Guns cause preventable violent deaths of innocent people

Question to Senator Ted Cruz who believes the response to preventable gun violence caused by shootings are liberal "theater"*.  So, my question to Senator Cruz is to ask him to identify what "theater" produced these two preventable gun violence murders? 

Gun violence deaths due to road rage!

• Innocent six year old shot while sitting in a car seat in his mother's car

• Innocent baseball coach shot in the head Minnesota while driving with his teenage son in the car  

These heinous murders are entirely preventable!

An echo opinion letter published in The Columbus Dispatch, an Ohio newspaper, calls for "gun riddance". 

Only way to end gun violence is to take away guns

I’m still waiting for U.S. leaders to do something bold to stem gun violence, namely confiscate (perhaps with compensation) most guns in public hands. Exceptions could be made, e.g. certain ranchers. Allow no guns to enter the country. As lethal guns disappeared, even law enforcement could eventually do without them. Especially considering advanced less lethal subduing methods of stun guns, chemical sprays and lasso/tethering guns.

It is (Maine Writer- extremely!) doubtful Second Amendment writers who composed the U.S. Constitution imagined the destructiveness of modern day guns. It is archaic and should be amended.

Gun riddance would save societal costs of: gun threat responses, shooting victim sufferings, gun control systems, gun use abuser incarcerations and gun-proofing buildings. Guns belong only in museums as relics.

Until guns are killed, who’ll be the next accidental or deliberate gun victim?

Bill Allman, Columbus, Ohio

*WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, reignited the fight between Democrats and Republicans Tuesday over gun control by criticizing Democrats for “ridiculous theater”.... (Austin- American Statesman newspaper...)

Okay Ohio! State lawmakers can't pull rug on Medicaid

Governor John Kasich won his face off with Ohio state legislators who would not take a vote on his veto of the repeal of Medicaid expansion, to help care for Ohio citizens. More to the point, the Ohio hospitals surely wouldn't support such a terrible repeal. Their budgets are already inclusive of the patient revenues  Thereofore, at least for the time being, the Medicaid expansion in Ohio will stay, thanks to the good judgement of Governor John Kasich. 

"Kasich is among the most vocal Republicans nationally in support of the Medicaid expansion"

Although the state legislators did override several of the Medicaid provisions in the expansion, the fact is, Federal waivers will be necessary to implement the legislators' actions and that would take time.  Meanwhile, the people most impacted by the Medicaid repeal will have an opportunity to vote those selfish Republicans out of office, because of their cruel policy decisions.

Ohio Governor John Kasich has the best healthy interest of everyone as his legislative goal.

We can only pray for Governor John Kasich to prevail against opposition,  because he has the best interest of all Ohio people, including the fiscal well being of health care organizations, as his legislative goal.

By Julie Carr Smyth, Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich's veto protecting Medicaid expansion will stand, at least, for now, following a decision by state lawmakers on Thursday, to delay a threatened override.

Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, a fellow Republican, said his chamber has decided to let the health care debate in Washington play out before acting. He said the GOP-controlled chamber had the 60 votes that would have been needed.

"At this juncture, we want to give the federal government the summer to see if they're going to come to a conclusion in Congress before we take action on moving forward with the freeze waiver and the request," Rosenberger said.

He said the House still has until the end of Ohio's two-year legislative session in December 2018 to act. With House action stalled, the Ohio Senate canceled a session for considering overrides that it had scheduled for next week.

The House did vote Thursday to override 11 other items that Kasich vetoed from the state budget Friday. They restored a provision giving legislators additional control over future Medicaid spending and revived the Healthy Ohio program, which imposes additional Medicaid requirements that could bump 125,000 people off the program.

They also restored a proposal to increase taxes on health insurers that would have sent money to counties and regional bus services, a hike that administration officials warned later Thursday could risk drawing attention that jeopardizes a bigger chunk of money and creating a $615 million loss for Medicaid.

Of the largest consequence, however, was a provision vetoed by Kasich that ordered him to seek federal permission to suspend enrollment under the expansion beginning July 1, 2018, and to prevent those who drop out of the health care program from re-enrolling.

Some 700,000 low-income adults are now covered under Ohio's expansion, at a cost of almost $5 billion — most of which is picked up by the federal government. The Kasich administration estimated that 500,000 Ohioans could lose coverage under the proposed enrollment freeze within the first 18 months.

Kasich praised House members and advocates who worked to avert the enrollment freeze, if temporarily, but he warned "risks remain."

"A number of the actions taken by the House today threaten health care access for vulnerable Ohioans including seniors, people with disabilities, veterans and children, as well as Ohio's hard-won budget stability," he said in a statement. "When these actions begin to impact health care access for Ohioans, those who supported them will bear responsibility. As the saying goes: if you break it, you own it."

Kasich is among the most vocal Republicans nationally in support of the Medicaid expansion, an option made available to states under the Affordable Care Act targeted for replacement by the party. He was forced to make an initial end-run around reluctant GOP lawmakers to bring the expansion to the state, and has continued to advocate it as a program beneficial to the most vulnerable citizens.

Ohio receives some $300 million through the program for drug addiction and mental illness, which Kasich has described as an important funding source for the state hardest hit by the national opiate crisis.

Governor Kasich should be our Republican president

Kasich says it’s a ‘bad idea’ to phase out Medicaid expansion

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Republican party zealots were determined to hire a party loyalist to be the 45th President of the United States, but it's a crying shame they didn't pay more attention to the qualifications of Ohio Governor John Kasich.  

If I were a registered Republican (oh, by the way, Kansas Secretary of State Kobach, who said, "Americans may even be unable to re-enter the US" - my party affiliation is already public information)- but I'm a Democrat, the man I would have supported is John Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio. 

Of course, Governor Kasich was brutally overlooked in the 2016 Republican primaries.  In retrospect, this snub by the conservatives in the right wing of the GOP created a political quagmire, because now the party is so deep with extremists, that they will never in my lifetime be able to crawl out.  Unless, of course, Governor Kasich decides to attempt Presidential leadership, one more time.

Here's one reason why I would ask Governor Kasich to challenge the mentally incompetent Donald Trump.  It's because Governor Kasich cares about people. He has dedicated his life to public service and earned his chance to take his moral leadership to the highest levels of government.

Reported in Dayton Daily News:

Gov. Kasich vetoes plan to stop new Medicaid enrollment in Ohio- by staff writer Lynn Hulsey

Ohio Governor John Kasich signed the state budget late Friday (June 30),  but not before vetoing a controversial enrollment freeze for the state’s Medicaid expansion that he spearheaded in 2013.

The two-year $133 billion 2018-2019 budget was approved on party lines Wednesday in the Republican-dominated House and Senate.

Kasich’s move sets up a veto standoff with the Ohio General Assembly, dominated by fellow Republicans who ignored many of his key proposals in the executive budget he proposed earlier this year.

After the Senate added the Medicaid freeze to its proposed budget Kasich’s office said freezing enrollment under the Medicaid expansion could cause 500,000 Ohioans to lose coverage in the first 18 months after the ban went into effect on July 1, 2018. The “freeze could lock enrollees in poverty” and “likely would result in a legal challenge,” according to a memo released by the Governor’s Office of Health Transformation.

Kasich pushed for expanding Medicaid in Ohio under the Affordable Care Act and has spent much of the past week in Washington, D.C., protesting the Medicaid cuts in the U.S. Senate’s proposed health care bill.

Even if the legislature overrides his veto, the freeze cannot go into effect without the state first obtaining a federal waiver.

Kasich went around lawmakers in 2013 when he expanded the program that now extends coverage to about 725,500 Ohioans at a cost of more than $5 billion — the bulk of which is picked up by the federal government.

GOP lawmakers and conservatives say the rising costs of Medicaid are unsustainable. (MaineWriter- why is it the rising costs of waging wars aren't considered to be "unsustainable"?)

“We think especially on Medicaid there are some real strong efforts to try to address the real problems we have with that program, both on the fiscal side and from the standpoint of trying to improve the whole healthcare system,” said Greg Lawson, research fellow at the conservative Columbus think tank, Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions.

But Medicaid supporters say the freeze will do real harm to Ohioans.

“Passing the Medicaid expansion freeze and kicking people off of Medicaid is unacceptable, harmful, and cruel and unusual punishment,” said Rep. Emilia Strong Sykes, D-Akron.

House Minority Leader Fred Strahorn, D-Dayton, and State Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering this week called for a veto of the Medicaid freeze.

“Ohioans need to be healthy in order to be productive in their day to day lives. Without the ability to afford doctor visits, hospital stays, nursing home care, home health care, and long term care costs, families will spiral into debt, illness and despair,” wrote Strahorn and three other top House Democrats in a letter urging Kasich to veto the bill.

“I will vote to sustain the veto,” said Lehner, who voted for the budget on Wednesday. “And I am not at all sure that the Senate has the votes to override.”

Earlier on Friday John Fortney, press secretary for Ohio Senate President Larry Obhof, R-Medina, said Obhof “runs the caucus democratically, with a lower case ‘d.’”

“Robust debate within the group is always encouraged. With that, Senator Lehner doesn’t speak for the caucus, but is entitled to her own opinion,” Fortney said.

On Friday Senate Democrats released a list of items they want Kasich to veto, including the freeze.

It is anticipated that state GOP lawmakers may attempt an override. The House has a meeting scheduled for Thursday and the Senate is expected to meet the week of July 10.

A three-fifths vote of each house is required to override a veto, so for the Senate that means 20 votes. The House would need 60 votes to reverse a Kasich veto.

Several local legislators said they would vote to override a veto of the freeze.

“To veto that language would be to perpetuate a program that is not affordable into the future,” said State Sen. William P. Coley, R-West Chester.

“I will vote to override the freeze,” said State Rep. Wes Retherford, R-Hamilton. “As far as any others I will have to see what all he vetoes before deciding them. I believe it is very important that we remind the governor that this is not his personal kingdom, but that the legislature is an important and equal part of the state government.”

State Rep. Kyle Koehler, R-Springfield, also said he would vote to override a veto of the Medicaid freeze.

Republicans in the General Assembly gained enough seats after the 2016 election to override a veto from Kasich. In fact, Republicans have the largest majority in the 50 years since the current number of legislative seats was set.