Rapid City Journal, Feb. 28
Johnson stands by convictions with declaration vote
Courage and conviction won the day over congressional political pressure in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.
South Dakota’s lone congressman broke with his party and voted his conscience, ignoring all political calculations.
Rep. Dusty Johnson was one of 13 Republicans - the only one from a massive swath across the middle of the country - to vote with Democrats to block the President’s emergency declaration funding a southern border wall.
President Trump has promised to veto the action should it reach his desk, making Johnson’s move even more impressive.
The president’s popularity in South Dakota is no secret. Trump’s approval rating here is the third highest among all the states - trailing only West Virginia and Wyoming - according to a recent Gallup poll.
And Johnson is far from bulletproof. Having been in office only a few months, he surely knows any ideological misstep could invite challenges from inside his party. The politically savvy - the safe thing for Johnson - would have been to cede to the president’s wishes and vote against the bill.
Furthermore, the Democrats didn’t need Johnson’s vote. The bill would have easily passed without it.
But Johnson stuck to his convictions because he believed it was the right thing for the country. It took guts.
With his Midwest modesty on full display, Johnson said by phone Wednesday: “I don’t think it took guts at all. I took an oath to the Constitution.”
Johnson voted to block the declaration not because he disagrees with the need for stronger border security, but because he recognizes a superior call to preserve our government of laws.
“Throughout the last two months, I’ve reliably voted with the president on border security and the border wall,” Johnson said in a written statement. “There is still work to be done, and I’m committed to working with him in Congress to continue the progress we’ve made.”
No, Johnson acted because he believes the president overstepped his power. As a member of Congress, it is Johnson’s sworn duty to provide a check on executive power.
The Journal believes that the expansion of executive power which occurred under the Obama Administration was wrong and dangerous. The same principle holds true under President Trump.
“Separation of powers is a central American value, brilliantly established by our Founders,” Johnson said. “It makes governing messy and frustrating, but concentrations of power threaten liberty. This is true, regardless of which party holds the White House.”
Johnson knows the facts of our Constitution do not change depending on who sits in the Oval Office.
He said Wednesday that conservative people can disagree with his vote, and he won’t criticize the votes of others.
“For 30 years, Congress has been giving away too much power,” Johnson said, noting he wants stop that.
Johnson points out that if Democrats win the next presidential election, Republicans in Congress will need vital constitutional checks.
The bill now moves to the Senate, where it must be taken up within 18 days.
South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds has expressed concerns over the president’s emergency declaration.
“If you get another president who believes that climate change is the crisis of the day, that means they could then funnel money out of ongoing programs into climate change,” Rounds said.
Sen. John Thune, the party whip, recognizes that other Republican senators have expressed concerns over the bill, but he has stopped short of saying whether he shares those concerns.
Let’s hope our senators show the courage and conviction of our freshman congressman, placing the Constitution above party loyalty.
Fundamentally, this vote is not about border security. It is about the ongoing consolidation of power in the executive branch and the precedent it sets for future generations.
South Dakota should be proud we elected a man who has the courage to stand up for important ideals, even in the face of strong political pressure.
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American News, Aberdeen, March 3
Demand action on insulin prices
Finger-pointing.
It’s a tactic that stops any potential progress.
But when the heads of pharmaceutical companies testified before U.S. Senate Tuesday, that’s exactly what they did.
In the Feb. 24 American News, readers met Trey Casanova, a 7-year-old who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes three years ago, and his 10-year-old sister, Delanie, who was diagnosed with the same disease on New Year’s Eve.
The Casanova family has racked up thousands and thousands of dollars in insulin and supply costs. And that’s with insurance.
The American Medical Association has noted that the price of insulin increased nearly 200 percent from 2002 to 2013. But nothing beyond the price has changed - not a single thing, said Nancy Hartung, registered nurse and diabetes educator at Sanford Aberdeen.
Across the country, the high cost has those without insurance or the means to afford insulin taking matters into their own hands, purchasing insulin over the counter and “winging it” or rationing what insulin they can afford, Hartung said.
Even worse, some 26-year-olds who have fallen off their parents’ insurance are dying, according to several media reports.
Dying.
That, combined with the high cost of insulin and other prescription drugs, has caught the attention of many, some of whom might be in power to actually enact change. That’s after the attorney general in Minnesota - and those in some other states - filed a lawsuit against insulin makers.
The rising cost of drugs, in general, is something President Donald Trump discussed in his State of the Union Address. And it needs to stay on the national radar.
Representatives in Washington, D.C., are now working to combat the costs and hold the pharmaceutical companies to more affordable terms. At times, it takes many, many hands to make progress.
Those hands cannot, under any circumstances, point fingers at others. Each has to own its role in the problem.
According to The Washington Post, the heads of the pharmaceutical companies agreed that the system is broken.
But they also “declined to commit to lowering their own prices” and instead deflected blame to insurance companies.
Not everyone has insurance, though. And people who don’t are sometimes paying the highest price - death.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease. It is not caused by lack of exercise or excessive weight. And the people - kids and adults - who have Type 1 diabetes will die without insulin.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Gassley (R-Iowa) perhaps said it best: “Like most Americans, I’m sick and tired of the blame game. It’s time for solutions.”
Advocate for that yourself, your family and your friends by contacting South Dakota’s congressional delegation. Let them know we want action, that the status quo is not alright, that we can and must do better. Take on the injustice of the price tag that hangs from each vial of insulin.
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Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, March 1
As winter rages, community stands tall
Winter as an adversary has earned our respect.
Curse it as we might, there is a solemnity to the ritual of living in the Upper Midwest, where frigid weather coarsens our spirit for nearly half a lifetime, offering as mercy the soggy mirage of spring.
Meteorologists insist that the winter of 2018-19 won’t set all-time records for total snowfall or low temperatures, but we are skeptical of that claim. Our March madness portends misery. The forecast stares back and shrugs.
There’s a stubborn pride, or maybe masochism, to what we endure. How many times have we shoveled or blown snow from our driveways, only to be summoned hours later to clear spillover from the plow, knowing we’ll soon repeat the process?
Cars that won’t start. Stumbles on sidewalks. Too many sneezes and pipe near-freezes.
Winter is not a season, it’s an occupation, said novelist Sinclair Lewis. He might as well have been talking about South Dakota.
So why do we do it? For those who have a choice, why live here at all, facing this adversary on an annual basis? Why not seek less-extreme surroundings and never try to explain wind chill again?
There are the obvious reasons dealing with family connections, jobs, the conveniences of a small city and advantages while raising a family. Many of those factors helped Sioux Falls evolve as a city, and we take solace in the fact that we have advantages that many places do not.
Harsh winters, however, make us look harder for the appeal of the Plains, with answers more elusive by the day. But here’s the thing: We don’t suffer in silence. Surviving winter becomes a form of group therapy that bonds us together, turning dreary isolation into shared determination.
Though it all, there are stories to tell. That became evident on a recent afternoon in the Argus Leader newsroom, when positive winter tales began to spring forth as the snow piled up outside.
One reporter recalled when her car went into the ditch a few miles from the Beresford exit on Interstate 29 during a winter storm. After calling the overworked police, she sat there for an hour until a car with two young men pulled a U-turn on the interstate. “They spent the next 20 minutes trying to get my car out and back on the road,” she said. “Eventually, they succeeded, and I was able to get home. I never got their names.”
Another thought back to volunteering at a meal ministry downtown, where he was reminded of those without a home who see brutal winters not as an inconvenience but as a daily struggle to not be left in the cold. The sight of children huddled for breakfast with donated winter coats made him proud to be part of a community that cares.
The last scene took place at an interstate truck stop near Summit during a raging blizzard. A half-dozen travelers, all strangers, worked together to figure out what to do next. They shared information. They commiserated. They joked. And then they went on their way, warmed with coffee, a better knowledge of what’s out there, and in one case, a convoy arranged on a handshake.
These stories help explain why we put up with long stretches of darkness as we await the light of spring. Our sense of place is elevated by an unspoken expectation that we are in this together, mostly because we choose to be, and a realization sinks in.
When the ice melts away and the lilies bloom and nature’s awakening surprises us anew, there is no adversary too great for us to defeat with our appreciation. When that day comes, however long it takes, we are triumphant once again.
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