Ripple felt from agency’s troubles
THE discovery of financial mismanagement at the Oklahoma State Department of Health, which has created a $30 million shortfall, complicates an already challenging state budget situation. But one of the more surprising ripple effects is that the agency’s problems prevented lawmakers from holding a study on a “medical” marijuana initiative that will go before Oklahoma voters next year.
Rep. John Paul Jordan, R-Yukon, requested the study, and it was scheduled to commence Wednesday. But on Monday, Jordan announced the study had been cancelled.
“State Question 788 directs revenue to the state Department of Health,” Jordan said. “Given the recent funding issues as well as a leadership shakeup at the department, it became clear we would need to reschedule this study. Unfortunately, given the time frame for the bill-drafting schedule, which is coming up, we are unable to reschedule at this time.”
That’s too bad, because the state needs to have its ducks in a row before the vote occurs next year. As we noted when Jordan requested the study, one area that deserves review is whether passage of the initiative would necessitate increased public safety funding. In other states that have passed marijuana legalization, the number of impaired drivers on the road who test positive for Tetrahydrocannabinol, the principal psychoactive component in marijuana, has increased significantly. And there are other policy considerations. All deserve careful, public review.
Thus, the Health Department financial woes are already responsible for one missed opportunity.
Streets oversight
Citizen oversight is one reason the various MAPS iterations have been so successful for Oklahoma City through the years. With that in mind, the city council this week adopted a resolution establishing a volunteer advisory board to oversee street projects stemming from the 27-month extension of MAPS that voters approved in September. Extension of the 1-cent MAPS sales tax is expected to generate about $240 million, primarily for resurfacing neighborhood streets. The advisory committee will hold public meetings monthly, and make recommendations to the council regarding such things as design, construction and the sequence of projects. The committee will include one representative from each of the city’s eight wards, plus three at-large members. It’s a good move by the council, and we offer our thanks in advance to those who will give their time to this cause.
Thoughts, prayers and vitriol
We don’t recall liberals getting worked up whenever former President Barack Obama would offer his “thoughts and prayers” to those impacted by shootings that occurred during his time in office. Yet some are apoplectic that President Trump and Republican leaders did so following Sunday’s attack in Texas.
Keith Olbermann tweeted,
“‘Thoughts and prayers’ again, @realDonaldTrump, idiot?
These people were in CHURCH.
They WERE praying.” Joy Reid of
MSNBC offered this via Twitter: “Remember when Jesus of Nazareth came upon thousands of hungry people, and rather than feeding them, thought and prayed?” Actor Wil Wheaton aimed his vitriol at House Speaker Paul Ryan. “The murdered victims were in a church. If prayers did anything, they’d still be alive, you worthless sack of (bleep).” This outrage stems from the fact Ryan and Trump, unlike Obama, don’t line up with these elites on gun control. Their vulgarity and sarcasm, of course, only serve to hurt their cause.
A pox on all their houses?
A recent CNN nationwide poll of 1,021 adults (not registered voters), conducted by SSRS, found President Trump’s approval rating stood at 36 percent with 58 percent disapproving. Good news for Democrats, right? Well, maybe not. CNN said the poll also found favorable views of the Democratic Party “have dropped to their lowest mark in more than a quarter century of polling.” Just 37 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of Democrats, while 54 percent have an unfavorable view. So is that good news for Republicans? Not really. CNN also found just 30 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Republicans, while 61 percent have an unfavorable opinion. Put another way, there’s a substantial group of citizens who disapprove of Trump, of Democrats and of Republicans alike. In such an environment, no politicians can afford to feel complacent or self-assured of their chances for re-election.
Strike two
Many Americans would agree that prescription drug prices can be too high. Yet the idea of having the government control those prices has now been rejected by two states. Voters in Ohio on Tuesday resoundingly said no to a plan that would have required the state to pay no more for prescription drugs than the Department of Veterans’ affairs lowest price. Those prices are often far below the market price. The proposal was opposed by a whopping 80 percent of Ohio voters. The plan was similar to one California voters rejected a year ago by a 54-46 margin. Former Oklahoma U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, now a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, wrote that the message from Ohio was clear — government price controls aren’t the answer, and policymakers need to abandon such efforts. “Competition is the right way to make lifesaving, and life-improving, more affordable for patients,” Coburn wrote.
The beat goes on
Three years ago, Australia’s highest court deemed that its government should legally recognize a third gender. Two U.S. states (California and New York) allow residents who don’t identify as male or female to alter their birth certificates to match their gender identity. And this week in Germany, we took another step down this path. That nation’s top court said lawmakers must recognize “third gender” — from birth. Germany already allows parents of “intersex” children to leave the gender box blank on a birth certificate. But the court said current law is unconstitutional because it “does not provide for a third option — besides the entry ‘female’ or ‘male’.” The ruling requires lawmakers by the end of 2018 to create the possibility for a “positive gender entity” for those babies. A spokesman for Germany’s Interior Ministry said the government respects the court’s decision and “is fully willing to implement the decision.” Of course it is.
Brainwashing
California Gov. Jerry Brown is occasionally a more serious politician than his “Moonbeam” nickname suggests, but he still lives up to stereotype on occasion. During a recent appearance at an event organized by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Brown decried public resistance to radical policy proposals to combat alleged man-made global warming. “At the highest circles, people still don’t get it,” he said. Rather than “a light rinse,” Brown declared the public needs “a total, I might say ‘brainwashing.’” “We need to wash our brains out and see a very different kind of world,” he said. Whatever else one might say about the efforts of those who believe global warming threatens us with imminent environmental apocalypse, it’s hard to argue the associated rhetoric has been too nuanced. And few things breed resistance to brainwashing as much as public recognition that people are trying to brainwash them.