The Kaiser Family Foundation discovers the problem with Kentucky and Medicaid expansion here now that Matt Bevin has taken office.
Majorities of Democrats (89%), Independents (75%), and even Republicans (54%) want to keep the state’s Medicaid expansion as is.
Of the people who voted for Matt Bevin last month, 50% want him to cut Medicaid.
My problem is with the 42% of Bevin voters who expect Bevin to keep Medicaid as is. “Bevin won’t take coverage away from me“, they said. “Just, you know, those people.” And Bevin may in fact figure out a way to do it.
But my guess is there’s going to be a substantial chunk of Bevin voters who are going to find out the hard way that when politicians tell you exactly who they are, you should believe them…
OzarkHillbilly
I only believe a politician is telling the truth when they say they are going to fvck me up the arse with out any kind of lube whatsoever. That always turns out to be true.
Cermet
Life sucks and then you vote thug; then one discover’s life wasn’t so bad before and now, you are really screwed.
Yutsano
If what I am reading about this is true, Burwell and HHS can make it much more complicated to undo the expansion as opposed to just leaving it be. So unless a Republican wins next year, unwinding the expansion is gonna be a tough nut for Bevin. Apparently this is also true for going from a state to a local exchange, according to Mr Mayhew anyway.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Botsplainer
Mountain counties deserve what’s coming to them, good and hard and lubeless.
Of course, they’ll blame it on blacks in Louisville, because they’re a bunch of sibling fucking inbred waterbrains, but there is no reaching them.
geg6
My sympathy for the Bevin voters who will lose their medical insurance is actually less than zero. It’s definitely in the negative range. Tough shit, assholes.
Randy P
Do the Bevin voters at least realize it’s on the table and their guy is TALKING about kicking them off insurance? What is the conversation in Kentucky like on this subject? Is it still oblivious “abolish Obamacare but leave my Kynect” or is some reality starting to sink in?
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: :-)
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: Best wishes to you!
ruemara
I want to feel sorry for them, but they continually vote to screw others over. Then blame those same others when they just so happen to get screwed themselves.
Paul in KY
@Botsplainer: Unlike the mighty overmen in the mountains…
rikyrah
They have Star Wars costumes for grown-azz people in Target. NOT in the kids section -this was in the grown-folks section.
um…..ok….
Paul in KY
@Randy P: I don’t think the typical Bevin voter in Johnson County or McLean County or somewhere like that has made the connection yet. At some point (if he is true to his words/apparent intentions) they will.
Gimlet
“Do unto others…”
Yutsano
@Gimlet: Then split.
/Conservabible
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: When I was in NOLA last year at Halloween, I saw 2 adults walking around in full & complete Storm Trooper armour. Like they raided the prop dept at Industrial Light & Magic. Must have cost them $1000 a set.
Adults….
SFAW
@rikyrah:
That one for BB-8 is probably the one for me. (Requires least amount of refitting, shall we say?)
Paul in KY
@Yutsano: Here’s one I got that would fit: ‘Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away & have their shoes’.
Not an original Paul in KY aphorism.
scav
@Gimlet: you quotin da bible? all them sinning rules, those (like medicaid cuts) are for other people. Mention the big guy’s name, flash the jebus-believing handshake. all sins forgiven and you get past the bouncer for the medicaid club door.
SFAW
@Paul in KY:
Good one! Wait, you’re serious?
I’m more in agreement with @Botsplainer: at number … number … uh, are we getting numbers back at some point?
rikyrah
I have no sympathy for them. None in the least.
Man DID NOT HIDE what he wanted to do.
catclub
@Paul in KY: So are you also surprised that thousands of adults will pay hundreds of dollars (each!) to yell at people on an athletic field or court of some sort
for a few hours?
Botsplainer
@Paul in KY:
They’re incapable of introspection. They still dump their trash down mountainsides and straight line their gray water into their own watersheds in far too many places, because Liberty, freedom and they’re the real true Americans whose worldview must be coddled in public policy and popular entertainment.
Amir Khalid
@SFAW:
Shhh. You mustn’t ask before Alain is ready to answer.
Botsplainer
And if anybody thinks I’m mean, keep in mind that my maternal line is bona fide central Kentucky white trash, and I still have relatives in the lifestyle.
Hell, I had a cousin named Jackie Warren (first and middle) who got drunk and shot up the buffet at the family reunion. He was living on a trailer without utilities, parked at my Uncle Buster’s rented farm field, and was feeling aggrieved after his 4th wife left him. He had a beater truck with $200 and an $800 pinstripe job on it saying “Dirty White Boy” (that should help date the event). Guess he wanted everybody to leave – he shot the remaining food with a .410.
Paul in KY
@catclub: I don’t know if ‘surprised’ would be the right word. Maybe they were both millionaires. More like ‘bemused’.
The Thin Black Duke
I’m sorry, but people who are trying to find a logical explanation for this are going to be doomed to disappointment. Once you understand that bigotry is a mental disorder than you realize that these deluded white bigots in Kentucky are bugfuck crazy. Crazy. It ain’t never going to make sense.
mai naem mobile
Well,Cletus and Doofus should have thought about looking after themselves instead of trying to think of new ways of how to fvck the blackity blackity blacks and the gheys,when they voted for Bevin
Botsplainer
@The Thin Black Duke:
It’s acculturated. My mom is like this, and I’ve given up on her – she literally said “he isn’t really going to do that – you’ll be fine” when I talked about Paul Ryan’s 2012 plan to voucherize Medicare for people under 55.
Alain the site fixer
@SFAW: Yes, comment numbers are coming. This stuff is very complicated and I know none of you really care, but it’s not just clicking a “Show comment number” option – it was hacked in, and much of the code that shows comments has changed so I’m trying to figure out where to hack that back in. It’s coming….ads and site/page title were more important for the revenue side of things.
And no, I’ve still not heard back from the theme support folks after their initial “go look at these instructions” response. Grr
jeffreyw
@Botsplainer: I think he may have been in an episode of Justified?
OzarkHillbilly
@Botsplainer: With relatives like that who needs friends?
Berial
You do realize that when they lose their coverage it’ll be ‘see damn government just sucks!!!’. It won’t be ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have voted for the guy that said that he was going to make me lose my coverage.” These people seem to ACTUALLY think ‘government’ is something OTHER, not actually totally controlled by the people that are elected BY THEM!
Paul in KY
@Botsplainer: I had a good comment, but I accidently closed down the page (crap).
Sewers cost a lot of money & septic tanks do too (if you are poor). No excuse for chucking your nasty trash down the side of the holler.
(condensed version of previous comment)
OzarkHillbilly
@Alain the site fixer: You’ll get there and some of us know it.
Citizen Alan
@Paul in KY: There is a very large SW fan organization called the 501st Legion. They all have home made high quality Stormtrooper uniforms. They do a good bit of charity work, I believe.
Betty Cracker
Elections aren’t about policies anymore, not for most voters, anyway. It’s about tribal identification, and that goes for people who don’t vote on the grounds that it’s pointless to do so. I don’t really see any solution for places like Kentucky except mobilizing non-voters whose interests are served by Democrats. Easy to say “screw Kentucky,” but there are a lot of Kentuckys, and we’ll never have a functional US Congress unless we can compete in some of them.
Botsplainer
@mai naem mobile:
Feature, not bug. Cletus and Doofus will continue to poach game, drive beaters that get 8 miles to the gallon,scam workers’ comp and SS, make meth, bleat enthusiastically about the non-sacrificed Jesus forgiving their sins and sneer conspiratorially about n****rs, sp*cs and Jews. Their lives will change little as they continue to wallow in filth because it was good enough for daddy, great granddaddy and all their uncles. Plus, they like it. You never have any actual pressure to improve, which you would if the excuses were gone.
Paul in KY
@Botsplainer: My dad’s from Elkhorn City. Nuff said on nutty relatives (not my dad, though. He got the Hell out of there).
OzarkHillbilly
@Paul in KY: One of the first things I had to do when we bought our place was put in a septic field. Washington Co is just A-OK with raw sewage spilling out over your yard.
Paul in KY
@mai naem mobile: Given the way Conway got whupped, I don’t know how many blacks & gays voted for him ;-)
Paul in KY
@Alain the site fixer: Alain, you are doing a great job on ‘customer care’. When you get it fixed, we’ll see them.
Thank you for your work.
P.S. haven’t seen a Tommy comment in a while, hope the Anti-Tomites didn’t run him off.
Paul in KY
@Citizen Alan: Thanks for the info, Alan. I know those 2 were getting a lot of positive interactions (people wanting to take photos with them. As much as the old guy dressed up like Queen Elizabeth).
J R in WV
@Botsplainer:
Lots of straight pipes here too; not all for gray water, either. When we were building our house, the county sanitarian was here helping the contractor set up a somewhat novel septic system. I mentioned that I intended to straight pipe the tiny swimming pool into the creek, regardless of the chlorine in it used for sanitation.
He looked at me and said that while that was technically a violation, he had so much worse pollution to worry about that I was a pass. The he added that it might even help the coliform count downstream!
Alain the site fixer
Oh, and @Amir Khalid, folks can ask all they want. If I don’t see their questions because I’m working on the site (or other things), then it’s not me ignoring them!
I didn’t post the expected “theme update is done” post because it’s not; we’re in limbo as I await support for issues beyond my control having to do with WordPress parent/child theme issues. As a matter of fact, I’ll make a post about that right now, so thanks for the needling.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: That’s what dipshit Jack Conway didn’t do (duh). Turnout was around 30% & the RWNWs sure came out. A lot of the 70% that didn’t were our side & he gave the uninformed & need-to-be-motivated no particular reason to come out & vote.
We had a black Lieutenant governor nominee & they couldn’t even get a big turnout in West End of Louisville?! Sheesh…
Mike in NC
Glad that these Real Americans will be getting exactly what they deserve for voting for a sociopath.
RSA
@Alain the site fixer:
Give us our free stuff and give it to us now!
:-)
Paul in KY
@OzarkHillbilly: No surprised at all (by either you immediately getting one in & Washington County not giving a metaphorical shit).
Botsplainer
Another great wingnut mom story:
As I’ve mentioned before, my youngest daughter is serious about her archaeology, has 3.8-3.9 GPA and is going to get her PhD. As everyone may guess, organizational employment for archaeologists can be dicey and there would potentially be periods of time when you’re working independently and surviving off contract and grant work. Needless to say, there’s nothing that comes with that kind of thing as a perk, so health insurance would have to come individually.
When the youngun was 14 or 15 (this was pre-ACA), we had a birthmark on her leg biopsied – it was in that middle state between benign and malignant and thus deemed precancerous, so we had it removed in a succession of procedures. Under the pre-ACA regime, she’d never clear underwriting for an individual policy for life because of that biopsy, and was thus locked out of the market if she wanted to pursue any track that involved self-employment.
In the run up to the vote, my mom (who enjoyed my dad’s gold-plated insurance as a teacher under a CBA) was adamantly opposed, because lazy negroes and her tax munnies. When I pointed out the problems my daughter would face, she said “well, everybody can’t always get to have the life or career they want. It will cost me too much.”
Gin & Tonic
@Botsplainer: Your mom sounds swell.
Iowa Old Lady
@Botsplainer:
Holy crap. That’s hardcore selfish.
Richard Mayhew
@Yutsano: going from a state to national Exchange or vice versa is fairly straight forward and HHS won’t oppose the move as long as people don’t get dropped and the state check clears the bank.
Kynect to HC.gov core functionality is a matter of reference table updates and new links to qualifiers. The loss on Kynect is that it was a nice integration of all relevant Kentucky level insurance programs. HC.Gov won’t have that.
I need to do more research on the Kentucky law concerning the governor having to take all available Medicaid money as that law is what gives HHS leverage.
kindness
Add Kentucky to the list of states I could give a shit about any more. Please, I feel bad for all the sane people in Florida, Wisconsin, Maine, Kansas, etc, etc. But, I no longer give a fuck about their state. They voted for these nutz (or chose not to vote at all – a pox on their houses). So I sure do hope they don’t suffer too badly drowning in my salty tears. My advise? Move. Move to a state and a culture that isn’t abhorrent.
Botsplainer
@Gin & Tonic:
Wingnutism is creeping into and affecting every aspect of her life. In 1968, when she was still in her mid 20s, she was a George Wallace voter. Plus, I remember her getting angry about news that was critical of the war, authority, police. When Watergate was the rage, she’d gripe about how it wasn’t really a big deal.
The Gray Adder
Well, let’s hope KY Dems learn their lesson this time and not nominate Jack Conway for anything else. I wasn’t down there, but it seems to me he kind of sucks at politics. I’d be surprised if he’s still the AG next time around.
Paul in KY
@Botsplainer: Get this translated into Latin: “well, everybody can’t always get to have the life or career they want. It will cost me too much.” and it would be the motto of the average Repub voter.
WereBear
@Botsplainer: Yeah, when “complying with public health regulations” is considered an encroachment on personal freedom, there’s plenty of fail to be mined. They have a two year old’s concept of liberty, which translates to, “I don’t wanna!”
Earlier this year Laura Ingalls Wilder’s first manuscript was published. The original one, the one the publisher turned down as too depressing. See, it was an honest memoir of her frontier childhood. Per the publisher’s suggestion, she turned it into a series of children’s books, and achieved fame & fortune.
And there are metric tons of people who think it was real… that the past was this water-colored dream… where all the men were brave and it was okay to have beards… and all the women loved dawn to dusk household chores without mechanical help… and all the children were happy with an orange in their stocking.
I don’t mind them having a fantasy life. I just mind them making me wear the bonnet.
Botsplainer
@Iowa Old Lady:
She’s one of the folks who’d happily accept living in a refrigerator box under an overpass while grilling a sparrow on a curtain rod if she knew that the black or Latino family under the next overpass didn’t have a refrigerator box or a curtain rod.
Paul in KY
@The Gray Adder: He’s not AG anymore. Gov. Beshear’s son won that race. I’ll be surprised if Conway wins anything again (although he is rich, so he can outspend most).
He had a great object lesson in how Grimes flamed out & how he needed to motivate Democrats to come out, rather than trying to be a ‘sane republican-lite’. He is not learning…
WereBear
Probably, and my high school years down South means I can only watch two episodes, three max, before I get twitchy. It’s a great show. Just too accurate :)
Botsplainer
@WereBear:
Mom loved that shit – insisted I read it. At 10, I realized that Ingalls was a failure at every farm he tried – which is the bitter, hard truth about Westward expansion. Fail in one place, government gives you new land to the west. Keep going a few times per generation.
I call it “Welfare for White Folks”.
Botsplainer
@Paul in KY:
He’s lazy. Worst campaigner I ever saw, and people who have worked directly under him despise him.
Paul in KY
@Botsplainer: I read them all as a kid. Must say I enjoyed them. I’m not a woman, though, so I focused on all the cool manly huntin & trappin & barn dancing stuff. Yeeha!!!
Ben Cisco
Hey, he told them what he was going to do. If they were dumb enough to think it was ONLY the browns that were going to get poleaxed, that’s their fault. That’s what they get for being OK with somebody else taking it in the teeth.
Paul in KY
@Botsplainer: I spoke with several people who had met him (in work/social events), voting Democrats all, and they all said he was supercilious & off-putting when meeting with them.
Just the kind of guy to connect with average KYian voters (putting face in hands).
Botsplainer
Mom is also a little over focused on white people shit from the 50s. She was prattling some stupidity about the kids and some of their exposure to things back in their teens. she sounded like Lorraine McFly; my response was that “Leave It To Beaver” wasn’t reflective of real life. Nearly tearful, she assured me that life was indeed that way.
Eric U.
@Botsplainer: I have an aunt that is exactly the same way. The kicker being that they used military retirement coverage during my uncle’s second career.
Botsplainer
@Paul in KY:
Guy I work with was one of his division heads. Describes Jack as empty of passion, incapable of making decisions where his neck really hangs out and relentless in his careerism. Hated working for the guy.
RaflW
@Botsplainer:
I love that. Never really thought about KY white trash as a lifestyle. Makes perfect sense, now’s I think about it.
bemused
@Botsplainer:
If it’s not too snoopy, can I ask how old your mother is?
Betty Cracker
@WereBear:
LMAO! Good one.
@The Gray Adder: Didn’t Conway also lose to Rand Paul? Some people never learn. Charlie Crist, for example!
SFAW
@Alain the site fixer:
Thanks.
Yeah, I had an idea that getting the site where you/John/we want it is not fall-out-of-bed simple. Even if no one else here appreciates you (those ungrateful SOBs), I certainly appreciate all your efforts.
RaflW
@mai naem mobile:
I skimmed the full Kaiser report and there’s a lot of interesting data. Maybe the crosstabs are also available, but I do wonder about the gender of the respondents (I’m assuming Doofus is also a male name, and I’m sure plenty of women would agree!). Just guessing here, but I bet the big driver of the ‘screw you’ vote is men. Which I find abhorrent, but not surprising.
SFAW
@Botsplainer:
I thought it was just a third-rate burglary?
Bill
I cannot understand people who are surprised when someone does exactly what they said they would do. Yet it seems to keep happening.
I suspect the same phenomenon may be somewhat at play in Trump’s popularity.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Amir Khalid: Please do note that communication, both in terms of information and, ah, tone, has improved exponentially. Or at least a lot.
WereBear
Damn. That’s true. I am familiar with the female version, which is that domestic arts have been what they have done since they were six, so they decide, too early, they will be happy with housewifery the rest of their life… but that nails some of the attraction for the male side.
Paul in KY
@Botsplainer: I’m sure he’ll be fine moneywise, but getting whupped by crook, carpetbagger from Connecticut will do wonders for your ‘careerism’.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: He lost to Aqua Buddha too. Also.
The Other Chuck
@Mike in NC: Unfortunately, everyone else in the state will be getting what the wingnuts deserve too.
The Other Chuck
@Paul in KY: How about “Vilis” for their motto? It’s the closest translation I can find for “Fuck you”.
Not at you, of course, even if you do hail from that cesspit :)
WereBear
One of the issues of such resentful voter areas is that the bright, career oriented, and potentially liberal people leave.
ThresherK
@Paul in KY: Nutmegger here: Bevin is not from sourthern Fairfield County, the fancy part of our state, where everyone roots for the Yankees, Giants, and (whatever used to be the) Knicks.
Think of the Grey Flannel Suit set, the last 60 years of New Yorker cartoons’ idea of MetroNorth commuters, and that’s not him.
Did Bevin have to fight against the image of being a Volvo-driving latte sipper? Because in his neck of CT the non-truck vehicle of choice is a Subaru.
@WereBear: Ha! Such different worlds: My wife has a Masters (to my mere Bachelors’) and she’s gratefully ceded the cooking and baking to me. Now its’ time for me to don one of my six aprons and bake some cupcakes.
Botsplainer
@bemused:
71
Zandar
@ThresherK:
Nope, he ran as a “successful business owner” and military veteran. Conway went on about how Bevin’s bell factory in CT burned down and that Bevin underinsured the plant but got money from the state anyway, and you see how successful that was.
RaflW
@Paul in KY: I think it could just be shortened to “It will cost me too much.”
Or, this, which is slightly different but looks more motto-ish: Ego sum invito exigantur.
Glidwrith
@RaflW: What really sticks sideways in my craw is that Bevin may not be able to unwind the expansion at all. From what I’ve seen up thread, both Richard and Yutsano are doubtful that he would be able to do so. That means then that all the mouth breathers were ‘right ‘, and he won’t take it away and they get their hate on by voting for him.
Paul in KY
@The Other Chuck: Thanks, Chuck!
Paul in KY
@ThresherK: If Jack Conway had given half a shit, he might have had to fight that imagery. However, he didn’t have to…
Paul in KY
@RaflW: Many thanks, Ralf!
Bubblegum Tate
@Citizen Alan:
Yeah, I’d bet they were 501sters. That’s an awesome bunch of people. Pretty much everything they do is for charity. Some of them even run marathons in full Stormtrooper regalia, which, holy shit.
AMinNC
@kindness: You do realize that if all of us Democrats in Republican states move to Democratic states, we cede the Senate and House to the Republicans in perpetuity? Plus, I’m guessing, the Presidency as well, since sparsely populated rural states (generally Republican) have such an entrenched, non-representational voting advantage built into the Constitution.
Makes more sense to me to adopt a 50-state strategy and do the hard, long-term work of building Democratic constituencies. The right-wing did it for years, starting in the 60s, and it paid amazing dividends for them. Unfortunately for the sane among us.
Elie
The problem is that until people like this either die off or change their mind, they have this country by the short hairs. I think that progressives just aren’t reaching them and there doesn’t seem to be a path from reality to their emotions of fear, anger and complete despair. It is in our interests to find that language however, whether its biblical language throw downs or other context… they are costing us (and as already mentioned), themselves millions, no, billions of dollars and years and years of suffering. Most of all, they are poisoning public discourse and building any kind of community to get anything worthwhile done. They are single handedly destroying “the American Dream” by paradoxically voting and acting to make sure that it doesn’t exist. We have to figure a way to stop or disrupt this process…They are operating out of a decision making reality that is totally self destructive generated by years of denial and despair.