Quotes of the Day

I was expecting to see it. I was looking for it, and it’s not there.

-Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, who said there’s no evidence that small businesses are reducing hiring due to the Affordable Care Act (Source: http://usat.ly/18p83uR)

When I had my first son, I was diagnosed with postpartum depression. I was on Prozac for about two months. They told me I had a diagnosis of depression and was uninsurable. I was devastated. My husband had just been laid off. Ever since I’ve been able to, I’ve been a working person and worked hard and carried insurance and everything, and then it was just like being left out in the cold.

-Yukon nurse Katie Bolin, who will be able to purchase insurance for the first time in a year when Affordable Care Act protections for Oklahomans with pre-existing conditions go into effect next year (Source: http://bit.ly/18mJcrw)

I’ve done physical, hard labor almost all of my working life. I can feel it every day when I get up. My back hurts, my leg hurts, my hands… What I need is access to health care. I’m willing to pay for that. But I think that people who can’t afford to pay for it shouldn’t have to expect to simply become sick or become crippled or die.

-Hugh Meade, an Oklahoma City sign fabricator who will be able to obtain health insurance for the first time in 10 years on the new Affordable Care Act marketplace (Source: http://bit.ly/18kLOpU)

If we’re going to sell our souls for high-stakes testing, we have to be able to rely on timely test data and consistent standards that are not raised at the last minute to create false failing scores.

-Stan Trout, principal at Sand Springs’ Charles Page High School (Source: http://bit.ly/19khjhZ)

If the Legislature thought it was worth its time to study, debate and vote for the initiative, then why is it not worth funding? It appears some think that passing the bill made lawmakers look tough on crime but funding the bill makes them look soft on crime. Figure out that reasoning.

-Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz, on lawmakers’ failure to fund implementation of criminal justice reforms passed in 2012 (Source: http://bit.ly/19gTYOb)

We want our soldiers to have all the benefits to which they’re entitled to.

-Oklahoma National Guard spokesman Col. Max Moss, who said they are directing Guard members to apply for same-sex marriage benefits at federal facilities after Governor Fallin ordered them to stop processing applications at state-run facilities (Source: http://politi.co/19dnODa)

If she could just not worry about the politics and do what’s right for the people of Oklahoma — that’s what her job is. That’s what politicians forget sometimes.

-Chris Gatliff, a Lawton restaurant worker making below the poverty line and a diabetic, on Gov. Fallin’s refusal to accept federal dollars to expand health insurance for the lowest income Oklahomans (Source: http://wapo.st/19aayPT).

This is an enormous change. Now everybody has the assurance regardless of their health condition that they can get coverage … It’s the largest change with respect to health insurance since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.

-Oklahoma Deputy Insurance Commissioner Mike Rhoads (Source: http://bit.ly/180eVOX), on the new Affordable Care Act insurance marketplace, which bans discrimination based on preexisting conditions.

For a lot of these kids, there is no safety net.

-Jessica Mitchell, Youth Services of Tulsa, on youth who are homeless and/or ‘aged-out’ of the foster care system (Source: http://bit.ly/17UBwwc).

Anything that challenges the fundamental right to access the court is going to be challenged and should be challenged. You shouldn’t have to go out and hire an expert before you ever even access the courts. That’s a fundamental right.

-Tulsa attorney Glenn Beustring, on a law requiring plaintiffs to obtain a “certificate of merit” from an expert before their case can be heard in court. The Oklahoma Supreme Court has twice thrown this law out as unconstitutional, but lawmakers approved it again during the recently ended special session (Source: http://bit.ly/17S2SmG).