I now live in a state where it is public policy to allow sick children to die.
Today, the republican-lead Arizona legislature, along with republican Gov. Doug Ducey, refused to restore a federally-funded health insurance program that is used in 49 other states, and which would not have cost Arizona a dime. So now, 31,000 sick children of lower income working parents have no place to turn for medical help.
I would repeat that to emphasize the point, except that it would only serve to piss me off further.
Known as KidsCare, republicans refused to restore it because, get this, it would “blow up” the state budget because . . . well, since it costs the state nothing, no one really knows. It did prove one thing, though: on the very day in which we have chosen to honor and thank our teachers, the Arizona legislature proved how important math education is to someone who wants to hold public office.
So let’s do the math for them:
$9.58 billion + 0 = $9.58 billion
See? Ta da! No increase! No explosion! Pretty simple, right?
Still, if Arizona lawmakers are serious about letting loose with items that will actually “blow up” the budget, they need not look further than the $8 million in corporate welfare they’re giving away this year (a tax package, by the way, that will cost the Arizona $17 million next year). Or they can do without the $5 million set aside for Koch “freedom schools” at each of the state’s universities. Side note: neither the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University or the University of Glendale on Olive asked for either the money or the freedom schools.
If you're looking to reach out, then might I suggest you do so to the leader of this republican-lead mess: Senate President Andy Biggs. He seems nice, so just give him a call him 602-926-4371.
This is as shameful as it gets. Just when you didn’t think Arizona couldn’t lower the bar any further (after the last legislative session more than 350,000 needy Arizonans were kicked off Medicaid) the governor and legislature managed to speed up in our state’s race to the bottom.
And before I go, there’s another group that needs to carry some of the blame for this disgrace: the state’s faith-based community. I don’t like picking on other people’s religions, so I’ll pick on mine.
The Diocese of Phoenix uttered nary a word as the fight for KidsCare was picked up by democratic and a handful of republican legislators. Unless the Christian Brothers who taught me were just yanking my chain, the whole idea of helping the less fortunate is, well, sort of the cornerstone of the faith. You know, the Beatitudes and all that.
And yet . . . not an Easter season peep from Bishop Thomas J. Olmstead or Auxiliary Bishop Eduardo A. Nevares. Not a plea from the pulpit. Not a paragraph in its publication The Catholic Sun. Nothing in your church bulletin from last Sunday. Their inaction was, in every respect, antithetical to the words of Jesus his bad self. Their silence, and that of the state’s entire faith-based community, was as cruel and heartless as it was conspicuous and deafening.
So the next time the governor, legislative or faith leaders try to tell you about their overwhelming concern for human life and dignity, remember this: they care fuck all about all that, and their actions today prove it.
And before we go, here's the vote tally on KidsCare from the legislature today (remember this in November):
