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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPierce: Pay Attention to the Kansas Disaster: It's What Republicans Want for the Whole Country
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a13528330/kansas-sam-brownback-disaster-republicans/Pay Attention to the Kansas Disaster: It's What Republicans Want for the Whole Country
Sam Brownback and co. have tried to cover up just how bad it is.
By Charles P. Pierce
Nov 13, 2017
By now, the whole country knows what a godawful mess Governor Sam Brownback has made out of the state of Kansas in his doomed experiment to prove that modern conservative economics make sense. (Pro tip: They dont.) Brownback, of course, would rather that not have gotten out to the world at large, and he and his government have done their level best to make sure it didnt, as The Kansas City Star tells us.
One might conclude from this that Brownback would rather have people die on his states highways than admit, in the words of Marshall McLuhan in Annie Hall, that his entire fallacy is wrong. One might do that, indeed.
The Stars investigation was six-months long, and it touches upon every aspect of the state government. You can decide for yourselves what findings are the most grotesque.
▪ In the past decade, more than 90 percent of the laws passed by the Kansas Legislature have come from anonymous authors. Kansans often had no way of knowing who was pushing which legislation and why, and the topics have included abortion, concealed weapons and school funding. Kansas is one of only a few states that allow the practice.
▪ When Kansas police shoot and kill someone, law enforcement agencies often escape scrutiny because they are allowed to provide scant details to the public. The release of body-cam video has become common practice around the country after several high-profile, police-involved shootings. But in Kansas, a new state law is one of the most restrictive in the nation, allowing agencies to shelve footage that could shed more light on controversial cases.
▪ Kansas became the first state to fully privatize Medicaid services in 2013, and now some caregivers for people with disabilities say they have been asked to sign off on blank treatment plans without knowing whats being provided. In some of those cases, caregivers later discovered their services had been dramatically cut.
Me? Ill go for forcing a non-disclosure agreement on a grieving parent and/or caregivers being asked to sign blank treatment plans.
The series in the Star is worth reading in full, because what happened in Kansas is precisely what the Republican Party has in mind for the country. This will necessarily including burying the evidence the way Brownback and his government have in Kansas. What happened there was a pure experiment in the supply-side, laissez-faire economics that are the primary foundation of respectable conservative crazy. They dont work. They never will work. Their impact on the lives of ordinary people is inevitably and profoundly destructive.
Sam Brownback is a devout Catholic, you know. The president has nominated him to be some sort of half-assed ambassador for religious liberty. The Democrats in the Congress have slow-walked this nomination, and various wingnut word mills are getting antsy about it.
Even Brownback's fans should think twice about taking a midnight drive down that stretch of I-70.
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)Yavin4
(35,445 posts)RKP5637
(67,112 posts)Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)Knowing that, they are now in a sadistic mode of wanting to do it to all of America -- as if they were following a kremlin script on how to weaken and screw over the USA>
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)LakeArenal
(28,837 posts)Koch Brother's petri dish of hell.
Ligyron
(7,639 posts)oasis
(49,401 posts)They elect "leaders" like Sam Brownback.
Mr. Evil
(2,853 posts)where they railroaded a very good Democrat governor, Don Siegelman into prison.
Rebl2
(13,544 posts)The Kansas City Star and todays article about DCF was horrifying to say the least. Asking a father to sign a waiver saying he wouldnt speak to the media about the death of his son (the childs mother killed him) and threatening to take his other child away if he didnt sign it. The regular shredding of notes taken by DCF workers. Its so disgusting what has gone on in Kansas.
wiggs
(7,817 posts)to impoverish the government, rely on trickle down, cut programs, and increase inequality? A healthy country should be able to engage in healthy public discourse, process issues, and come to agreement on SOMETHING obvious.
blueinredohio
(6,797 posts)RKP5637
(67,112 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)While the media are barely starting to cover the occult subversion of dark-money extremists, the religious right extremists are still mostly successfully hiding their activities from scrutiny. The very silence on the subject is alarming.