Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 279, Ed. 1 Monday, May 8, 2017 Page: 4 of 14
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OPINION
4A
Monday, May 8, 2017
Denton Record-Chronicle
Denton Record-Chronicle
Health care
promises
going to be
hard to keep
Published by Denton Publishing Co.,
a subsidiary of A.H. Belo Corporation
Founded from weekly newspapers,
the Denton Chronicle, established in 1882,
and the Denton Record, established in 1897.
Published daily as the Denton
Record-Chronicle since Aug. 3,1903.
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MEDIA COMPANY
EDITORIAL BOARD
Bill Patterson
Publisher and CEO
Scott K. Parks
Managing Editor
Mark Finley
City Editor
Mariel Tarn-Ray
News Editor
PAST PUBLISHERS
William C. “Will” Edwards
1903-1927
Robert J. “Bob” Edwards
1927-1945
Riley Cross
1945-1970
Vivian Cross
1970-1986
Fred Patterson
1986-1999
resident Donald Trump has achieved
his first major legislative success re-
cently with the passage of health care
reform in the House. The bill faces an un-
certain future in the Senate and is no one’s
idea of a perfect solution to repealing and re-
placing Obamacare. But it’s a start.
The biggest challenge to actually getting a
law in place, however,
may be the president,
who keeps promising
more than he can de-
liver. Like President
Barack Obama’s prom-
ise to Americans in
2010 — “If you’ve got a
doctor that you like,
you will be able to keep
your doctor” — Presi-
dent Trump’s assur-
ance that coverage for
pre-existing conditions in the GOP bill will
ensure that no one gets knocked off the rolls
is a bit of a stretch.
Yes, pre-existing conditions will be eligi-
ble for coverage, but not necessarily at the
same price those with current individual
coverage now pay.
The laws of economics — not necessarily
the GOP — are the problem. Republicans
aren’t being honest and upfront. They need
to explain why no law could fix the current
problems with Obamacare without allowing
insurers to adjust premiums to recognize
that some individuals are more expensive to
insure than others.
Will fewer people end up uninsured un-
der the GOP proposal as it stands? Probably,
though over time the hope is that as the in-
surance market adjusts, more options will be
available for plans that cover at least costs for
catastrophic events at a price individuals can
afford.
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Editorials published in the Denton Record-Chronicle
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Texas governor gains
power in month of May
ahbelo.com NYSE symbol: AHC
Linda
Chavez
awmakers and their leaders are gradu-
ally losing power. The governor — that
guy many of them have been ignoring
up to this point — is gaining power.
This isn’t a Game of Thrones thing. It’s
built into the system.
Greg Abbott can veto bills, but only if
they reach his desk.
May is when they start
pouring in. Lawmak-
ers can overrule a gov-
ernor’s vetoes — but
only if they’re in ses-
sion. The session has
to end on May 29.
You see it?
As of Thursday
morning, 38 bills and
resolutions had been
sent to Abbott. The
vast majority of those were resolutions —
important to the people who sponsored
them or were named in them, but mostly not
important to anyone else.
Here’s the point: 6,968 bills and resolu-
tions have been filed this session. Most won’t
pass. That’s how it works. But the numbers
— and the impending legislative deadlines
— frame a recurring and temporary transfer
of power that marks the end of every legisla-
tive session.
Abbott will soon get bills he won’t accept
or reject until after lawmakers leave town —
until after they have missed their chance to
challenge any vetoes he makes. That’s lever-
age. Pretty soon, legislators who might be
more inclined to wag a finger in the gover-
nor’s face will be bringing candy and flowers,
currying favor and smoothing out provisions
that aren’t to Abbott’s liking.
Texas governors can’t pass laws them-
selves. Like everybody else in this sausage
factory, they depend on others to get what
they want. Until the last weeks of a legisla-
tive session, they have only the power of per-
suasion on their side. At the end, however,
the bully pulpit grows teeth; a governor can
back up his or her concerns about a bill with
the threat of killing it.
That’s the stuff of legislative horse trad-
ing. You need this? Give up that. Y’all are in-
terested in what? The governor is interested
in something, too.
Abbott has been trying to persuade law-
makers to create and pay for a much more
robust pre-kindergarten program in Texas.
In large measure, they’ve been ignoring him.
They just haven’t been listening.
But all is not lost. The House and the
Senate are “in conference” on the state bud-
get, meaning each chamber has sent five
members to work out the differences in their
proposals for the next two years of state
spending. The governor doesn’t get to play,
directly.
But he does have a line-item veto, and he
gets the last word on much of what will be in
the state budget for the two years beginning
in September. And he and his aides have
been talking to those 10 negotiators to ex-
press their views.
Bet you a dollar those legislators are
hearing how much Abbott would like to see
some pre-K money in the final budget. Bet
they’re listening, too.
The same forces are at work on other leg-
islative subjects. The governor had four
things on his list of “emergency items” when
he gave his State of the State speech earlier in
the session. Legislation against cities allow-
ing legal sanctuary for undocumented im-
migrants is on its way to him now, approved
by both the Senate and the House. The
wheels are turning on his request to join a
“convention of states” that would propose
changes to the U.S. Constitution.
The same goes for repairs to the state’s
chronically mediocre protections for abused
and neglected children. Lawmakers are
changing some ethics laws in response to his
call for reforms in how public officials and
employees are regulated.
The first half of a legislative session
belongs to lawmakers themselves, and to the
lieutenant governor and the speaker of the
House in particular. The power is in what
legislative seeds are planted, which ones are
nurtured and which ones wither from lack of
attention.
May is harvesting season. The legislative
give-and-take reaches a new pitch. Bills die.
Lawmakers struggle to remove remaining
obstacles for their pet ideas and projects.
And the biggest obstacle at the end of the
course comes into focus: A governor’s veto.
They’re listening to him now.
ROSS RAMSEY is executive editor and
co-founder of The Texas Tribune. The Texas
Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media
organization that informs Texans — and
engages with them — about public policy,
politics, government and statewide issues.
L
Other voices
‘God bless
lawyer Haynes
I
omebody once asked Richard “Racehorse” Haynes
to single out his biggest victory in a lifetime of vic-
tories in Texas courtrooms.
Was it the T. Cullen Davis case, when he got the richest
American ever tried for murder off the hook — not once,
but twice? Or was it the trial of Vickie Daniel, the former
Dairy Queen waitress from Liberty accused of executing
what Haynes called a “Smith and Wesson divorce” from
her husband, who happened to be the speaker of the
Texas House of Representatives?
Nope, Haynes said. The best case he ever won was
when he represented a poor black man unjustly taking
the rap for a white guy who stole some tools from a con-
struction site. After a jury found the defendant not guilty,
his client’s impoverished family threw a party for Haynes
at their Third Ward house, and his children hung up a
sign saying, “God bless lawyer Haynes.”
He was one of the most famous lawyers ever to set foot
in a Houston courtroom, but he never forgot that sign.
Stories like that endeared Haynes to a generation of
criminal defense lawyers in Houston, who are now
mourning the April 28 death of a legendary figure in their
profession. Lawyers who knew him well say the 90-year-
old Houston native had been in poor health for a long
time, that he had lost the orator’s voice other attorneys
likened to a fine classical instrument. Still, they remember
that voice well.
“It was like listening to great music,” said David Berg,
one of many prominent attorneys who considered Haynes
a mentor. “It had a kind of symphonic quality to it.”
Haynes mastery of speaking to juries was matched
only by his command of courtroom theatrics. In his first
trial, he discovered jurors apparently felt sorry for him
after he stumbled over a spittoon, so he repeated the
same stunt in trial after trial.
S
-WJ
Ross
Ramsey
Politicians don’t want to admit that you
can’t cover everyone, including people who
are very sick already, without the price of in-
surance going up for everyone. That was one
of the major defects in Obamacare.
Yes, the Democrats succeeded in mandat-
ing that individuals buy insurance and em-
ployers provide affordable options to full-
time employees, which expanded coverage
and mandated benefits, but it also caused in-
surers in many states to opt out of the market
and made premiums rise faster for many
people who were already covered. Without
federal subsidies, the system collapses.
Cynics believe that the Obama adminis-
tration knew its program would fail but
thought that would make it easier to con-
vince the American people that the only so-
lution would be a single-payer, government-
funded health care system, which Demo-
crats have been pushing for decades. But the
public has been less enthusiastic.
Unfortunately, this White House is not in
a position to make a case to the American
people because the president has been all
over the place in the debate and, more im-
portantly, seems not to understand the issue
or policy specifics well.
That leaves House Speaker Paul Ryan as
the main advocate, but he comes across as
too wonky and in the weeds to make the best
case.
He once famously used a cattle prod to shock himself
in a courtroom; only later did he reveal that he’d pulled a
sneaky trick to reduce the voltage. He came close to driv-
ing a nail through his hand in front of a jury, but he
changed his mind when he concluded it could backfire
against his client if he cried in court.
It didn’t take long for him to become a cultural phe-
nomenon. One of his highest-profile cases, the byzantine
story behind the murder of River Oaks plastic surgeon
John Hill, became the subject of the best-selling true
crime classic Blood and Money. Over the decades, he’s
been caricatured on film as the stereotypical flamboyant
Texas lawyer, and composers have memorialized him in
songs with titles like “Whips, Chains and Racehorse
Haynes.”
But attorneys who worked with him mourn more than
just the passing of a colorful character. They’ll tell you
Haynes was a throwback to a golden age of trial law, a
time when it seemed most attorneys considered the law a
calling, a passionate commitment to justice.
It bothered him, they say, that so many of the best
young minds of our time now devote their careers not to
law, but to finance or other professions simply because
they pay better.
Funny thing about Haynes: One of his University of
Houston classmates told us he took the bar exam, got his
license and started practicing his profession without even
graduating from law school. He was a natural.
Haynes was one of those classic figures who helped
earn Houston a reputation for producing some of the
most brilliant criminal lawyers in the nation. No wonder
so many of his acolytes echo the sentiment that came
from the children of his favorite client: “God bless lawyer
Haynes.”
We’ll see which GOP senator emerges as
the spokesperson on this issue, but most are
wary of wading into the fray.
“Repeal and replace Obamacare” has
been the mantra of the GOP for so long now
— since 2010 — it’s a bit surprising the party
hasn’t invested more time and energy in fig-
uring out how to explain the issues to the
American people in ways they can grasp
quickly.
It begins with admitting that any plan
that expands coverage is likely to cost more,
especially if young, healthy people can’t be
persuaded to buy in.
It would also help if the party admitted
that some health care costs should be borne
by individuals out of pocket, just as we expect
individuals to pay for routine maintenance
on other insurable things, such as cars and
homes, especially if they are able to afford it.
People also need to understand that their
behaviors affect their health, and bad eating
habits, smoking, drinking and illicit drug use
raise health risks and should raise premiums
accordingly. Like cigarette taxes, an un-
healthy lifestyle tax on premiums might even
encourage individuals to change their pat-
terns.
Letters to the editor
Get to know U.S. Foreign Service
More than 16,000 members of the U.S.
Foreign Service serve our country around
the world. America’s diplomats and develop-
ment professionals help prevent the spread
of conflict, open markets for U.S. goods, as-
sist Americans abroad, negotiate agree-
ments in line with U.S. goals, report on
threats to the U.S. homeland and work
alongside our military on a range of missions
from stabilizing Iraq to earthquake relief in
Haiti.
SUBMISSIONS
Letters for publication must include the writer’s
name, address and telephone number.
The Record-Chronicle reserves the right to edit
letters for length. Letters should be typed or
legibly handwritten and be 250 or fewer words.
We prefer email submissions.
Send to: drc@dentonrc.com.
Otherwise, fax to 940-566-6888, or mail to:
Letters to the editor, P.0. Box 369,
Denton, TX 76202
Living and working conditions can be
threatening. Few of my fellow citizens realize
how important the Foreign Service is to our
nation. I proudly served in the Foreign Ser-
vice for 37 years with the U.S. Information
Agency.
The U.S. Senate has designated the first
Friday in May as ‘American Foreign Service
Day.” Members of the Foreign Service
around the world and here at home came to-
gether to recognize the thousands of people
who commit their lives to serving the U.S.
abroad and to celebrate the impact their
work.
members and their families. I hope that
America’s diplomats and their important
work were in your thoughts this May 5. It is
also my hope that my fellow countrymen
take this time to get to know the Foreign Ser-
vice.
The new U.S. Secretary of State, Texan
Rex Tillerson, has tough challenges con-
fronting him as the four pillars for Foreign
Service — consular, economics, political and
public diplomacy — are being challenged by
the new administration.
Fred A. Coffey Jr.,
Denton
But elected officials need to make the case
to their constituents why such changes are
needed. Unfortunately, they won’t. Instead,
they’ll make promises they can’t possibly
keep and wonder why voters no longer be-
lieve anything they say.
“Yes, premiums will be coming down,”
President Trump said from the Rose Garden
on Thursday. “Yes, deductibles will be com-
ing down.”
And when they don’t, the GOP in 2018
will be in the same place Democrats were in
2010, facing big losses in the midterm elec-
tion.
Texas is home to 2,500 Foreign Service
— Houston Chronicle
This day in history: May 8
Denton Record-Chronicle mission statement
Today is Monday, May 8,
the 128th day of 2017. There
are 237 days left in the year.
On May 8,1945, President
Harry S. Truman announced on
radio that Nazi Germany’s forces
had surrendered, and that “the
flags of freedom fly all over Eu-
Mississippi River.
In 1794, Antoine Lavoisier,
the father of modem chemistry,
was executed on the guillotine
during France’s Reign of Terror.
In 1846, the first major bat-
tle of the Mexican-American
War was fought at Palo Alto;
U.S. forces were able to beat
back Mexican forces.
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about every day. We hope those ideas lead you to become involved in your community, both with
your commentary and your actions.
LINDA CHAVEZ is the author of “An
Unlikely Conservative: The Transforma-
tion of an Ex-Liberal.” Her column is
distributed by Creators Syndicate Inc.
rope.
In 1541, Spanish explorer
Hernando de Soto reached the
— The Associated Press
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 279, Ed. 1 Monday, May 8, 2017, newspaper, May 8, 2017; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1131390/m1/4/: accessed July 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .