Very few Republican voters actually know anything about the candidate who received their support. Matt Bevin was just elected as the Governor of Kentucky Tuesday. When GOP voters were asked why they voted for this TEA Party darling, they said that he was a ‘good, Christian man.’ In other words, they had no actual reason. They didn’t vote for him because of his ideas to better the lives of his state’s people. They didn’t vote for him because his ideas were more impressive than his opponent’s.

As with all TEA Party politicians, he did promise to destroy what is good for Kentucky’s people. He claims that he will ‘scrap’ Kynect. Kynect is the insurance exchange which was created under the Affordable Care Act. The program is an extension of Medicaid which costs the states very little. But Bevin does not agree; he calls it a “financially ill-advised program.”

In the last two years 521,000 of Kentucky’s residents have enrolled in Medicaid or federally subsidized private insurance programs; Kynect is very popular. One in ten Kentuckians now have health insurance which was previously unavailable to them.

Bevin, like many other members of the TEA Party, had no previous experience in government. He was a businessman and an investment broker. He is likely to follow in the steps of other TEA Party governors such as Scott Walker. He will soon lose favorability in his state when the people learn that his ideas were without merit; they were campaign promises he cannot keep, such as the claim that a state-run insurance program would be cheaper and more effective.

The reality of removing Kynect is that costs would rise. At present Kynect has a budget of $28 million, completely funded by a one-percent assessment on health premiums. Instituting a federal exchange would force the rate to rise to 3.5 percent, and will cost Kentucky voters $23 million.

How do some of Kentucky’s informed voters feel about the Governor-elects plans?

“It’s irresponsible for a governor to be even considering taking it way,” said Joey Harrison, 61, of Louisville, after coming to the Kynect store yesterday. “There are people who can’t get insurance if this weren’t offered, and it’s his job as governor to look after everyone in the state.”

The American public does not often think when they elect their representatives. They live in a fantasy world until a situation which did not affect them directly suddenly becomes an issue. Compassion for our fellow man has all but disappeared. Too many of America’s people live lives which have become segregated from other members of society.

Our goal as a people should be to become the United States of America; we are not at present. We are a land mass which is composed of ‘red and blue states.’

My grandfather partially raised me. He gave me a nugget of advice before I was a teenager. He believed in respect for his fellow man. He told me to consider my actions and decisions based upon how I would feel if I was the one who would be affected by my every deed.

Anger and prejudice fill our nation and are the cause of its deterioration. We must return to a nation filled with optimism, respect, compassion, and hope. Anger leads to hate, and a nation cannot exist composed of such a negative and destructive emotion.

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

Source

Photo Courtesy of Matt Turner

Author’s Page http://www.amazon.com/By-James-turnage/e/B00LOCJ2Z2