Davis Hammett and OShara Meesha Hayes Close Out the Rally!

Davis Hammett and OShara Meesha Hayes, main organizers of the Kansas People's Agenda events at the Capitol on January 10, close out the rally.   We all then dispersed to lobby our legislators with the mandate to tell them our stories!  The gathering was dubbed the "People's State of the State" and was designed to fill in the blanks left by the Governor's State of the State Address the day before.    

"We Are Family, and We Care!"--Kansas People's Agenda, January 10, 2018

This young lady--Ashanti Spears--is one of the dynamic organizers of the Kansas People's Agenda. She gave the next-to-last speech at the People's State of the State in the Capitol on January 10, 2018.

She emphasized that collective action can be hard work. It requires listening with humility; accepting our own fallibility; coexisting with discomfort; reaching out to others; leaving our little enclaves; lifting up those who are hardest hit and most marginalized.

Young Pastor Is Initial Speaker at Kansas People's Agenda Rally, January 10, 2018

Rev. Jermaine Pennington, of Wichita, was the opening speaker at the Kansas People's Agenda rally at the Capitol on January 10, 2018. The rally was dubbed the "People's State of the State," following as it did on the Governor's State of the State address the night before. This clip did not catch several important parts of the pastor's speech: It started after the pastor had already set the scene--a low-moment for Martin Luther King, Jr., and his fellow organizers as they met to plan the first Poor People's Campaign. Also, toward the end, as the pastor describes what the "soccer ball" means today, the clip misses the first item: HEALTH CARE FOR ALL!!

Tom Giessel, Kansas Farmers Union, at the "People's State of the State" Rally, Jan. 10, 2018

Tom Giessel of the Kansas Farmers Union spoke at the "People's State of the State" rally at the Capitol on January 10, 2018.   The rally was sponsored by Kansas People's Agenda and followed on the Governor's State of the State address the night before.   The focus of the rally was the real experiences of real people in Kansas.   Many common themes emerged linking urban and rural communities!

Kansas People's Agenda: State of the State Rally, Jan. 10, 2018

US Army veteran Charles Baker of Junction City, Kansas helped to organize a union for the custodians in the area's public schools.   The custodians banded together to protest wage cuts and to demand working conditions that included respect and dignity.   Now a shop steward, Baker spoke on January 10, 2018, at the "People's State of the State," a rally help in the Capitol rotunda the day after the Governor's "State of the State" address.   The rally was sponsored by the Kansas People's Agenda and included a number of powerful speakers, singers, and poets.   

Town Hall in Frankfort, 11-22-17: Sen. Moran Challenged on Regressive Tax Bill, Healthcare

In this clip from the town hall on Nov. 22, 2017, a constituent challenges Sen. Moran on the Senate's "cynical" tax bill.   By cynical, she means the bill actually raises taxes on people making under $75,000/year--but not immediately.  In the first year that group does get a small cut.  But by several years in, they have to pay more--while the rich pay less.   But the Rs are cynically hoping Kansans won't be able to think beyond that first year.  

The median household income in Kansas is $50,000.  The median in Marshall County, where the town hall was held, is $32,000.

Students also pointed out that the interest on their loans would no longer be deductible, and that tuition waivers would be taxed as income.  

Healthcare was also a huge issue at the town hall, since the Senate version of the tax bill includes a repeal of the individual mandate.  This young man talks about the human cost of that repeal:

Rep. Marshall: Health Care Is Too Important for Baseless Claims

The Salina Journal and the Emporia Gazette are publishing an abbreviated version of this letter.  Here is the letter in its entirety: 

To the Editor:

Our congressman, Rep. Roger Marshall, M.D.  (R-Great Bend) voted for the American Health Care Act, saying it would be good for patients and good for Kansas hospitals.  

However, he was contradicted by Andrew Gurman , M.D., president of the American Medical Association, who warned that the AHCA would cause “serious harm to patients and the health care delivery system.”

Rep. Marshall, what do you know that the AMA does not?

In a telephone conference following the passage of the bill, reporters gave Rep. Marshall plenty of opportunities to answer that question.  They repeatedly confronted Rep. Marshall with the fact that what he says about the bill is just the opposite of what health care experts say about it.    

But the congressman avoided the substance of those questions.  He never challenged critics’  methodology, data, or assumptions.  Instead, if a conclusion undermined his narrative, he dismissed or disparaged the source.     

For example, when told that Sheldon Weisgrau, the director of Kansas’s Health Reform Resource Project, says “AHCA would mean less money for Kansas because it cuts Medicaid and over the next 10 years will cause 24 million people to lose insurance,”  Marshall said, “I have never heard of Sheldon Whatever-his-last-name-is, so I’m not sure what kind of expert I would consider him.”

When asked why the American Hospital Association and the National Rural Health Association oppose the AHCA, if it’s so good for hospitals, especially rural hospitals, Marshall replied, “I don’t think they totally understand the bill.”

When told that numerous analysts say the AHCA would hurt “the elderly, the disabled, and especially those in categories of low-income,” Marshall said, “That’s what the national media wants to spin.” 

The Council Grove Republican published the letter in full, as did the Manhattan Mercury and the Wabaunsee County Signal Enterprise.

But there is one source Rep. Marshall does not discredit:  Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, a long-time proponent of reducing funding for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.   In the same interview in which Marshall made the infamous comments about the poor not wanting health care, he also said he considered Sec. Price “a brother.”  

Rep. Marshall faithfully echoes what Sec. Price says about the AHCA. 

But in a recent interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sec. Price earned Four Pinocchios from Fact Checker at the Washington Post for his misleading claims about the AHCA.

So what evidence is there that Rep. Marshall’s nice-sounding promises are actually true—and not just an effort to get us to accept the right-wing’s long-held goal—to reduce public benefits and transfer that money to the rich?

That question dominated Rep. Marshall’s town hall in Wamego on May 10. 

Over and over again, constituents asked him:

Where is your evidence, Rep. Marshall? 

What studies or data are you relying on?

What are your views based upon?

He had no answer! 

He asked us simply to trust his years of experience as a physician.    

But Rep. Marshall, the American Medical Association has a few years of experience, too.    And unlike you, the AMA uses data, studies, and analysis.   

They’re the ones telling us the AHCA would cause “serious harm” to Kansans and Kansas hospitals.   You can’t dispute that conclusion--but you voted for the bill anyway?

How then can you say you are keeping your physicians’ oath to “do no harm?”  

If the health care system gets worse, rather than better—if your claims turn out to be as baseless as they currently appear--right-wing catch phrases will not protect Kansans from increased physical suffering or financial pain. 

Sincerely yours,

Margy Stewart

11003 Lower McDowell Rd.

Junction City, Kansas  66441

785.539.5592

Margystewart785@gmail.com

Here is the letter as it appeared in the Daily Union.  In the interest of space, the editors removed the title "Rep." from in front of Marshall's name.  I'm glad they published most of the content, but I wish they hadn't removed the title.  To me, calling a congressman by his last name alone sounds rude!