I’m going to try to stay calm and PG-13 here, because some commenters have called me out lately for all the blue language. But holy fucking shit, I’m really trying tonight, because Arizona.
So this evening the GOP lizard brains at the Arizona legislature refused to renew a program called KidsCare. It’s a small agency that provides vital services to at least 30,000 children. It costs the state nothing to operate the federally-funded program, which provides low-income families affordable medical, dental and vision insurance for children under 19. For $50 a month a child is insured. Every other friggin’ state in the country has one, because it costs those states nothing and it does good things.
I can see why it wouldn’t fly in Arizona.
These monsters just passed another $8 million tax cut for businesses, when the previous $4 billion in corporate BJs hasn’t resulted in the “creative” growth they promised, unless you count call centers and Walmarts. Hey, GOP brain trust: Google didn’t pass on Arizona because the taxes are too high; they said adios because there’s no political commitment to education.
Or the welfare of children, apparently.
The cost of [KidsCare] is covered by federal dollars at least through 2017 and possibly through 2019.
Gov. Doug Ducey had been non-committal on restoring KidsCare. But he has not been a fan of accepting federal dollars for health insurance.
In his 2014 run for governor, Ducey questioned the financial viability of the Medicaid program. As governor, he introduced a Medicaid reform plan that would kick 350,000 people off the rolls.
Can you even begin to wrap your head around that pile of diarrhetic thinking? He’s not been “a fan” of federal dollars?! Bleepity bleeping bleep!! So let’s reject $75 million in economic benefits, let kids suffer, and chuck coverage for 350,000 people, because Ducey’s not a fan of taking dollars that we, as U.S. taxpayers, paid. Because the governor’s got some pesky Milton Friedman economic dipstick stuck up his butt (yeah, it worked great at Cold Stone Creamery, didn’t it?) many struggling families can’t afford health insurance for their children. All those GOP farts had to do was flip the “Yes” switch. No appropriations debate. Nothing more. Kids covered.
They did say “Yes” to Gov. Ducey’s $21 million Border Strike Force, and they appropriated $5 million for three right-wing university think tanks seeded with Koch Brothers cash—money the schools did not request. But authorizing no state money for children was too much to ask. (The senate vote was 25-24 with 11 GOP cowards not voting because their sick political philosophy wouldn’t allow them to say “Yes” to the feds, i.e., Obama.)
“That rug really tied the room together.” — Walter Sobchak beginneth the rant
Please don’t say Arizonans “deserve” these peckerheads because we elected them. You’ll see similar comments directed toward the fine people in Florida who suffer through Rick Scott; same in Michigan (Rick Snyder), Wisconsin (Scott Walker) and Maine (Paul LePage), whose governors are every bit as crazy as ours. No one deserves these numskulls, least of all children. I’m reminded of NAACP leader Daisy Bates’s comment about her governor during the 1955 Little Rock integration battle: “You may deserve Orval Faubus, but by God I don’t!”
No, “we” did not elect them. Arpaio loses 25-75 here in downtown Phoenix, but he kicks butt in Sun City, full of white Republicans and their golf carts. There are real progressives out there, but even they know they are outnumbered by the goobers who organize bus trips to the polling station so everyone can vote “No” on the school bond. That’s where Sheriff Arpaio goes when he wants to launch a new hate initiative.
They move here from Iowa, Michigan or wherever and the first thing they want to do is tell locals how to run the state. Their first order of business is usually to kick out more Hispanics, who’ve called this land home much longer than the caucasian jolt-headed shuffleboarders from [insert a state].
There was a time Arizona was a Democratic stronghold. Most governors and congresspersons until the 1950s were Democrats; the longest serving member of Congress, Carl Hayden, was an Arizona Democrat; when Arizona joined the union in 1912, its constitution was heralded as one of the more progressive charters in the nation (President Taft even vetoed the first version because it was too progressive). Within a few months of joining the union women had the vote here, years before the 19th Amendment.
And then on January 1, 1960, Del Webb opened Sun City. He expected a few hundred people to show up to check out his 237 homes, but that weekend more than 100,000 people arrived and all the homes sold. By year’s end he built and sold another 2,000 houses. Fan, meet shit.
Chapter 2: “In Which Developers, Fundies and Bigots Buy a Legislature,” which must rule on an amendment to authorize free healthcare for children:
Republicans said allowing the amendment would have "blown up" the state budget, even though the program costs the state nothing.
Right. A program that costs $0 and helps poor families will blow up the budget, but a $21 million border boondoggle that isn’t needed or wanted is hunky dory. Oh, did I mention the state is running a $600 million surplus? We wouldn’t want to cut into the rainy day fund by authorizing a program that helps kids and costs nothing.