Quotes of the Day

“When you start doing your research, you realize how good it can be. There’s a stigma attached to it, and there’s a stigma attached to mental health. When you pair the two together, people aren’t knocking down the door.”

-Summer Duke, behavioral health director at Oklahoma City Indian Clinic, who is trying to encourage more American Indians to sign up for health plans on HealthCare.gov. Members of federally recognized tribes aren’t restricted by an enrollment period and can sign up for insurance coverage anytime in the year (Source).

“The science is settled. The debate is over. These are man-made earthquakes.”

– Bob Jackman, a petroleum geologist in Tulsa, on a recently-released paper discussing the impact of fracking and injection wells on unusually-aligned faults in Oklahoma (Source)

“I’m not going to cast a vote that’s going to poke a teacher in the eye. I’d much rather put an arm around them and tell them what a good job they do.”

– Sen. Ralph Shortey (R-Oklahoma City), explaining why he voted against a bill that would prohibit Oklahoma educators from paying union dues by state payroll deductions. The bill has already passed the House and will next appear before the full Senate (Source).

“Someone in Oklahoma City ought to have the sense God gave a goat, and understand the state government cannot continue to function with this type of shortfall.”

-The Tahlequah Daily Press, in an op-ed criticizing the Legislature for allowing another income tax cut to go forward while the state has a $611 million budget hole (Source)

“This is a significant problem that Americans tend to underestimate, the risk that’s associated with these medications.”

– Dr. Donald Teater, medical adviser to the National Safety Council, on a new report that shows the vast majority of Americans are unaware of the risk of addiction associated with opiate painkillers and don’t know that sharing pills with friends and family is against the law. In 2012, Oklahoma had the fifth-highest unintentional poisoning mortality rate in the US (Source)

“One of the primary causes for recidivism is the inability of offenders to find consistent work to provide for themselves and their families. This burdensome and damaging approach also undermines corrections efforts paid for by taxpayers. The Oklahoma Department of Corrections and other non-profit entities assist offenders with occupational training while in prison. Offenders are prevented from ever being able to receive a license from some of the very occupations that inmates receive training for in prison!”

-Jonathan Small of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, writing in support of HB 2168, which would remove some job licensing restrictions for those with felony convictions not substantially related to the occupation (Source)

“The institutional culture that allows those students to do that has to be dealt with, but it’s not just institutional culture, it’s systematic culture that has to be dealt with in the state of Oklahoma. We cannot continue to keep our heads in the sand.”

-D. Lavel Crawford, pastor of Avery Chapel AME Church and member of a group of black preachers calling for ongoing investigation and dialogue about racism in colleges and universities across the state (Source)

“You don’t have enough money to fund core functions of government. Let’s get our fiscal house in order.”

-Oklahoma House Democratic Minority Leader Scott Inman, debating his amendment to cancel a scheduled income tax cut that is adding $57 million to the state’s $611 million budget shortfall. The proposal to block the income tax cut was voted down in a party line vote (Source).

“It frightens me a little. I can’t afford the premium without the subsidy. If that is taken away, I won’t be insured.”

-Liz Masters, a Tulsa woman who has health insurance for the first time in years thanks to Affordable Care Act subsidies that opponents of the law are trying to block at the Supreme Court (Source)

“The federal minimum wage, which applies in Oklahoma, has been stuck at $7.25 for six years. It has been eroding in value even longer, falling by 30 percent since 1979 when adjusted for inflation. Stagnant low-end wages leave a growing number of working families unable to afford their basic needs and fuel growing income inequality. It also means more families have to turn to public supports like Medicaid and food stamps to get by, amounting to a huge subsidy of low-paying employers by American taxpayers.”

– Executive Director David Blatt, writing on the need for a minimum wage hike in his Journal Record column (Source)