I apologize for not posting yesterday. I had a dental appointment and didn’t get home until late in the day.
For millions of Christians, today is a day of remembrance. Some ignorantly claim it’s a celebration. It is not. It’s an acknowledgment of debt to one who paid all for all of us. The celebration is on Easter. The unchurched and ignorant dcann’t discern the difference between the two days.
This blog, however, is political rather than religious. In many cases, the two views are in alignment. In one such arena is the choice of mass welfare. On one hand many claim that we should support those in need. I doubt anyone would argue against that. However, many of those in ‘need’ are not. They are in a situation of their own making and refuse to extricate themselves from that situation. They depend on the largess of others while doing nothing to better themselves, to remove themselves from a life of parasitism. Generations subsist in such environments and blame others for their own failings.
Those of us of a conservative bent prefer to help those who are willing to accept that help to better their livelihood, to better their skills in search of employment, to work, study, learn, to educate themselves so they need not be dependent on the charity of others. We had a small victory in the Missouri Senate this week. An attempt to extend dependency in Missouri, to bolster the cult of parasitism failed in Jeff City.
Missouri Senate defeats proposal to expand Medicaid
Mar 31, 11:33 PM CDT
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri senators have defeated a proposal to expand eligibility for Medicaid.
The Senate on Tuesday voted 25-9 against the measure.
Democratic Sen. Paul LeVota proposed adding the amendment to a bill that would ensure the state continues to receive certain funding for Medicaid.
The vote follows rallies in the Capitol and across the state calling on lawmakers to debate expanding the joint federal and state health care program for low-income residents.
States can receive additional funding for raising eligibility under Democratic President Barack Obama’s health care law.
But Missouri’s Republican legislative leaders have called the measure a nonstarter.
This amendment should be a nonstarter. The democrats ignore one extremely important proviso of Obama’s assistance—it’s temporary. And when the subsidies expire, Missouri will be left holding the bag for ALL the costs of the medicaid expansion. Why? Because Medicaid is a primary component of Obamacare. The feds, by themselves, cannot pay for the enormous costs of Obamacare. They need to steal from us to do so…one way or another. Expanding medicaid is one such scheme.
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed legislation yesterday permitting concealed carry by Kansas residents without a permit. Existing Kansas concealed carry permits will still issued as before to allow Kansans to carry out-of-state where the Kansas CCW permit is recognized.
A similar bill has been filed in Jefferson City. It too would allow concealed carry without a permit while retaining the existing CCW permit structure. The bill was filed late in this year’s session but it is being sponsored by well-known supporters. The bill, along with allowing CCW on public transportation was heard in committee this week.
In local news, the liberals in Kansas City, lead by Mayor Sly James, are proposing to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 and hour. Seattle did so last year and the results are in—restaurants are failing and closing all over the city. Sly James would like to do the same to Kansas City—kill jobs and close businesses.
Many of Kansas City’s business owners are unaware of this proposal. During my visit to the dentist yesterday, he said he had just given his assistant a raise to $9 and hour. I told him that soon he’d have to raise her to $15 an hour if Sly James had his way. He was unaware that could happen. He’s a small businessman employing just three people. Wages and salaries are a significant portion of his business expense. A sudden increase in his cost of doing business could put him in dire constraints!
He asked if they knew of the consequences of such an increase. “How could anyone be so stupid?” he asked.
And stupid it is. The increase wouldn’t hit just the food industry. It would affect many small businesses like my dentist as well as large organizations…like the Kansas City School District.
Many (most?) of the school districts para-professionals are only paid $8-9 and hour. They would be affected too and the increase would bust the already horribly large school district budget. According to the Kansas City district’s payroll data, the increase of the minimum wage would affect 1,447 employees of the district who are currently paid less than $15 and hour. How many of these employees would have to be laid off?
This situation is what we’ve come to expect from the incompetency of the left. Money appears whenever they want it from an overflowing pot of money that is magically extracted from…somewhere. Taxpayers however, know who is the source of this rapacious demand for more and more money—democrats.