My wife and I, with friends, spend part of most Thursday nights playing Trivia at a sports bar. Our team does pretty well, capped by a run of wins before Trivia went on break for the Holidays.
The games came back this month, with new rules: if you win one of the nightly five rounds you pick-up a 10 point (out of 100 possible) handicap. Win two rounds and you carry a 20 point handicap in the remaining rounds.
As stated by the micro-phoned questioner, the goal is to give more teams a chance to win. Handicaps in golf, bowling and other sports help level the field, making the contests less brutal in the face of strong opponents.
For generations many government programs operated a sort of handicapping system too. For example, food stamps help those with less money compete at the grocery store, Pell Grants assist students unable to pay the full cost of higher education, and, Missouri uses a complex (almost incomprehensible) formula to send more state money to school districts with lower local tax bases. In government-ese, programs are means tested to insure that those with the greater needs get more help. For a long time that has seemed compassionate and fair.
Alas, for better than a generation state and federal government have been inching away from compassionate and fair. Since the early Reagan years Republican administrations have shifted from evaluating situations and pin-pointing federal help to those areas with greatest need to block grants, essentially letting states or lower levels of government decide who gets what help.
As I’ve talked about before, block grants have not served the people of Missouri well. For example, the other year the Missouri legislature diverted funds which could have gone to help families with small kids to give over $8 million a year in grants to politically-connected special interests. More flexibility with other Department of Social Services funding is resulting in millions siphoned-off by out of state contractors to do tasks state employees formerly handled.
So, with Washington itching to turn food stamps, Medicaid and several other benefit programs into block grants, well, in the Show Me State we must stay alert. We have to expect the super majority party to seize every opportunity to take benefit dollars from struggling families so as to enrich the powerful.
How could they do this?
►Privatize MO HealthNet. About the nation several monster size corporations stand ready to bid on operating all of Missouri’s Medicaid program – for a big fee. One of the biggest players, Centene, is based in St. Louis County. Another, Maximus, already is working with the Family Support Division within DSS. (BTW, MO HealthNet is about an $8 billion a year enterprise.)
► Re-define Food Stamps. Uninformed Missouri legislators have already tried to ignore federal rules and limit what foods families can purchase. With a food stamp block grant Missouri could not just limit what foods are allowed but could go further and assign families to shop at just one chain of stores. The claim is that such control would limit administrative costs and reduce fraud. (Besides, we all know which chain would win the contract: indications are that they already collect better than 55¢ of every food stamp dollar issued in Missouri.)
► Re-define Temporary Assistance. Missouri has already cut the time limit and added new requirements for those getting that “generous” $7.59 per family per day [Nov. 2016 Monthly Management Report www.dss.mo.gov/re ] Temporary Assistance grant. While the state had spent millions on a patchwork of contractors to ‘ready’ parents for the job market, the effort hasn’t been successful. (In November no one in the state was in Temporary Assistance related On The Job Training.) Why not just eliminate the system and give new moms a one-time grant of $1,500?
You get the idea.
Now, back to the rules of the game. Remember, for a long time the notion of a handicap, such as in golf, was the model. What could be the new illustrative sport?
How about a quick pool game of 8 Ball? Knock in a ball on the break, get your remaining balls in the pockets and then sink the 8 ball and the game can be yours without your opponent every getting a shot. Oh, most games both players get to shoot but that isn’t guaranteed. And, pool players use their skills to try to prevent the opponent from getting a good shot when they do get a turn.
Imagine you’ve lost your job, your health insurance has run out and your youngest child needs a doctor. You contact Missouri’s Medicaid contractor – and they fit you in for an application appointment. They anticipate that a slot in the program for your family will open-up in three or four months. Until then you’re responsible for all your family’s health costs.
That same child has Celiac Disease. Too bad the food stamp store won’t let you exchange the allowed loaf of sandwich bread for some rice cakes.
The bottom line is that if you’re not worried about fairness and compassion but just about costs, well, you can always cut costs and take care of your friends. That’s the Republican way. If not constantly challenged it will become the norm in Missouri and America.
All of us who have room in our hearts for our neighbors must remain vigilant and vocal, reminding everyone of the consequences of these new rules. Good people, innocent people will suffer needlessly. We must object to that and challenge those in power to remember the values which made America great.
Last night my team won the first and second rounds of Trivia, meaning our scores got discounted by 10 points in the second round and 20 points each in the third, fourth and fifth rounds – a 70 point handicap for the night. Despite the handicap we managed to also win round five and the overall total for the night.
You can’t keep some people from winning.
Submitted by Glenn Koenen