It’s been a long time since I’ve seen something as pathetic as our esteemed leaders in Juneau begging the press corps to carry their message to Alaskans that there just isn’t enough money in the budget for frivolities like education or health care. There is obviously enough money for the really important things like Knik Arms Bridge but not to expand Medicaid to those people so silly as to have been born poor.
I have restrained myself from advocating for any specific program threatened with cuts because I believe that if these programs are important enough to Alaskans, then Alaskans need to be prepared to help pay for them through a state income tax. But when the legislators in Juneau continue to support projects that seem to suck up endless amounts of state revenues with no return in sight, I have to reconsider that position. It feels as though the good old boys network is alive and well. They take care of their friends in high paying government funded pork belly projects at the expense of our kids, our sick and our villages.
What you saw transpire in Juneau this session is exactly what we should have expected given the people we sent there. They claim to be Republicans and conservatives. I guess the conservative part comes where they conserve the welfare jobs of the already pretty wealthy at the expense of kids. The Republican part comes when they blame the Democrats for all their problems. I expect the next time a volcano blows or an earthquake happens, we can expect the Republicans to blame the Democrats for that too.
For a party that continually complains about the welfare state, it is becoming blatantly obvious that, in Alaska at least, that only applies to government benefits for the poor. Government benefits for the rich, on the other hand, seem sacrosanct. Oil companies still get tax credits that boggle the mind. Subsidies still go out to groups like KABATA that have produced absolutely nothing for the millions they have received. Call me silly. Call me old fashioned. But I think if you are going to cut benefits to any one group that depends on government assistance, you should cut it to the rich and powerful as well as the poor and powerless. I’m willing to guess that if we look at the money flowing out of Juneau, we will find a lot more flowing to the already wealthy than the already poor.
If we can’t afford to expand Medicaid, if we can’t afford to fund education, how can we afford the cost of a special session for the legislature to finish the work they should have completed long ago. I know. It’s the Democrats’ fault. Republicans won’t be happy until Alaska is an autocracy where they rule supreme, the rich continue to get richer and the rest of us scramble for the table scraps they leave behind.
These legislators totally ignored all the Alaskans who showed up to testify for the needs of many Alaskans. Instead, they funded their buddies who didn’t have to do anything as crass as public testimony to get their money. They used that back door known as lobbying to make sure that no matter what the cuts elsewhere, their friends were taken care of. So the good news is that KABATA lives to see another year of doing nothing while sucking down state money. Oh yes, I know the hope is that the feds will reimburse us. Reimbursement for most of the cost of Medicaid expansion comes with a much more greater surety than the reimbursement for money designated to KABATA and yet Medicaid is considered too risky. Huh?
If this legislative session does not prove to the majority of Alaskans that the current crop of legislators does not represent them and hardly bothers to hide that fact, then I don’t know what will. They have made it crystal clear with their actions that their priorities are not our priorities and they simply don’t care.
The sad bedraggled end to this session, running out of Juneau after passing an unfunded budget that depends on totally draining an education fund should be the last straw for any Alaskan. The phrase, “Throw the bums out!”, was never truer or more appropriate. Don’t worry though. I’m sure if that happen their rich friends will find them a high paying job that includes health care.