kentucky (16.61%), and Arkansas (16.08%), and they were lowest in the states of New Hampshire (7.42%), Maryland (9.02%), Utah (9.13%), Hawaii (9.26%), and Minnesota (9.33%). (Wikipedia)
What’s the Alabama state motto? Thank God for Mississippi.
Alabama: Making Georgia Look Better
60 counties in Georgia have no access to pediatric care. 8 rural hospitals have been allowed to close. 🤬
Exactly. Take Atlanta out of Georgia and we'd be Mississippi.
Just got to keep on keepin' on.
Thanks Fern. It’s a helpful list that spurs the question...can someone please explain the process of how those wealthier states actually send money to support the poorer states?
Here's how that works: we pay our federal taxes as a percentage of our income. Minnesota, where I live, has a larger percentage of our population above the poverty level. So, there are more tax dollars flowing from Minnesota to the federal government than in states like Mississippi. When federal programs, created by Congress, distribute funds, those funds are sent out to the States based on the details of the law, often need-based. The needs of the poor in states like Mississippi often mean that more of the funds go to poor states.
Interesting...in light of the Republican idea of giving more rights to the states and cutting federal “socialist” programs, what would happen to those poor states? What if the Republicans get their way...no more redistribution of wealth? (Just wondering if the poorest states are run by republican legislatures?)
Be careful what you wish for?
Those Republican lawmakers create a class system that keeps poor people down, over generations, and provides opportunities only to people who are in the "right groups," politically-connected, wealthy, white, male, related to the important families.
California and most of the Blue States subsidize the Red States. I think a change is needed: A state gets back no more than it pays into the federal government (natural disasters excluded). 20-25% is taken from all tax revenue to fund the federal government and DOD; the rest returned to the States. Past tTime for the Red States, and their voters, to get the kind of government intervention they want--none
well... if those of us in Red states actually had any say, that might be fair.
In Va. the first question to any sick person trying to see a doctor, nurse ,or health care person is “ what insurance do you have?”Not , let’s take a look and start to find out why you are sick.
There are blocks in Va. where one provider takes your insurance but in the next zip code they don’t. The insurance companies have “big business of profit only” tied up. It is easier to die than to see a doctor.
Doctors with a true calling to help those suffering could demand of their very exclusive “Union” the AMA that they won’t be controlled like that.
I once wrote to my “ insurance survey” , “I got better care at the gas station, and it was self -serve”!
We are sick because the disease of “ losing hope” has taken over.
Sad, sad, sad because there is no shame!
Go home Mike One Pence, two Pence, three Pence, of total uselessness!
And Mike Pence trying to stay relative is good for a laugh, but really, who pays him to give speeches? And who would want to listen to this dullard?
Concierge medical care is a growth industry here in CA. Pay a retainer to a doc and you’ve got all the attention you want. I equate it to owning a share in a private jet and an expensive tropical resort home (ick!).
My family has been very happy Kaiser Permanente members for years. Our doctors treat us with thorough care and genuine kindness without having to deal with the bureaucracy.This should be the model for medical services nationwide.
Marg Mac, Same here in Colorado. Permanente physicians are salaried (denounced as "socialism" by those profit mongers in the FFS world of medical practice), thus they escape the perverse incentives of profit-driven medical care. This was the original HMO model, sadly corrupted once the for-profit insurance companies (KP is non-profit) smelled the sweet odor of boundless riches through the mechanism of ruthless claims denial.
Kaiser recommended amputating my 90 year old father's leg when the pressure ulcers Kaiser Hospital allowed him to get wouldn't heal. "He's already mostly in a wheelchair." UCLA saved his leg. I got Kaiser to pay for UCLA's care, too. Caveat Emptor w/ Kaiser
Citizen 60, as you must know, anecdotes are not the substitute for data. I'm sorry for your 90 yo father's situation. Non-healing leg ulcers are often the result of poor circulation.
I called on hospitals 15 years. I have dozens of hospital pt care horror stories, Kaiser in the Western States has pride of place for the highest number.
It’s most recent is to put the NICU resuscitation station in 1/2 of an “active” labor and delivery room without building a wall in the room. Pt and family in labor got to hear preemie pronounced dead after all the staff and machines behind the curtain tried to save it (SF).
Jean, exactly “It is easier to die than to see a doctor.” And most Mississippi residents living below poverty line would agree. Just ask Dr. Google. And this might be a repeat of Fern’s comprehensive assessment of Mississippi, but never too many times to hear and see the Truth. “Life expectancy at birth in Mississippi is the lowest of all states and has historically been low. As is generally the case in states with low life expectancy, Mississippi struggles with poverty, and residents report relatively unhealthy behaviors. At 19.8 percent, no state has a higher poverty rate. Mississippi also has the largest share of adults who do not exercise, at more than a third of the local adult population.” https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2019/02/21/life-expectancy-us-where-does-mississippi-rank/2937070002/
We might like to believe that doctors with 'true calling' have that kind of power. They don't. Corporatocracy really does control everything in our lives. Most of us are not aware of the extent of this.
Deborah, as I was reading Dr Richardson’s post about the Republicans labeling everything the government does for ordinary Americans as socialism, I immediately thought - yeah, they prefer a system much like feudalism, where the people are kept “in their place” to serve and support the wealthy, the feudal lords.
Truman said it best: "Republicans called public power socialism. They called water purification socialism. They called Social Security socialism. Republicans call anything that helps people socialism."
Another of my Truman favorites: "Democrats want to help people who need help. Republicans want to help people who don't need help."
The Republican view of government "socialism" seems very selective--Social Security and Medicare are socialist, but $4.5B in FEMA funds to Florida are not.
I used the term "neo-feudalism" for our neo-liberal system nearly a quarter-century ago. But it was unfair to a system that did at least provide some protection in exchange for provisions and services.
Today, it's all take and no give.
It’s calked class warfare.
Call this childish idiocy what you like, I suspect that baboons, wolves and wild dogs know better.
I agree but I think it is important to be very clear what we are dealing with here. The term class warfare raises the hackles of the abusers and brings out the deniers en masse. The powers to be want the people to believe it’s the immigrants or welfare queen or the Democrats or Republicans that we need to fight and bring order and fairness to the masses. When the poster I replied to mentioned that the prison sentence for murder may be significantly less than that for robbery , there is a reason for that. The moneyed powers want to stop any theft of their property, they don’t care if the people kill each other. We need to be looking up at the real criminals, not our neighbors.
Anyway I wholly agree with you on another post, we are one, with similar goals and concerns as most peoples on this Earth. Just that recognition alone would be a great start.
There are Red States that do not received more from the federal government than they contribute. to it.
T'aint class warefare to ask each state to be revenue neutral; to not just be takers.
Deborah, so beautifully said: yes barbaric….
Also near the bottom in health outcomes.
Talk about cruelty. We are living amongst it everywhere.
Politics Girl….Leigh McGowan
https://youtu.be/b_Fo2uygdUw
🗽
Christine. Thank you. Excellent link. Right now I’m listening to Politics Girl in conversation with American Political journalist, David Corn, discussing one of his books, “American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy.” Crazy? “It’s not new, he says. According to David’s research, the insanity currently going on with the GOP is not so much a departure from the norms, as a logical conclusion of an established pattern. Since the 1950’s, the Republicans have knowingly encouraged and exploited extremism, bigotry, and paranoia to retain or gain power. As one review put it, “American Psychosis is a sobering look at the ideological destruction, born of cynicism and opportunism, of a once principled party.”
Please do not insult feudalism, a system that made some allowance for social reciprocity. Even chattel slavery housed and fed its human beasts of burden.
As for religion, people do like to believe that if they're well-off, they're saved; while, moving down to the poorest of the poor, if you can't afford to eat properly or to get medical help, you'll always be free to pray. And rest assured, your betters will always be there, kindly reminding you that you are in their prayers...
You are on an ultra hot roll, Peter. It's a relief for me to read your posts because you are among a number of us who have the words to characterize inhumanity on obedient subjects who have been well schooled on their worthlessness. We know that this isn't only about Mississippi. It's old and new again.
Nina Simone: Mississippi Goddam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ25-U3jNWM&list=RDLJ25-U3jNWM&start_radio=1&rv=LJ25-U3jNWM
Thank you so much, Fern. Here’s Lyrics of Nina Simone’s song, a piece of history. Click link for all. It’s still the truth.
“The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddam
And I mean every word of it
Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
Can't you see it
Can't you feel it
It's all in the air”
https://www.google.com/search?q=nina+simone+mississippi+god+damn+lyrics&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari
Feudal barbarity is succinct!
I answered this but think I understand why Substack couldn't handle my comment.
No matter.
Feudal barbarity is indeed succinct, other terms might be even more so, yet nothing in the thesaurus can come close to expressing the depths to which some human beings' perverseness can descend.
Years ago, I was very struck by the words of Saadi Shirazi which, I learned, are inscribed above the entrance to the Hall of Nations in the UN Building. The content resonated deeply for me. The content, but none of the English translations that I found. I know no Farsi, lost contact with Iranian friends long ago... I ought to have contacted a good friend of my son but, to cut a long story short, I read a literal transcription of these lines, together with all the renderings I could find, and put together what is bound to be a variation on Saadi's theme:
*
Men are members of one body
From one essence they were made
If one single member suffers
The whole body feels the pain.
Those who do not feel for others
Are but beasts, and not our brothers.
*
Yes, my rendering is harsh, but while I see the first two lines as well expressing the deep underlying equality of mankind, the last two tell how far men can descend in betraying our Truth.
I wonder if this could be brought to the attention of Rowshan Nemazee or anyone among HCR's readership familiar with Farsi and Iranian poetry... I'd value comments on this.
Also Jackson is one of the most difficult Capitol cities to get to. They have no commercial airport, the closest one is 30 miles away. When I was a traveling consultant I hate being assigned there for that very reason.
Sorry, while Jackson MS is indeed hard to get to and Medgar Wiley Evers [International] Airport doesn't merit the word I've put in brackets, it is only 6 miles out from downtown...
Thank you, my apologies, I was confusing Jackson MS with Jefferson City MO. I did use the Medgar Evers airport in Jackson, It was with Jefferson City MO that I had to use Columbia MO to get to Jefferson City. Unfortunately my mind blurs (too often) because I traveled so much back then.
Fern, how do we hit these numbers home? Billboards? Easily understood graphics? It’s not rocket science. I worked for fifty years and get $2,200 per month. I could not exist without this money, which I earned and paid into from my first job at 18, in 1967. I thank Frances Perkins and Heather for her history, everyday. First thought when I wake up: “Thank you, Frances, for starting Social Security!”
More importantly, how do we get Mississippians to vote out those who refuse to expand Medicaid? Do they—and other citizens—not see the connection b/t those “leaders” who vote for their citizens to die, or remain poor or uneducated—and voting? BTW TN, where I live, has refused to take Medicaid too, three times, once when asked by a Repub governor who even got some tweaks from HHS that should have made it more palatable to a red legislature. And rural hospitals in TN have closed too.
Voter suppression in Mississippi?
First of all they have to know about Medicaid and or any other government function that is here to help us be a Democracy. Very few people really have the facts about the government agencies and or what they do for us.
Many do not understand SS, Medicare, EPA, IRS.... go through our agencies and ask your community of family and or friends to tell you or describe the purpose of each. Again, the Republicans like dumb. What do you , America , like?
maybe. or maybe they are so tired, sick, hungry, homeless, and under educated that the gerrymandering doesn't even matter now?
I want billboards to be used more effectively for these messages. EVERYONE sees them and reads them.
My husband and I have this conversation a lot--electronic changeable billboards.
Yes, a very worthwhile idea. Make it simple, and quotable!
Something to the effect of:
Today’s Republicans prefer breadlines to a decent minimum wage and shanty towns to decent rural hospitals.
Carole, I live in Vermont, where billboards are prohibited. Thankfully! Only in small older communities are there poles for electricity and telephone, too. Otherwise all lines are underground. It's a beautiful state, and there are modern ways to communicate: SMS, emails, media and marches are a few..
As a psychiatric RN, I spent ~20% of my time making what we called "insurance calls", which mainly consisted of keeping insurance companies from discharging still suicidal patients. What ever agent I spoke to would usually back down when I asked for their name to put on the discharge paperwork, though sometimes one of the psychiatrists would have to call as well. This almost never happened with our medicaid and medicare patients. Tricare was great also.
The reality is a very messy, very inefficient health care insurance system, coupled with very little regulation of prices for health care services has made our system very expensive with poor to middling outcomes. We paid for a brand new Cadillac and got a used Pinto. "Socialized Medicine" could actually realize huge savings for all involved, as all hospitals have to absorb the costs of treating the uninsured.
Well said Steve and very well done to point out that there is a difference between health care and health care insurance.
Been saying that for years, and almost NO ONE understands the distinction between HEALTH CARE & HEALTH CARE INSURANCE!!!
As with other sited issues, it continues to be about the $$$ and not the health of the patient
We became Kaiser members when a family member need mental health services. Long before the ACA made mental health care equal to physical health care, Kaiser treated the brain as it would any other body part, giving mental health patients the care and dignity they deserve.
With our previous coverage, only $25 of the $750 psychiatric initial appointment was eligible for reimbursement. That was an insult and I told the insurance rep that!
If such a large percentage of Mississippi citizens want the Medicaid expansion, why do they keep electing the same-old-same-old politicians to “represent” them?
Voter suppression
We have it in Georgia too. Also, Blatant gerrymandering. National elections have shown our overall electorate is pretty much evenly split 50/50. Yet in our statehouse, Democrats have been overwhelmingly sidelined. Shouldn't our state-wide representation also somehow be able to reflect the numbers we put up in national elections? It's trumpeted about that Georgia is a "swing state" and "purple". One look at our state and local representation easily shows this is NOT true. Why the discrepancy, y'all??
same here in Texass ... gerrymandering and very effective voter suppression that takes many different forms.
Bruce:
I am not a, or your research assistant. Do you have some numbers to support your contention Georgia is not purple? A citation works also.
(Thanks to BK below...)
Let's look at the numbers of Georgia's representatives. Nationally, in the US Senate, both our Senators are Democrats, elected via statewide elections. Keep that fact in mind, please. When it comes to the 14 districts that send representatives to the US House, the make up is 9 Republicans and 5 Democrats. Also, keep that number in mind.
In the Georgia General Assembly, in the State Senate of 56 Senators, the make-up is 32 Republicans to 23 Democrats (with one vacancy, but it is in a district that is quite red, so add another Senator to the Republican total). In the State House of 180 representatives, the make-up is 98 Republicans to 79 Democrats, with 3 vacancies (not sure right off-hand where those are). In the past election, in the statewide executive branch elections, Governor Kemp won VERY handily over Stacey Abrams, and all the other races--Lt. Governor, Sec'y of State, etc. etc.--were all won by Republicans in races that were not at all close. Again, these were statewide elections. Georgia has 159 counties--a huge total, all things considered--and aside from counties in the cities that are blue (Atlanta metro area of roughly 26 (!) counties, Columbus, Augusta, Savannah, Macon, Athens), in the overwhelming majority of the other counties they are run unanimously by Republicans. In my own corner of the world, pulling a couple of totals out of the hat, in a county of 200,000+ population, in 2020 T***p won by 64,000 to 25,000. In the US Senate runoff in 2022, Walker won by 52,000 to Warnock's 19,000. ALL the government positions in this county are held by Republicans. I'm living in a sea of red. This is true in the overwhelming majority of the remaining red counties in the state, which, considering the rest of Georgia's 159 counties (easily 100+), is a lot.
So, *IF* Georgia were truly a "purple" state, my point is: shouldn't then state and local election results be more reflective of our "purple" status? It is my opinion that the numbers in Georgia show quite clearly there is not a fair and equal representation throughout the rest of the state. The urban vs rural divide in Georgia is extreme and Republicans are using it to their advantage. Yes, nationally, Georgia has shown it has stirrings of becoming "blue/purple", but to me that does not at all reflect who holds the balance of power in this state, and it seems to me that if a state is going to become well and truly "purple" this needs to be shown as being true in the down ballot and local races as well.
Does this answer your question?
Yes, it mostly answers me. The balance of power has to be resolved in your state. There appears to be change occurring. It nay spread if more people support it.
Just pulled up Ballotpedia, my sometimes go to for election info. One point I will make is I lived in Michigan for 27 years and saw the Gerrymandering going on there. Our representatives were mostly Repub and our Senators were Dems (except for one instance) going back till 2000. That we had Dem Senators for so long kind of tells the story of how the state was leaning,
Since 1984, the Repubs had control of the state Senate till just recently. Since 1990, the Repubs had control of the state House. Repubs had the Governorship in 1990, 2000, and 2010. Those years allowed the formation of voting districts in Michigan. Packing and Gerrymandering were the orders of the day. Until 2020. I'll explain.
You can't Gerrymander a national election; but you can mess with the voting rolls just like Kemp and Raffensperger did. National news talked of the tens of thousands or voters being dropped from the voting rolls. I wonder why they would do such?
Now, what happened in Michigan? Why did Michigan realign its voting districts? Katie Fahey, a Michigan resident and political novice posted a message on Facebook two days after the 2016 presidential election. She wanted to take on gerrymandering. She recruited more than 14,000 volunteers to campaign for an amendment to the state’s constitution. It passed with 61% of the vote and created the commission (Guardian).
Now Michigan has a Democratic Governor, House, and Senate populated with such people as Mallory McMorrow. Repubs in my Township appointed me (Dem) to the Planning commission. I pretty much know how the sausage is made in small communities of 25,000.
As you stated, you have two Dem Senators in Congress. That is an achievement and a marker of things changing. You are on the brink of change. I believe what may be needed in Georgia is a Katie Fahey or Mallory McMorrow. Warnock a[[ears to have some grit in him.
I admit I leaped before I thought about this and looked at more of the history of Georgia. If anything Georgia could parallel what Michigan did. Good luck.
I have to compose a letter to the City Council asking them why the submission of a Plat would be acceptable if the streets were all mismarked with different names then the county Plat, the builder unknown, the developer unknown, and you can not find the piece of land? The City Manager already went off on me in a public meeting where I would have been declared "out-of-order if I answered. A part of Roberts Rule of Order . . . I guess that only applies to me.
BK:
I took the discussion points to be in the opposite direction. I would have offered up the Secretary of State and the Governor's efforts in purging the voter rolls. Thank you though.
I realize that gerrymandering and voter suppression are widespread and have real impact and consequences.
In this instance however, if the survey data presented are accurate (always a big if) then neither should prevent the Republican and Democratic voters from voting out the reps that refuse to expand Medicaid. Either the survey data are very far off, or access to healthcare is not in the top tier of people’s reasons to vote for or against particular candidates. I suspect it is the latter. I expect that a large percentage of the struggling hospitals and medical practices will close. Then people will be screaming. It is a case of you don’t know what you’ve got till it is gone. Although I also suspect that there are many that would be covered for out patient routine medical care with expansion that do not realize what they have been missing.
Life expectancy in these states will plummet.
Is this the whole truth?
Marj:
You could ask for proof in the form of citations. Or provide the whole proof.
Of course not. Heather Cox Richardson is not simply an American, she is an "anti-Republican American."
No, Heather Chase, HCR is not an anti-Republican American. She is an historian who tells the truth. Facts are what you seem to see as anti-Republican. HCR reports what they do. She also reports what Dems do, and that is not always stellar either.
So far, I have seen no truth about Democrats, but as you will note in the comment I just made, I hope she will prove me wrong.
As versus "an anti American Republican"?
Ah, there we go. Partisanship. I'm not a Republican, by the way, Bridget, but I do know that many Republicans are not anti-American.
Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
I agree, Patricia. So let's see: is my accusation of Heather Richardson an insult or a fact? I just wrote her to ask that she send me pieces in which she is not an anti-Republican American. More to the point, please note the following insults from readers of today's post--just today's! Because according to your Rousseau quotation, all these readers are "in the wrong": "the toxic republican vermin"
"Every time I hear the term “States rights” I see slavery and the confederate flag."
"The Repugnants are ignorance and hearsay."
"The greatest danger to this country is the imbecilc, retrograde republican party and climate change."
"I think the Repugnants are even MORE dangerous than climate change...."
"Further proof that the only 'good Republicans' are six feet under."
Hmmmmm? How does your comment stand up in this readership?
Um not sure you are aware of Prof Richardson voting history.
Our voting history is supposed to be a private matter unless we ourselves choose to reveal it.
And if you think only people who vote as you do can speak truthfully, you will never know truth, and you certainly won't want to live in a democracy, which needs debate and at least respect for other ideas in order to exist.
Nope, I'm not.
I am not necessarily interested in her voting history. I'm interested in her history history.
😉
Mis/dis information…They aren’t reading Heather, Joyce Vance, Robert Hubbell, etc. Those same-old-politicians lies, Fox News, talk radio, NewsMax, etc are where they get their information. This includes the upper middle class as well as the lower. I live in Texas and I would bet that very few Texans are aware that our Governor declines Medicare Expansion.
I meant Medicaid….
You could edit your original comment to reduce confusion, but the positive side is that they have an opportunity to correct someone. Either way, your comment is a public service. It's also true. I know because I live in TX.
Please be careful when describing these medical care programs. MediCARE is the national health insurance program for the elderly and disabled which is part of our FICA contribution with every paycheck. MediCAID is federal money which can be sent to the states to help provide medical care service to the part of the population that meets poverty guidelines. By refusing MediCAID, states are actually punishing the poor.
By refusing medicaid, R states are causing my insurance rates to be higher. Such decisions punish everyone.
Jane Myers. Thank you for that very important comment on the terms/language. I liked Deborah Minyard’s comment, realized her “misspeak” and was then relieved to see her correction. An example on how our language can throw us off “into the weeds”
Maybe the poor deserve punishment. They failed at choosing the right ancestors, didn’t they. They could have been born into a wealthy family if they had had more sense.
Is it not the job of the few Texans that do know the gov declines Medicare to share info?
To deaf ears. My brother is active in Dem politics in TX and spits so hard in frustration that his teeth hurt.
MEDICAID
MEDICAID
Now that's the question!! How to promote the truth so voters can make decisions that will benefit them!
Voter suppression .
Like I say unsmart voters.
I would say deliberately uneducated so they can be easily manipulated. Remember, Mississippi also ranks at the bottom in education.
Think gerrymandering and voter suppression!
IMO, stress could well be a health factor to those who have been paying attention to what has transpired over the past few decades. Anger and negativity has to be taking a toll on the health of many who claim to be republicans. When that is manifested through withholding health care social safety nets, and basic decency the lifespans of even more groups are reduced. Just a thought.
Janet, Dick Cheney leaps to mind with his six heart transplants….but supporting policies his entire career to keep medical care to a minimum for most Americans. Stress should kill all those evil Repugnants dismantling our society. I will not shed a tear.
Cheney had one heart transplant in 2012 after a series of heart attacks prior to the transplant. He did not have six heart transplants.
DLM Back in 2012 the surgeon was surprised to find that Dick Cheney had a heart. I wonder whether his personality changed with a ‘new heart.’ I’m humming the song ‘You gotta have heart.’
Transplants or heart operations?
Who were the poor saps who "donated" their hearts?
A good friend of mine is still alive long after his original heart was removed and replaced. You might want to show more compassion for the folks who survive to live longer lives from transplants, despite the occasional stinker like Cheney. Greater still, those that gave their organs did so selflessly, through organ donor cards or notations on their drivers’ licenses, giving the recipients another lease on life. You demean the amazing medical breakthroughs, and the talented surgeons, who extend life for those who survive.
Apropos of my comment is the announcement that Bonnie Raitt has the Grammy Song of the Year nomination for “Just Like That”, a moving and simple tune dealing with just this very subject. Read about the process she came by to craft this wonderful song here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/31/arts/music/bonnie-raitt-grammys-just-like-that.html
Peace & Love in these troubled times. Be safe; stay well.
Motorcycle riders. Actually accidents of all kinds but motorcycle are high on the list.
Yes. My GP refers to motorcycle riders (like myself) as 'organ donors'.
There is only one 'sap'.
Janet the Republicans I know are staying insulated from the facts and relying more or less on really old party lines. They seem confused as to who todays republicans even are. Health care is fine as most of them are on Medicare and their retirements are wrapped around social security. As to what is actually driving the economy they are pretty sure the tax cuts are holding the country together. Most agree that they would be unable to pay any more taxes on their limited incomes and they are very confused that democrats want more taxes. Perfect storm.
Propaganda works
in the Big Think newsletter there is a great article entitled "The Theory of Stupidity." Very thought provoking.
The proximal and gentle questions for those Republicans fearing loss of income from taxes are: How would their taxes actually increase? Would it be the income taxes - are their social security and other retirement account income considered taxable income? (Am I incorrect that working income is taxed but not passive income, i.e. retirement income?) Or would they pay more taxes through a sales tax of 30%? For instance, if we buy $200 in groceries a week for a year (52 x $200 = $10,400/year), then at 30% taxes (10,400 x .3 is $3,210) we would have to pay $13,520 ($10,400 + $3,120) to get $10,400 in groceries. Not only that, but we would feel it each time we buy anything, for instance $200 in groceries get either $140 in groceries, or pay $260 for groceries. I know arguments are not helpful, but it still feels like calm, thoughtful conversations stand a chance to create change.
I hear you Edward but I would lose them at “ passive income.”
Yes, I see your point; as you may know, the idea of passive income is a term from economics, I guess. We could say retirement income, social security money (is that really income?), or income from investments. I do agree with you, we need to speak the language of our audience.
Retirement needs a champion. Social security is well below poverty levels. Most will never see an investment portfolio and many who do will lose in the marketplace. The business community is an uneven jumble of minimalist retirement provision. Here today and gone tomorrow retirement programs seem to work only for those who are employed by one entity for their entire professional career. While certain provisions can be carried forth from employer to employer often there will come an unforeseen blocking provision which jeopardizes even well thought out retirement programs. The rank and file labor market must have a retirement which is unimpeachable rather than ending in a peach tree dish as someone’s experimental failure. We cannot operate under the provision that people who lose retirement deserve what they get. Or people who plan for no retirement deserve what they get. I am going to work myself to death is not an acceptable retirement vehicle. In this respect someone has to be his brothers keeper. Such a dialogue as you propose should be in the shopping cart along side of racism mitigation, gun violence, health care, women's rights, peace on earth ( let’s not pretend we are the nexus ), disarmament, human rights, wilderness preservation, mental health care, homelessness, sustainable energy, environmental protection, educational opportunities, equality, global warming and perhaps we could turn homeland security into an offensive force which destroys the monsters both foreign and domestic who stalk us all relentlessly. Ok, That was a bridge too far. Can we ask for these obtainable objectives? Can we implement them? Who will represent us? Why isn’t this the focus of this particular congress. Personally I am tired of counting MTG’s three toes.
Not to mention the stress Republicans have caused for the rest of us.
That is what I meant …. The repugs are creating stress for the rest of us while their stupidity and evil insulates them!
FOR AN OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE OF HOW WHITE SUPREMACY IS ENDAGERING AND ROBBING THE CITIZENS OF JACKSON WHO ARE PREDOMINANTLY BLACK __ read this!
'JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi House voted Thursday to further restrict how the capital city of Jackson, which has struggled with water problems, can spend money from a 1% local sales tax — the latest effort in the Republican-led Legislature to control actions of the Democratic-led city.'
'Jackson voters approved the tax in 2014, with the money designated for roads, bridges, water and sewer. Under House Bill 1168 that passed the House Thursday, all of the money would go toward the city's struggling water system.'
'Jackson lawmakers and other Democrats opposed the plan. They said directing all the 1% sales tax revenue to water would hinder Jackson’s ability to fix heavily damaged roads and bridges, including those pockmarked by potholes deep enough to flatten tires.'
“Our streets will go to the devil,” said Democratic Rep. Earle Banks of Jackson.'
'Jackson has had water problems for years and most of the city lost running water for several days in late August and early September after heavy rainfall exacerbated problems in the main water treatment plant. Parts of Jackson lost water again after a cold snap in December.'
'House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Trey Lamar, a Republican from Senatobia, sponsored the bill. He said ensuring clean, fresh drinking water is a higher priority now than fixing potholes.'
“There is a serious need to spend money on water and sewer in the city of Jackson,” Lamar said.
'Opponents of the bill pointed out that Jackson is set to receive $600 million from the federal government for water system improvements. Lamar said he does not know when the federal money will arrive. He also acknowledged he has not spoken with Ted Henifin, who was appointed by the federal government to oversee improvements to the Jackson water system.'
'Democratic Rep. Robert Johnson of Natchez pointed out that money generated by the 1% sales tax in Jackson is already overseen by a commission with members chosen by the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker. Critics of that commission say it was created by the majority-white Legislature to curb the power of elected officials in a city that is more than 80% Black.'
'Speaking of Lamar's new proposal, Johnson said: “This is another one of those paternalistic ideas that, 'We’re going to tell y'all what to do because we want to punish you while we're doing it.'”
'House Bill 1168 passed 76-41. The vote was largely along party lines, with support from Republicans and most of the opposition from Democrats.'
'The bill was held for the possibility of more House debate and it eventually would have to go to the Senate for more work.'
'The Republican-controlled state Senate recently passed a bill that would transfer the ownership and management of the Jackson water system to a regional board after the federally-appointed administrator leaves.'
'A bill that awaits House debate would create a new court system in parts of Jackson with appointed rather than elected judges. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said the court proposal reminds him of apartheid. He has also sharply criticized the regional water board proposal.'
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Tags: Mississippi, Associated Press, politics
Thank you, Fern. We should all be speechless. Maybe too many are. Mississippi has been one of or THE poorest state in our nation for years. Forever? It’s obvious its own government keeps the people poor.
Thanks Fern.
HCR makes it clear today that American democracy does not always provide its citizens with what is in their best interests and what repeated polling indicates they want. The Mississippi story about that State’s refusing federal Medicaid dollars extends much further into the nation’s social and economic fabric. For example, HCR points out that ‘the theory behind it also says that the government should also stay out of the business of protecting civil rights, because state governments are the centerpiece of American democracy.’
That is the crux of the problem. State governments are NOT the centerpiece of American democracy. The national government in Washington IS its centerpiece.
The ambiguous Tenth Amendment (‘The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people’) was only one of the many compromises which were made to gain the support of the slaveholding states in 1789 for the new Constitution and is the basis for this misguided theory about what is the ‘centerpiece’ of American democracy, presently adopted by Republicans nationwide.
That is why we had thirteen stars on the American flag in 1789 and fifty today, perpetuating the words of the Tenth Amendment. We should only have one big star on the flag. Just as Republicans ignore the first thirteen words of the Second Amendment (as does the Supreme Court), they choose to ignore the final four words of the Tenth Amendment, ‘or to the people.’
Compromises made for slaveowners in 1789 are not pertinent today and must be remedied because so long as this misused belief in State governments persists, our democracy will rest on wet and shifting sands rather than upon solid rock.
There is no actual ambiguity in either the 2nd or the 10th Amendments, the ambiguity has been introduced, as you note, by the Courts, particularly the Supreme Court and could be cured just as easily either by that Court or by the do-nothing Congress if they chose to perform the tasks for which they were elected. Maybe if we had pictorial coloring books of the Constitution with embedded videos it would help them figure it out.
Unless those who are intent on banning books got to them first.
Fern, this scenario is mind blowing in its stupidity and mystery. But sometimes the simplest answer is the best one?
"Poll: 80% of Mississippians favor Medicaid expansion" - The refusal to accept Federal money is a refusal to save hospitals and therefore save lives. When the river floods and kills, they are quick to accept Federal money and help. Why not for illness?
Perhaps we should look again at the Jackson water problem. I think the brains of the people in this state have been addled by something in the water. Lead? PFAs? Little brain eating worms? Something we haven't identified yet?
How else to explain the utter stupidity of voting for idiots who deny them adequate healthcare? That denies them life itself.
Bill, I'm not sure I understand your reply. It is the state legislators and governor in Mississippi who have rejected all bills to expand Medicaid.
THE FOLLOWING EIGHT STATES IN THE USA HAVE NOT ADOPTED EXPANSION OF MEDICAID:
Florida
Georgia
Kansas
Mississippi
North Carolina
South Carolina
Wisconsin
Wyoming.
My point is that the voters of Mississippi continually vote against their better interests. They vote for these fools who deny them proper health care. If 80% of them want Medicaid, why don't they vote for it? Why do they put up with such self destructive nonsense?
Maybe their brains have been rendered useless by a pollutant. But I am open to any other explanation.
Happy to have spurred your emphatic opinion of bamboozled voters, some of whom might not like it any other way.
Fern, do you know if Mississippi provides its legislators with healthcare insurance?
https://thefga.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Mississippi-Not-Take-Bait-Medicaid-Expansion.pdf
If any of you are videographers, or documentarians (or know someone who is one), Fern’s last paragraph would make a stunning visual for people to emotionally connect with on a personal level. Losing 4 years of your life, at the tail end of your life. What will you miss out on? Grandchildren being born, grandchildren growing up, being there for your family, for your friends, for your fur babies, passing along your wisdom when it is sought, seeing 1460 more sunrises and sunsets, being in nature for 1460 more days, just being - celebrating, caring, consoling, contributing and making the world a little bit better because you lived 4 more years.
Thank you Fern.
Congratulations on making this extrapolation.
It so happens that, only two days ago I attended a lecture in France on Progress and Regressions in Science. One of the major disappointments mentioned was the entire area of public health throughout the world, entailing—among other things—no improvement in the treatment or control of TB and malaria endemic in 3rd-World countries, variable failures to prevent or tackle Covid and future zoonoses, a massive worldwide increase in obesity, starting in childhood, which spread from the US outwards and has incalculable effects on overall health and healthcare costs, falling life expectancy in several countries, including America... Russia, of course, is a dreadful case, even without the totally absurd war waged by a deranged dictator... Nevertheless, Americans, no matter the state they live in, die younger than people in many other industrialized countries...
Drugs, whether sold over the counter or by criminal cartels, were not mentioned in this context, neither were lead bullets in civilian bodies, both adults and children.
As for social security, in Britain, the Liberal politician David Lloyd George introduced a national retirement pension in 1906 and followed it up in 1911 with the National Insurance Act providing "British workers with insurance against illness and unemployment. All wage-earners had to join his health scheme in which each worker made a weekly contribution, with both the employer and state adding an amount. In return for these payments, free medical attention and medicines were made available, as well as a guaranteed 7-shillings per week unemployment benefit" [https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Lloyd-George/] America, of course, had to wait until 1935 and FDR's New Deal (which the Republican Party has been increasingly committed to uprooting on the grounds that it is “socialism”... Of course. A great success in Socialist countries like Switzerland and Japan...
This idea of the Infallible Market God as the great magical economic, social and political panacea is, of course, utter BS, bargain-basement mythology, a bouquet of abstractions designed for the exclusive benefit of non-human entities (regardless of how they have been raised to “personhood” by a corrupted US Supreme Court). Competition and “choice” were supposed to make for greater efficiency in all areas of life and to limit the evils of bureaucracy. In reality, aided and abetted by IT “improvements”, privatized bureaucracy is making the citizen's life (or should I say “the subject's life”) into one long training in masochism. Worse, it has infected public bureaucracy, which no longer aims to serve both citizens and economic actors while keeping a beady eye focused on the spending of taxpayers' money, but is obsessed with exclusive service to those in need of no help. Government bureaucrats once employed understandable language but now spout jargon worthy of Komintern at its worst, the only difference being the equally invalid content. Looking Glass Land nonsense.
In economic terms, the bias has been towards extreme inequality accompanied by cartel monopolies. And everywhere, bureaucracy. But bureaucracy whose sole aim is to maximize institutional and other major investors' quarterly returns—and to hell with all else.
How this heavy, self-serving, IT-aided-and-compounded bureaucracy is supposed to square with, for instance, the provision of all the most basic services, social, health, transport, communications, infrastructural, etc. to the public, I think we have all seen too well by now.
We have seen the Present and no, it doesn't work. As for future prospects provided by the current dispensation, the only promise is… KAPUTT.
The estimable Marx and Engels may have failed to sway this bourgeois from his boring, middle-of-the-road fence-sitting politics... but the world has developed such a wild rightward tilt that views that were deadly dull and conventional in the 1960s are now distinctly Leftie. So, if I end a long life clinging to the left edge of the playing field, also inhabited by too many narcissistic nutcases, it's neither Lenin, Mao nor Gramsci I have to thank for this seeming conversion which is no conversion at all, but Sainted Ronald Reagan, Holy Maggie, and such luminaries as the All-That-Glitters-Coney-Island-Critter that last occupied the White House...
Peter, 'All-That-Glitters-Coney-Island-Critter' is 18 carat, so superior to the original.
Come, any epithet's a cinch when faced with that kind of Goldilocks...
Thank you, Angela and Fern, HCR and all of us here who not only care, but actively work for a more socially and economically equitable future and healthy environment. The picture is crystal clear. I add politically, but truly caring and making a difference is more than political rhetoric. It’s action that at this time is a Democratic party practice. And repubs talk and dismantling of anything that helps people is their action. Citizens who vote repub continue to support a kind of nonviolent resurrection, causing poverty and inequality to continue in this wealthy country where the poor and middle class pay taxes and the wealthy benefit. It should be shocking. To all Voters. Should be.
You're the one with precious scenes from the years and moments in our lives. Thank you, Angela.
Fern, thank you for these details. I read the bit about Mississippi with despair. I don't see any of that changing soon, unfortunately. The water problem in Jackson, mentioned below, is also deplorable. I know some of this has to be about race, but it must affect poor white people in Mississippi too. Heath care in this country is a joke, but if we try to fix it, it's that dreaded word, socialism. Once again the Rs prove themselves to be the party of death.
I seem to recall that, a few years ago, people from Iranian health services were providing help and organizational advice to the poorer public hospitals in Mississippi.
I never heard what happened after that, but can't help wondering if ways were not found of putting a stop to such assistance, coming from a country whose regime commonly leads to its being labeled an enemy of the US. Besides being an embarrassment, this interest on the part of benevolent foreigners must have had the undesirable effect of giving poor Mississippians the impression that they merit attention as sentient human beings.
Interesting. I hadn't heard about this.
Get healthcare out of the greedy hands of corporations!
The other thing that strikes me and I hate to say this maybe corp/gov want certain populations to die off!
If the populations aren't White, collette, you may have made a strong point not to be dismissed.
I live in Austin, TX metro area and about once a month there is a post on the social app, Nextdoor Neighbor, that goes something like this: “My wife(husband, father, son, etc) was just diagnosed with _____ (fill in the blank) and looking for help finding insurance to help us pay for surgery/treatment. Any suggestions?” Not only is this heartbreaking, but it should never occur in the richest country in the world, but it does, daily, in the good ‘ol USofA!
Heart breaking? Yes. I would also call it inhumane and essentially criminal. Dozens of other countries with nowhere near the resources of the good Ole US of A... simply don't have that problem. And we spend more than double per capita on something that is broken beyond repair. It's stupid and very cruel.
Thank you, Eileen, for posting this painful, too, common failing of America's exceptionalism. It is OUR STORY. The lives of many Americans, how many? are too dark and too in the dark, and that's what 'it' is all about!
Sounds just like the good ol' 1950s in too many parts of the world...
To put it succinctly, the state government opposes the will of 80% of Mississippians on an issue with life or death implications.
That sounds like a firm foundation for a political campaign to me.
If it was 55%, or the issue wasn't a central one like health care, I could understand how Republicans could continue to distract the voting public and remain in power.
But 80%? Hospitals closing and people dying as a result of deliberate government policy decisions?
There should be no issue more important for the vast majority of that 80% of Mississippi voters than the increased likelihood of their preventable death or the preventable death of their loved ones because of intentional decisions made by the party in power against the will of the people.
How do these barbarians keep winning elections? Democrats in Mississippi should be hammering home this point to the exclusion of all others in every election cycle until the voters get the point, realize their stake in the fight, and turn out to vote these scoundrels out of office.
Oh, and the other states, mostly with Republican leadership, who turn down federal money for Medicaid expansion?
Sounds like that campaign should be national.
You ask 'how do these barbarians keep winning elections?' They do it by campaigning on cultural issues such as the dangers of CRT, of books they object to, of abortions, of someone taking away their guns, of LGBTQ citizens having rights, of vaccinations, of weakening the police, of mixed marriages, of racial, ethnic, or religious groups other than their own taking their place ....
They ignore real issues such as providing health care, climate change, protecting the environment, voting rights, equal opportunity for all, tax policies that give a fair shake to all, and government regulation of things that must be regulated such as the financial marketplace, food, drug and product safety and working conditions.
That's how they keep winning elections. The barbarians cannot be fought on the cultural battlefields of their choice, listed above, which is what they desire. We keep making that mistake.
A pro-choice demonstration never changes the mind of a pro-lifer, or a legislator. They must be defeated by stressing real issues with postitions which are in the interest of most citizens. In Mississippi, they must campaign on the absolute need to particiapate in federal Medicare benefits, and not waste their breath, time and resources on those who oppose taking advantage of them.
Yes, you're absolutely right. Republicans sank the Clinton healthcare plan by changing the debate from the Democrat's wonky policy arguments to the dishonest kitchen table discussions of Harry and Louise (and the misogynistic demonization of Hlilary, but that's another story).
Personalize the issues and you'll win the voters. Unlike the abortion rights movement you mention, the provision of health care is a personal experience that directly affects everyone, all the time, and there's plenty of opportunity to bring the fight to every living room, or kitchen table.
Republicans in eleven states have given Democrats the perfect wedge issue. Ignore the culture wars, and this big thing remains: if you side with Republicans, you'd better hope you don't get sick. Or your kids, or your aging parents. And eleven states is a big enough sample on which to hang a national campaign.
This is a better wedge than Social Security, in which Republicans have already destroyed the confidence of anyone under the age of 50. This is the direct lived experience of every American, literally a matter of life and death for everyone.
From a selfish, personalized point of view, there should be no more important issue to anyone with the power to vote. From an altruistic, help-everyone point of view, or a public health point or view, the same is true.
And Democrats are unambiguously on the right side, and Republicans have given them eleven fat, juicy targets to attack, not counting Congressional races and municipal contests. If we blow this one, we deserve perpetual government by MAGAt, and we will probably get it.
Game on.
The problem is that Democrats are also politicians, and being such, all of their motivation is not altruistic. An effort should be made to keep this above party identity, and as you point out, health care is an ideal personalized wedge issue (as opposed to the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid individually that can become politicized).
YES! To all you have written, along with the URGENCY of communicating the LIFE and DEATH decisions that are being made for Mississippians by the Governor and state legislators. The case against Mississippi's Republican elected representatives is clear and the foundation for the national campaign exposing the Republican Party's goal to obtain autocratic control over the American people as they have done in Mississippi.
It seems to me the elephant in the room is Tom Perez. Where was he when all this was going on? What happened in Mississippi has been a long standing problem. Democratic leadership has been asleep at the switch.
Eadie, I don't think I understand your comment I agree that Tom Perez didn't do the job. Democrats didn't follow Howard Dean's call to be local everywhere in the country - to grow the party where it wasn't a presence. Mississippi is the poorest state and blood red. In general, I would say that the Democratic Party was the problem but I don't want to call the donkeys 'elephants in the room'.
This was a perfect opportunity for the DNC to expose the hypocrisy and utter disregard of rethuglican leadership for the poorest among us. If you hadn't brought the whole issue in Mississippi to my attention again, I would have continued to ignore one more important reason the democrats are losing the message war.
You would think that the GQP was committing political suicide with this. But there are a couple of other factors. These voters are not the brightest bulbs on the planet. And more importantly, they vote based on emotional cultural warfare issues. Like fetus fables and the national security threat of drag queens.
As you say, they're being brainwashed to vote based on abstract fictions. That's why forcing them to pay attention to reality they can't ignore, like their own and their family's health and the lack of concern their government has for them, should be a winning strategy.
When your child gets the flu or meningitis and can't get hospital treatment, the cultural impact of drag queen story hour gets put in perspective real quick.
You're right about what should be campaign talking points but aren't and, if the Democrats don't update their approach, the status will remain quo or deteriorate.
For the record, 39 states and D.C. did expand Medicaid and 11, including Mississippi did not.
What I can't figure out is that they are literally killing off their base. Don't they get that?
Besides the fact that hospitals provide a lot of jobs!
The Governor of Mississippi seems well-versed in the venerable traditions of his state and guided by the spirit that sits firmly ensconced where the heart of his party ought to be. He would surely have inspired Jonathan Swift to write a most memorable panegyric. At a stroke (of inaction), he has found the perfect way to correct those confounded poverty statistics while ensuring that Mississippians will forever vote as they are required to: a new, improved and sanitized approach to lynching, the mass elimination of the undeserving black poor, all without recourse to any of the customary paraphernalia.
’Tis a pity this Elegant Solution seems better to accord with Social Darwinism than with our True Religion, which tells us Darwin lied, wherefore we are enjoin’d in Commination to burn all accursed copies of The Origin of the Species (along with most of the books in our Public Libraries).
well said
Just don't ask your average Mississippian to comprehend it.
yes, indeed