Nebraska Republican State Senator tells Voters: "We just can't afford to save those lives." [View all]

[Omaha Steve]

By DUer Nancy Meyer


Tuesday, Feb 12, 2013 was Planned Parenthood Lobby Day at the Nebraska state capitol. More than 100 everyday people from all over the state assembled in Lincoln to talk to senators about upcoming legislative bills 528, 452 and 577. One of them, Republican Bill Kintner of District 2, was revealingly candid about his opinion of LB 577 with our group of eight concerned citizens.

LB 577 extends Medicaid coverage to an estimated 54,000 low-income people in Nebraska, including families. The stats show that for every 175 people who gain Medicaid coverage, one death is prevented, so this means approximately 500 Nebraskan deaths would be prevented. The option is fiscally prudent, because 100% of costs will be be covered by the federal government through 2016. The match does not go below 90% in the following years.

I see LB 577 as a pro-life, pro-family, pro-child piece of legislation. But Senator Kintner was adamantly opposed to the bill, saying that it just cost too much. We read him financial data to the contrary, but he just kept insisting it would cost the state "billions". Finally I said, "But studies show that it would save 500 lives in Nebraska." His response was, "Well, we just can't afford to save those lives." We were all stunned into silence. Finally I said, "Really? You won't vote in favor of saving the lives of Nebraskans?" Kintner shook his head. "We just can't afford it."

I replied, "Well, that's not a very pro-life position."

At that point some of the others found their voices and changed the topic. We were asked not to be confrontational, so I held my tongue.

The UNL student newspaper the Daily Nebraskan had a reporter at the end of day debriefing meeting where we all told about our experiences. A young woman named Alana in our group stood up and told everyone about Mr. Kintner's comment. Still, I called the DN and made sure they knew about it, and the editor sounded very interested. However I have been quite disappointed to have been unable to find any coverage of the lobby day in the DN, or any other Nebraska paper.

Senator Kintner had told us he has no children, and it is my opinion that he also has no sense of moral responsibility for his fellow man. Unless you count moral responsibility as exclusively whatever is perceived to affect pocketbooks and his re-election chances. And yet this man holds a "public service" role.

Here in the very religious and conservative red state of Nebraska we have a low population, and for the most part Nebraskans live by modest means relative to the rest of the nation. Term limits in our unicameral keep members of our small state legislature from becoming too entrenched and powerful. Kintner is a freshman senator who rode in on a wave of support from Christian conservatives. Yet I predict that his time in office is going to be a painfully long one for those Christians who follow Jesus' "whatever you do for the least of my brothers" rule (Matthew 25:40).

Mr. Kintner is endorsed by Nebraska Right to Life and he believes abortion should be legal in NO cases.

"We just can't afford to save those lives" indeed.