Ignorant Fools
Those parasitic poor people just aren't working hard enough—or at all. This is the message from Sen. Jacob Anderegg, R-Lehi, who's done the math, unlike the incompetent masses we sometimes call voters. "You cannot multiply wealth in this country by dividing it," he said on the Senate floor, as if that meant something. Anderegg was upset because the Senate was slow to release his bill to repeal the Medicaid expansion initiative. If only people understood how much this thing would cost the state. "I'm sorry, I don't want to take away the rights of the people, but I have to balance the budget," he says, and it will be on the backs of the poor. One Salt Lake Tribune commenter summed it up: "Jacob Anderegg is '100 percent convinced' that a majority of Utahns would not have cast a ballot in favor of full expansion if they understood its cost to the state. Well I am fully convinced he just called the majority of Utahns ignorant fools and he has no idea what he is talking about."
Beep, Beep!
If you were wondering, wonder no more. Rep. Phil Lyman, R-Blanding, is in the Legislature and determined to ride his ATV right through your public lands. That, of course, is a metaphor. The good people of San Juan County, or more accurately House District 73, elected Lyman, convicted of leading an illegal protest through Recapture Canyon, and they're ready to see him work wonders at the Capitol. So far, so good. Lyman introduced a bill to throw people in jail for illegally closing a public road, Utah Policy reported. It's all about putting those "enviros" in their place. But wait. Now you've got the Democrats in Congress and they're pushing to re-expand Bears Ears National Monument. That might sit well with the new Democratic majority in San Juan County.
Port vs. People
Maybe it's a done deal, but you have to give props to the many people who've come out to oppose the inland port. The debate can be boiled down to money vs. health, and in Utah, money usually wins. Some 200 people, according to the Trib, gathered last weekend to hear the plans and plead for sanity amid concern over the port's environmental impacts. We're talking major freight operations on 20,000 acres in the fragile Northwest Quadrant. The Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment are beating the drum about the negative impacts, and legislators should listen. "A recent landmark study indicates that long-term exposure to even low levels of diesel exhaust raises the risk of dying from lung cancer about 50 percent for residents who live near industrial operations, and about 300 percent for the workers," according to the organization. But, hey, money talks. Right?
