MORAN With the elections in the rearview mirror, Congress members will return to Washington, D.C., next week for what typically is considered a lame-duck session.
It could be an eventful one for Kansas farmers.
Sen. Jerry Moran, speaking Tuesday at a town hall event in Moran (the community), said theres a chance a new farm bill will come sometime soon.
Passage seems more likely than I thought a few weeks ago, Moran told about 25 gathered for lunch at the Moran Senior/Community Center.
His goal with any legislation is to ensure crop insurance remains a viable tool for producers.
We live in places where weather is often not our friend, Moran said. There have been floods and droughts in the same year, sometimes in the same places.
MORANS hourlong discussion part civics lessons, part pep rally for rural Kansas living covered topics such as veterans benefits, and how Kansas is affected by ongoing tariff wars.
Moran also discussed whether anything can be done to thwart price-gouging in sales of pharmaceuticals; his disdain for federal involvement in such things as education policy; and the folly of sending the military to the border to stop a caravan of Honduran migrants from entering the United States.
A few highlights:
PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS
Humboldts Mike Bruner, chairman of the Allen County Democratic Party, pressed Moran on Pfizers announcement just days after the midterm elections that it was raising prices of 41 drugs, which he described as a troublesome pattern, particularly when drug companies use their influence to lobby for looser regulations.
The incident, Bruner contended, illustrates how money has unfairly influenced the entire political system.
Moran didnt dispute Bruners comments, said any solutions may be a ways off. He walked the audience through the complications involved with tackling the problem.
There are lots of ideas about what to do, Moran said. The question is, can you get them accomplished?
To illustrate, Moran invoked the ongoing debate about healthcare in general.
Weve had a major debate about the Affordable Care Act, and the pros and cons, he explained. My view from the beginning, long before President Obama became president, was … not who pays for it, but why it costs so much money to begin with.
The Affordable Care Act was created, but it still left too many people who couldnt afford health care, Moran said. We didnt do anything about why insurance costs so much. We just said somebody else was going to pay those high costs.
Costs could be curbed somewhat, Moran said, if legislators change the way medicine is patented, noting drug companies can slightly alter formulas for some products, allowing them to extend patents and keep more affordable generic brands off the market for up to 14 years.
