If health-care money is sent to states, could we trust Bevin with it?

Here is a question for Gov. Matt Bevin and his millionaire Republicans who now control the Kentucky legislature: If the new Republican health-care plan is approved, sending billions of federal dollars back to Kentucky, would he spend it on health care for the poor, the disabled, the aged?

Or, would he find other uses, such as saving Kentucky’s under-funded pension plans, that do more to help higher-ups than the average working Kentuckian?

Members of the Kentucky House and Senate will receive literally tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in pensions when they retire, yet they are not doing much to help save Kentucky’s health-care program, which seems to be working so well for our most needy citizens.

Bevin seems to have stayed up late trying to take away health insurance from Kentuckians who never had it until the Affordable Care Act. An unknown entity when he won in the Donald Trump landslide of 2016, he has tried to kill most benefits for Kentucky’s most vulnerable citizens.

He said outright that he would take their insurance away, but his efforts failed even in Republican-controlled Frankfort — just as Trump’s cruel war on the poor has so far failed in Washington.

During Bevin’s campaign, a woman from Pikeville was quoted in the New York Times saying she would vote for him, even though she knew that one of his first acts as governor would be to take away her family’s health insurance. She voted for Republicans because she hated the thought of a black president in the White House so much, and so disliked Hillary Clinton because Bill cheated on her.

That’s like when Trump said during his campaign that if he shot someone dead on Fifth Avenue, his base would still support him. He is proving he is right when he threatens to go to nuclear war with North Korea and Iran and his base still supports him. There must really be something in that Kool-aid.

Thinking Republicans, the few left, agree there are good elements of former President Barack Obama’s health reform — affordable health care for all, coverage for pre-existing conditions whose premiums can not be gouged, coverage for sons and daughters until age 26, etc. But, these same Republicans say that we simply cannot afford the rising costs of the health care law.

If we cannot afford health care for the needy, how can they propose giving back $800 million to America’s top wealthiest one percent in the largest tax-cut in our history?

When asked how members of Congress can accept medical coverage subsidized by taxpayers but do not, will not support anyone else having even the crumbs from their table, they are silent.

This story was originally published September 25, 2017 at 1:22 PM with the headline "If health-care money is sent to states, could we trust Bevin with it?."