Seeing Berger and Moore beam over Medicaid expansion made my blood boil | Opinion

Berger and Moore

It honestly boiled my blood to see N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate Leader Phil Berger on the March 3 front page beaming over Medicaid expansion.

The opportunity to expand healthcare for hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians has existed for nine years. Nine years! Yet, Republicans who did not want to be associated with “Obamacare” denied that healthcare to their constituents for nearly a decade.

How many people died and suffered for lack of health care during that time?

Moore and Berger shouldn’t be smiling. They should be shamefully apologizing to their constituents that they let them suffer unnecessarily for so long.

Barbara Szombatfalvy, Durham

I’m not fooled

It’s clear that N.C. Republican leaders Tim Moore and Phil Berger used their political skills and realized they’d better grab the limelight away from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper by at last passing a Medicaid expansion deal. I’m not fooled by their sudden willingness to display some largesse to the medically needy. Pragmatic folks, those two. I’ve not forgotten how they denied many of the poor federally funded Medicaid for years. No reason to think they and their team are vote-worthy over this.

Jesse Kaufmann, Hillsborough

Child tax credit

As I sit and do my taxes anticipating the $150 refund I’ll get this year, I long for full expansion of Child Tax Credit. If the CTC were available to me now, as during the pandemic, I would be able to afford safe housing for my children and myself.

The month CTC expansion ended, child poverty increased by 41%, reversing the gains of a constructive policy. As I know firsthand, families are still struggling. Though I work a full-time job, well above minimum wage, it’s not enough to support myself and two children.

I am grateful to Rep. Valerie Foushee for supporting full expansion of the CTC, and hopeful that Sens. Ted Budd and Thom Tillis will. Full expansion of the CTC saves North Carolina money in other areas, such as SNAP benefits and rental assistance. Supporting families through the tax code increases self-sufficiency and reduces dependence on welfare programs.

Diedra Roseborough, Chapel Hill

Walgreens

Walgreens has made a decision not to dispense mifepristone, an FDA approved drug, in red states. While mifepristone is used for medial abortions, it is also prescribed when a woman has had a miscarriage (reducing hemorrhage and infection). Walgreens discontinuance is due to threats by red state attorneys general — even in states where abortion is currently legal — and disregards the health needs of women in these states. As the decision by Walgreens appears strictly financial, I won’t be shopping there until Walgreens changes its position and does not let politics dictate the health care it provides.

Steven Pollak, Durham

Religious ads?

I was stunned and disappointed to see “He Gets Us” religious advertising front and center at the Carolina vs Duke basketball game at the Dean Dome. What happened to separation of church and state? This was clearly paid advertising hitting 44,000 eyes in the Dean Dome and millions across the country. No one should have been forced to see one religious group’s sermonizing about their beliefs. I don’t want to be converted at a sporting event. It was a basketball game at a public state university, for goodness sake!

Beth Gray, Durham

Church and state

It was difficult to decide whether to laugh or cry at the March 2 photos of pious, kneeling pro-life religious leaders who urged members of the N.C. House to vote to make it difficult, if not impossible, for women and girls to obtain abortions because these men believe abortion is murder. While I am glad they can protest and that their protest is guaranteed by our Constitution, I believe they have forgotten another constitutional guarantee — separation of church and state. This constitutional principle leaves government unencumbered by religious motives, which otherwise might be forced upon those who believe differently. So hard to remember, but dangerous to forget.

Charlotte Best, Raleigh

Flawed candidates

Our long tedious 2024 presidential election is beginning to launch. Presently the leading candidates are Biden and Trump, a depressing thought. Neither man has performed well in this office or is doing well in the polls, which is justified and understandable. Both have major flaws and are not deserving of another presidency. Let us all hope that this campaign will present superior nominees for us to consider.

Franklin Smith, Raleigh

A bit of sanity

As an independent N.C. voter, I want to thank our two political parties for being relatively sane. Each party has a few oddballs (which is not a bad thing) and, during elections, we are inclined to be inundated with nonsense, such as that a vote for the other party endangers democracy. But, looking at what’s going on in many other states, I realize that almost everyone in our state government is doing their job and our state is running well. We our fortunate and I laud our two major parties for this.

Arthur G. Powers, Raleigh