Recent editorials from North Carolina newspapers:
July 23
The Fayetteville Observer on a possible compromise on Medicaid expansion in North Carolina:
The nonprofit National Bureau of Economic Research released this month a sobering study that estimates about 15,600 more people have died than otherwise might have if Medicaid had been expanded to all 50 states, as the Affordable Care Act originally intended. It based its figures on comparing the death rates of people aged 55 to 64 in states that expanded Medicaid vs those that did not.
A U.S. Supreme Court decision eliminated the Obamacare requirement that states expand Medicaid, which rendered it an option. Since 2014, when expansion began rolling out, 36 states and the District of Columbia have chosen to expand Medicaid, with North Carolina and a group of mostly southern states as the last holdouts.
Debate over whether to expand Medicaid has stalled the budget process for the N.C. General Assembly. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has said he would not support a budget without expansion, and vetoed the compromise budget put up by the GOP-led legislature in late June.
State Rep. Elmer Floyd of Fayetteville believes he has a way forward. Floyd, a Democrat, is one of the few in his party who broke ranks to vote for the June budget, he says because of all the projects it would bring Cumberland County’s way. But at a press conference in Raleigh (Monday), he was talking Medicaid expansion - specifically calling for the N.C. General Assembly to take up House Bill 655, a stand-alone bill outside of the budget that would offer expansion to people with jobs or who are looking for work. Floyd was joined by two other Democratic representatives, Charles Graham of Robeson County and Garland Pierce of Scotland County.
The bill, NC Health Care for Working Families, has had a consistent presence on the House calendar since July 10 but has not been voted on.
We cannot know whether Floyd really thinks this bill has a chance, or whether he is offering it up to make clear to Democratic voters he supports “healthcare expansion in any form” as he put it Tuesday.
Either way, we think the bill is certainly worth a look, at least as a first step toward Medicaid expansion, even as the odds for its passage seem long at this point.
Republican House Speaker Tim Moore has said his chamber would only take up HB 655 if it first votes to override Cooper’s veto.
Moore, however, has previously expressed support for HB 655. In an interview last week on local station WIDU, he appeared to back at least the basic premise of Medicaid expansion, citing as an example someone who is working at a job that pays $20,000 a year who would not be able to afford health insurance that costs $15,000.
In the state Senate, the clouds are much darker when it comes to expansion, with Senate Leader Phil Berger drawing a hard line against it.
Berger’s and Cooper’s contribution to budget “negotiations” on Tuesday amounted to a sharp Twitter exchange.
“Governor, you didn’t respond to me last week on this subject,” Berger tweeted. “As I said to you in my message, I was hoping we could talk free from the media/Twitter spectacle. But if the only way you’ll communicate with me is via Twitter, then that’s your decision.”
Cooper tweeted back: “That’s not a response to our reasonable budget compromise offer. Still waiting. I have told you many times that Medicaid expansion must be part of this discussion. Glad to talk and meet again when you are ready to respond.”
The back-and-forth reminds us all that the impasse is still very much intact. But we applaud any signs of compromise, including the first-step offer Floyd advocated on Tuesday.
Online: https://www.fayobserver.com/
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July 19
The StarNews of Wilmington on a bill that could allow North Carolina state leaders to operate a locally-owned museum:
Should the state take over the Cape Fear Museum?
Under Senate Bill 525, a super-vague measure introduced by Sen. Jerry Tillman of Archdale, and quietly passed last month and signed into law, the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is directed simply to “evaluate the feasibility of operating a museum in southeastern North Carolina” and report back.
New Hanover County Commissioner Julia Boseman - who pushed for the idea - has implied such a facility would replace Wilmington’s Cape Fear Museum, though the legislation mentions neither Wilmington or the county-owned museum at 10th and Market. Obviously something’s brewing behind the scenes.
Would there be some kind of partnership with the Cape Fear Museum? Would the state take over the museum entirely? Would the Cape Fear Museum be in play at all? The legislation doesn’t say.
Boseman, a former senator, told WECT News that the state could put more resources into a museum, and its ownership would free up the $1 million in funding the county spends on the museum each year.
It is an appealing notion:
The state could probably spend a lot more money promoting the museum. Being a state site would give it more cachet and link it directly with our outstanding state museums in Raleigh and elsewhere. That’s pretty good company. There could be more opportunities for expansion and better facilities.
(We can’t help but believe Boseman’s support of the plan is related to the Project Grace proposal, which would see the Cape Fear Museum moved to a new facility on the downtown library block the county wants to redevelop. Boseman is skeptical of the plan, which seems to have slowed to a crawl. We would like to see the museum in the main part of downtown, regardless of who owns it.)
There certainly is a precedent for state museums located outside the flagship facilities in Raleigh, including the N.C. Maritime Museums in Southport and Beaufort. State museums in Asheville and Elizabeth City focus on those unique areas.
Of course, the new law refers only to “a museum in Southeastern North Carolina.” What if the state chooses Fayetteville or Elizabethtown or Wallace?
And what if the state decides to cherry-pick, grabbing the museum’s choicest exhibits and shipping them off to Raleigh or Charlotte or wherever? During World War I, when the local museum was kicked out of the Wilmington Light Infantry armory for the duration, the state took hold of the artifacts and it took more than a decade for local organizers to get them back.
None of these caveats make state control of the museum a bad idea, but a lot of questions remain to be answered.
Online: https://www.starnewsonline.com/
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July 18
The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina, on a chant at President Trump’s campaign rally which targeted a U.S. House representative:
It happened in the first half of Wednesday’s speech. Donald Trump, our president, began to talk about Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota who was among the four women of color he had attacked Sunday in a racist tweet. Everyone knew Trump would speak about the women at some point to the Greenville, North Carolina, crowd. Did we know what would come next?
“Send her back.”
The chant rose quickly from a handful of voices to a chorus of bigotry. It was a chilling moment. It was “lock her up” in a white hood. It was despicable.
“Send her back.”
It could have happened at any Donald Trump rally. It might have happened in any state, north or south. But it happened in Greenville, in our state, and it was one of North Carolina’s darker moments.
“Send her back.”
Or perhaps not. Maybe the chant will be absorbed in the vortex that is Donald Trump. In a presidency of so many shameful moments, of so many new lows, the singularly awful ones tend to lose their significance. It’s possible that North Carolina might be forgotten when the chant inevitably spreads to the next rally. But North Carolina shouldn’t forget.
For a state that likes to boast membership in the new South, we have difficulties shedding the old stench of discrimination. We were the last U.S. state to ban gay marriage just seven years ago. We were the first state to pass a transgender bathroom bill with HB2 four years after that.
And yes, we had a bit of a progressive wave here last year. We sent more people to Raleigh who think bills like HB2 are a blight on our state. But we still struggle with segregation in our cities. We still are burdened by economic disparity. We also still have overt moments like Wednesday, and we can’t blame it all on Donald Trump.
“Send her back.”
There will be a temptation for some today to point to Wednesday’s rally and say that’s not who we are in this state. We hear that kind of thing a lot these days when our president, but not only our president, acts contrary to the values we think this country shares.
But there was some backlash this week when people pointed to the president’s Sunday tweet and declared that it wasn’t who we are. Because it is, of course, part of who we always have been in America. And in North Carolina. It’s who we were in Wilmington in 1898. It’s who we were when Dorothy Counts made that first walk to Harding High. It’s who we were when we redlined black residents out of white neighborhoods decades ago. It’s who we were on a July night in Greenville, and it could be what’s coming to Charlotte next summer.
“Send her back,” Donald Trump’s supporters chanted, without seeing the irony that it was they who were moving backward. “Send her back,” they cried, and it was both a reminder and a warning that here in North Carolina, in America, going back is not that far of a journey.
Online:
https://www.charlotteobserver.com and https://www.newsobserver.com/
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