Square Dancing in Durham
I enjoyed a great opportunity to bring the Appalachian Square Dance to Durham for an event celebrating the retirement of Nancy Trovillion, who dedicated more than 30 years as Deputy Director of the North Carolina Arts Council.
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Thank you Nancy! Happy retirement!
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Main Street Waynesville Street Dance
We enjoyed a lively crowd at last Friday's street dance on Main Street. We had a special guest appearance from the Egyptian dance team, here for the Folkmoot Festival.
Mark your calendars to join us for our
Last Dance of the Summer
on August 9, 6:30 - 9 p.m.
right in front of the Historic Haywood County Courthouse on Main Street. The Darren Nicholson Band, Lorraine Connor, the Green Valley Cloggers, and Yours Truly will entertain you!
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A wonderful crowd turned out to welcome Folkmoot's Egyptian dance team, guests for our street dance.
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Mountain Youth Charities Barn Dance
Join me this Friday
in Glenville for the third annual Barn Dance to support Mountain Youth Charities. I will be there calling the dance. You can find the details below, and you can
get your tickets here.
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Friends of the Smokies Part 2
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I couldn't help but keep Friends of the Smokies in this week's newsletter after receiving these great photographs from
David Huff.
The event to support our Smoky Mountain National Park was a blast. I joined my good friends and fellow legislators Senator Terry Van Duyn, Representative Brian Turner, and Representative John Ager, all strong supporters of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
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My wife Kate and I leading the dance.
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Brian Turner joining the fun.
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A special thanks to John Ager for hosting the event on his farm.
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And there's no greater supporter of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park than Terry Van Duyn!
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I had a very informative visit at the Person First Open House in Sylva last week, where I learned a lot about this fantastic non-profit. Person First is a non-profit that empowers individuals with disabilities all across Western North Carolina, improving their emotional, physical, and social well-being.
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I joined my good friend Michael Beasley for this wonderful picture with Person First Director Lynda Cowan and Disability Partners Executive Director Barbara Davis.
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Best Wishes Dr. Steve Wall
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Thank you Dr. Steve Wall for your incredible career of service. We wish you a happy 70
th
birthday and a wonderful retirement!
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In another way, we are "dancing away the summer" because of our current budget negotiation stalemate.
A FULL MONTH AGO,
on June 28, Governor Cooper vetoed the state budget, sending it back to the legislature for re-consideration. On July 7, Governor Cooper sent the legislature a proposed compromise budget. Since then, the Republican leadership has
DONE NOTHING,
refusing to come to the table or engage in any good-faith budget negotiations.
They won't even hold a vote on the veto override. As of today the veto override has been on our legislative calendar for 13 consecutive sessions with
NO ACTION.
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Medicaid Expansion: Too Good to be True?
We often hear that Medicaid Expansion is "too good to be true." How could North Carolina extend coverage to 500,000 citizens, create 40,000 jobs, and save thousands of lives
for no new taxes?
Obstruction: Too Stupid to Believe!
Medicaid Expansion is not "too good to be true." The obstruction by our legislative leadership is just
too stupid to believe.
Every single year, North Carolina pays more than
$2.5 billion
in federal taxes for Medicaid expansion. That’s over
$5 billion
in this two-year budget. For nearly a decade, we have been paying, year after year, for Medicaid expansion.
ALL OF IT WASTED.
Now the question is:
Do we want to waste another $5 billion for absolutely nothing in return, or do we want to see
500,000
of our neighbors gain healthcare coverage,
6,000 to 8,000
in Haywood, Jackson, and Swain?
Do we want to waste another $5 billion for nothing, or do we want to lower every North Carolinian’s insurance premiums by an average of
7%
by closing the coverage gap and stopping the cost shifting?
Do we want to waste another $5 billion for nothing, or do we want to create over
40,000
new healthcare jobs in North Carolina, more than
400
in Haywood, Jackson, and Swain?
Do we want to waste another $5 billion for nothing, or do we want to take the single most important step we can to fight the opioid crisis and save thousands of lives every single year,
20 to 30
in Haywood, Jackson, and Swain?
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It’s high time we start taking the value of our federal taxes and the lives of hard-working North Carolinians seriously.
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John Kasich's Medicaid Expansion Leadership
On January 1, 2014, Ohio's Republican Governor John Kasich expanded Medicaid. He recently visited North Carolina to give our legislative leadership an earful on their refusal to take this common sense step.
North Carolina is similar in size to Ohio. Governor Kasich is a passionate spokesman for Medicaid Expansion, but Ohio's success speaks for itself. Since Governor Kasich expanded Medicaid, Ohio has seen incredible results.
- More than 650,000 citizens gained insurance.
- More than $350 million in savings of state funds every single year.
- Dayton, Ohio cut its opioid deaths in half in the first year of expansion.
We can expect similar
positive results
here when we expand Medicaid in North Carolina.
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It’s time to expand Medicaid in North Carolina.
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In North Carolina, John Kasich told our Republican Leadership, "Now, when you die and get to the meeting with St. Peter, he’s probably not going to ask you much about what you did about keeping government small. But he is going to ask you what you did for the poor. You better have a good answer."
Governor Kasich is right on Medicaid Expansion. Not only is it a financially responsible step for our state to take, it's the morally right thing to do.
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Please
share
this with your friends!
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P.S. check out our legislative web page at
www.joesamqueennc.com
. You can find all of my previous newsletters and more!
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