Quotes of the Day

You know, just because it is legal doesn’t make it ethically and morally right for shareholders to make a profit off of incarceration of our fellow citizens. I guess with my Christian upbringing, there has always been a conflict with that.

-Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Justin Jones, who has run afoul of policymakers who want to put more state inmates in private prisons. Jones announced his resignation yesterday (Source: http://bit.ly/14HGGtS).

As millions of families are struggling to put food on the table, now is not the time to cut SNAP. Feed The Children daily witnesses the success and efficiency of this program in meeting the basic needs of the most vulnerable. SNAP works, reaching those greatest in need.

-Kevin Hagan, president of the Oklahoma-based non-profit Feed the Children, which is fighting to stop a federal Farm Bill that would cut $20.5 billion from SNAP (food stamps) over the next 10 years. He said all of the food provided by charities in the United States only amounts to about 6 percent of the food distributed by federal food programs (Source: http://bit.ly/13U1yvx).

The day has been a red-letter day for the people of Arizona.  It was a win, win, win all the way around.

-Republic Governor of Arizona Jan Brewer, on the state’s approval of the Medicaid expansion after a lengthy legislative fight (Source: http://bit.ly/13KTP2R)

It’s a person. It could be your mom, your dad. Imagine going to the hospital and feeling they are treating you differently once the moment you say you don’t have insurance or you don’t have a Social Security number.

-Oklahoma City resident Deisy Escalera, whose father is struggling to afford dialysis treatments for kidney failure without insurance, because his undocumented immigrant status bars him from federal aid (Source: http://bit.ly/14wzKje)

I’m just doing this pro bono. They ask me why I do this. Well, I don’t play golf or anything like that.

-Attorney Jerry Fent, on why he continues to file lawsuits challenging questionably constitutional bills approved by the Legislature.

It facilitated insurance for a lot of people, and it was a great thing for business owners in Oklahoma. Quite frankly, I’m astonished that they’re getting rid of it.

-Tom Lettich of Catoosa, who said his now-closed disaster recovery business was able to offer health-care coverage to its employees only because of Insure Oklahoma. State lawmakers have chosen to close the program rather than cooperate with changes requested by the federal government (Source: http://bit.ly/14s5wy2).

If we don’t do something, it’s business as usual, right back to the way it was. You’re not going to do nothing but talk.

-Tulsa City Councilor Jack Henderson, on his plan to earmark economic development funds to repair two shuttered north Tulsa recreation centers (Source: http://bit.ly/13hnSPq?)

We disagree with Blatt on many issues, but we concur that this Legislature deserved a downgrade for its ideological forays.

-The Oklahoman Editorial Board, on OK Policy Director David Blatt giving a “D” grade for the recently ended legislative session based on “multiple triumphs of ideology over common sense.” (Source: http://bit.ly/14iWN0R)

The choice between covering 9,000 low-income Oklahomans or zero is a false choice, rooted in a desire to score points against anything that can be labeled Obamacare. It’s time to put Oklahomans’ health and financial security above politics.

-OK Policy Director David Blatt, writing in the Journal Record (http://bit.ly/12Ro4od). By refusing to accept federal dollars for Insure Oklahoma, state lawmakers are left debating between shrinking it to cover just 9,000 individuals or ending the program altogether. In contrast, accepting federal dollars would help 150,000 Oklahomans gain access to health care at little to no extra cost to the state.

As a practicing physician (who never has or will perform an abortion), I deal with the real world. In the real world, 15- and 16-year-olds get pregnant (sadly, 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds do also). In the real world, 62 percent of women ages 20 to 24 who give birth are unmarried. And in the world I work and live in, an unplanned pregnancy can throw up a real roadblock on a woman’s path to escaping the shackles of poverty. Yet I cannot convince my Republican colleagues that one of the best ways to eliminate abortions is to ensure access to contraception.

-Rep. Doug Cox, R-Grove