Nintendo Kid posted:

Well one problem is that Kansas is likely to refuse a federal bailout with its current government? You do remember that an assload of states refused free federal money for healthcare because of Obama, right?

Grand Theft Autobot posted:

Wait, so taxes were cut but tax revenues declined? How can this be?

ThirdPartyView posted:

Expenditures weren't cut enough to generate a budget surplus.

Grand Theft Autobot posted:

But tax cuts are supposed to increase tax revenues.

Jerry Manderbilt posted:

I've seen this in business students' notes at my school

Buffer posted:

What are your options at this point? You can't exactly declare democracy in Kansas a failure, revoke their Federal Representation and go Reconstruction 2 on them. Hell, it's Kansas, so you don't even have the Civil War precedent you'd have in the Southeast.

Like what are we supposed to do other than try to find some humor in it all? There's no upside here, no cautionary tale, nothing.

Buffer posted:

What are your options at this point? You can't exactly declare democracy in Kansas a failure, revoke their Federal Representation and go Reconstruction 2 on them. Hell, it's Kansas, so you don't even have the Civil War precedent you'd have in the Southeast.

Like what are we supposed to do other than try to find some humor in it all? There's no upside here, no cautionary tale, nothing.

MeatwadIsGod posted:

http://m.thenation.com/article/208977-life-and-death-red-america

quote:

Charmaine, who didn't want her last name used, entered the recession feeling good about herself. At 51, she was living in Kansas City and working as a district manager for the discount furniture chain Big Lots, having clambered her way up through the company's ranks over 15 years. "I started on the floor," she says. "I didn't go to college or anything like that, so my hard work got me to where I was. And then…" She swats at the air in frustration.

The recession presented both peril and opportunity for discount retailers like Big Lots, as consumer spending dropped but bargain hunting surged. In 2008, the firm took steps to capitalize on the moment. Company leaders, based in Ohio, streamlined operations by consolidating middle management. Charmaine's job was gone. "You go from 60-some thousand dollars a year—with great health insurance, company car, everything—to nothing," she says. She found herself in a job market where all the rules had changed. "Here I am in my 50s. Guess what? They want somebody with education, younger."

So she downsized, moving from Kansas City to Coffeyville to live with her grown daughter. She got a job as a home health aide for $9.70 an hour, with no health plan. Then she got sick.

It started as a mild case of ulcerative colitis, a disease marked by inflammation and sores in the large intestine and colon. At first, she didn't feel that bad, and she had more pressing claims on her limited funds than the anti-inflammatory drugs she'd been prescribed. "You know how much the prescription was? $1,000 a month," she says. "So I didn't do the medicine, which was my fault, I now realize. But I couldn't pay for it."

That was 2011 and, as will happen, over the ensuing years, her condition grew from uncomfortable to debilitating. By July 2014, it had become a crisis. "One day I got up in the morning and just—" She flinches at the memory. "Blood, solid blood just coming out of me like a waterfall."

She ended up, at Griffin's advice, in a Bartlesville, Oklahoma, emergency room, one of the nearest hospitals with a gastroenterologist. Charmaine spent two weeks there, the first of five hospital stays over six months last year. The second stay came just two days after the first. She was running an errand at Walgreen's when she lost control of her bowels. "It was one of the most horrifying things I've ever been through," she says.

This time she went straight to the local ER. They found a gastroenterologist at Kansas University Medical Center who they believed could help, but she would have to get to Kansas City, 165 miles north—an expensive ambulance ride for someone without insurance. "Here I am sitting here, bleeding like crazy, and I've got to find a way to get to Kansas City right then. Finally, they had me sign a document saying I had to pay the $4,000 if I wanted to get to the hospital. So I agreed! I signed it."

The Kansas City doctors discovered that she had picked up a bacterial infection that had complicated the colitis. Now her inflamed colon won't heal, and the upshot is thousands of dollars in medication and ongoing doctors' appointments. She's lost track of the debt she's racked up. She gets many of her meds free through drug-assistance programs, but the supply can be unpredictable. For her other meds, she's on a payment plan. When we spoke in January, Charmaine had just run out of her free anti-inflammatories. If she can't find a new source and her colon worsens, doctors will have to remove it.

Throughout this ordeal, Charmaine has continued working. In the 29 states (plus Washington, DC) that have expanded Medicaid, her income would likely put her in a gray zone; depending on how many hours she puts in each month, she could fall just over or under the 138-percent-of-poverty cutoff to qualify. But in Kansas, she's completely out of luck. She qualifies for tax credits to buy insurance, but she's struggled to find a plan in which she can afford both the premium and the cost sharing on all of her meds. She could apply for disability, but she can't imagine living on the small income that would provide, even if it did bring health insurance.

"I'm not ready to give up. I'm a hard worker," she says, before breaking down in tears. She's been taking anti-depressants for the first time in her life. "I've worked 30-some years and paid my dues, and here I can't get any help? And all these years that people get food stamps and medical cards for their children, I helped pay for that. So what about me? What did all my hard work get me?"

It's a sentiment I heard often, talking with southeast Kansas' sick and poor. Everyone is convinced that someone else is getting a better deal, that somewhere a horde of Kansans are gaming the system and preventing the truly needy from getting help. It's a sentiment that Brownback eagerly exploits when attacking Medicaid expansion and other forms of public assistance. In his January State of the State address, he pointed to a black single mom in the audience, saying she had been on welfare and was now in a full-time job. He asked her to stand with her teenage son, then lauded the "courage and perseverance" of her redemptive journey. "We will continue to move forward," he vowed, "helping people move from dependence on the government to independence."

McAlister posted:

Im rather dubious that there would be good return on investment from giving money to the Kansan government. I'm usually critical of people opposing cash grants on the grounds that the recipient is to dumb to spend it wisely but the Kansan government has shown clearly that they don't understand how to invest public money. A bailout would mostly disappear down the bank accounts of the connected.

Programs that reached out directly to the populace seem like a better idea. Or lower levels of government like granting funds directly to the schools,

Grand Theft Autobot posted:

Wait, so taxes were cut but tax revenues declined? How can this be?

Gyges posted:

Clearly the problem is that they just didn't cut them enough.

Call Me Charlie posted:

quote:

"I'm not ready to give up. I'm a hard worker," she says, before breaking down in tears. She's been taking anti-depressants for the first time in her life. "I've worked 30-some years and paid my dues, and here I can't get any help? And all these years that people get food stamps and medical cards for their children, I helped pay for that. So what about me? What did all my hard work get me?"

It's a sentiment I heard often, talking with southeast Kansas' sick and poor. Everyone is convinced that someone else is getting a better deal, that somewhere a horde of Kansans are gaming the system and preventing the truly needy from getting help. It's a sentiment that Brownback eagerly exploits when attacking Medicaid expansion and other forms of public assistance. In his January State of the State address, he pointed to a black single mom in the audience, saying she had been on welfare and was now in a full-time job. He asked her to stand with her teenage son, then lauded the "courage and perseverance" of her redemptive journey. "We will continue to move forward," he vowed, "helping people move from dependence on the government to independence."

where's my super secret black people welfare

That's the saddest thing about that article. There's a large group of people suffering and they can't see past themselves far enough to realize that others could be in the same situation through no choice of their own (layoffs, bad job market, medical emergencies, etc) instead of the myth of the welfare queen.

Moridin920 posted:

im gay posted:

Isn't this going on in the majority of states with a high number of state House and Senate republicans vowing no increases in tax revenue. That's how it is in WA State anyway.

Gyges posted:

Nobody has been able to go full Laffer like Kansas yet. Everyone else has too many dummy reasonable people who haven't let it happen yet. Which isn't to say that other states haven't found a way to advance towards hell hole status in different ways.

VitalSigns posted:

And yet, millions of Kansans don't, maybe their own laziness or stupidity is why they are poor -A "leftist"

down with slavery posted:

who said anything about poor lmao? I said college students u dense retard

mb post less and read more

-a "person" who is not affiliated with ur stupid political labels

Nintendo Kid posted:

Ah yes, all those rich fatcat college students.

down with slavery posted:

yes, college students are traditionally part of the middle class, not "the poor"

down with slavery posted:

yes, college students are traditionally part of the middle class, not "the poor"

tldr if you're a well off person living in Kansas, you're probably a loving idiot

if you don't wake up every day in Kansas saying "how am I going to save up the $250 for a bus ticket to Seattle" you are doing it wrong

Mister Adequate posted:

"Why don't people pursue the most economically logical course of action at all times?" - noted goon down with slavery

Scrub-Niggurath posted:

It must be nice to be the average Kansasian, whom all apparently have the financial security to relocate their life halfway across the country

down with slavery posted:

it's not even economically logical its just plain a better life

"hmm do i want to work for minimum wage (maybe) in a poo poo state with tornados, insane religious people and rear end backwards politics or would I rather do literally anything else in a place where the minimum wage is twice what it is here and there isn't an intellectually damaged majority keeping me down"

escape now before it gets any worse kansas goons

down with slavery posted:

it's not even economically logical its just plain a better life

"hmm do i want to work for minimum wage (maybe) in a poo poo state with tornados, insane religious people and rear end backwards politics or would I rather do literally anything else in a place where the minimum wage is twice what it is here and there isn't an intellectually damaged majority keeping me down"

escape now before it gets any worse kansas goons

down with slavery posted:

i too am incapable of understanding that the entire population of Kansas does not live in destitute poverty

Nintendo Kid posted:

If 3 million people leave Kansas in close succession, it's going to be mad expensive and hard for any of them to find housing and jobs in other places, most of which already have pretty tight markets for both.

down with slavery posted:

yeah thats why I'm telling the goons to get out now before you're forced to because the state even gets shittier

Nintendo Kid posted:

Thanks, insane man. I'm sure that really helps all 6 goons who live in Kansas and can afford to leave, none of which will ever read this thread.

down with slavery posted:

lol there's already like two that have posted in this thread (not to mention the thread has 50x views), do you just assume they are living in destitute poverty? I mean, I asked the guy why he didn't leave, maybe give him some time to answer instead of jumping on me for crucifying the poor or whatever you think im doing

Nintendo Kid posted:

No I assume, since I am not an insane man, that they have responsibilities and other things that they can't afford to break to move. Since you are insane, you do not understand this.

down with slavery posted:

Yes because everyone makes optimal choices in their self-interest on their own by utilizing their built in CPU

maybe we should just subsidize firmware upgrades