D.C. ghouls have put Kansas kids and families on the chopping block. We’re finally noticing.
Kansans overwhelmingly agree that our country makes raising a family too difficult, and the government needs to do more, according to new research. (Rebecca Rivas/Missouri Independent)
Writing about children and families of late has felt a bit like watching that Philadelphia Phillies game where an enraged older woman snatched a home run ball from a 10-year-old boy’s father. One generation has been doing its best to wrest resources from another, damn the consequences and judgment from anyone else.
You could see lawmakers in Washington, D.C., behaving just like the silver-haired woman at LoanDepot Park. All but one member of the Kansas delegation voted for the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, which targeted social safety net spending — Medicaid and SNAP most notably — to finance tax cuts for the richest Americans. For all of President Donald Trump’s bloviating about making our country great again, he seems most interested in strip-mining our (unvaccinated) children’s future.
In this moment, it can feel as though no one is paying attention.
Thankfully, new research shows otherwise. Folks included in a new survey from nonpartisan researchers PerryUndem agree overwhelmingly that our country makes raising a family too difficult, and the government needs to do more to help children and those who care for them. I spoke with Mike Perry from the firm and David Jordan from the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund (which co-sponsored the effort) to learn more.
Here are the five biggest takeaways.
1. People are paying attention
Perry told me the study was a special effort, gathering both national and statewide data. They also went beyond simple surveys.
“I got to talk to real Kansans across the state in focus groups and ask about their lives,” he said. “This study focused on families with young children and asked them about their lives. I think some of the big takeaways are pretty well known, which are that families are struggling with high cost of living, housing costs, food costs, they come up a lot. And there is this idea that these families are under lots of stress right now, and there is a desire to help them out.”
2. The numbers are overwhelming
In Kansas, 89% of respondents worry about the cost of living, 85% about the cost of food and groceries, 90% about the cost of health care and insurance, and 81% about the cost of housing or rent. Polling seldom shows such overwhelming numbers, and Perry agreed that they showed “people just have lots of clarity, these are problems.”
Jordan added: “There’s a lot of common ground and a shared interest in helping children and families thrive, and that Kansas families are experiencing this firsthand. So it’s tough to get platitudes from policymakers when they know there’s a high cost of living and that they know that policy can help be one part of improving their day-to-day lives.”
3. They want government action
Perry said the the folks he talked to didn’t necessarily want or love the idea of more government. But given the challenges faced by children and their families in Kansas and beyond, they simply didn’t see any other option.
“They’re backing into it because they don’t see any other way to make progress on these kind of problems facing families,” he said. “So yes, they want government to do more.”
4. Kansas, specifically, has fallen short
But that’s not all. The state of Kansas is seen as unsympathetic of those who need help. This, of course, was the whole point of former Gov. Sam Brownback’s HOPE Act, which radically reduced access to family support programs across the state. We’ve lived with this toxic legacy for far too long, but lawmakers in Topeka have only doubled down on failure.
Respondents “feel like it is really hard to get help in Kansas, that the income thresholds are just too low for programs, that they’re not realistic when the cost of living is so high, when food is so expensive, and people are getting turned away in Kansas from programs,” Perry said. “Even though they don’t think they’re doing very well financially, and even when they’re falling behind in bills, they think it’s too hard to qualify for things in Kansas.”
5. Fraud concerns are real
Yes, Kansans have paid attention to coverage of waste, fraud and abuse in government programs. But their reactions don’t stop there.
“In Kansas, you can be somebody who wants to reduce fraud and abuse in programs and at the very same time want to expand access to programs,” Perry said. “These don’t cancel each other out, right? And I think some policymakers, some elected officials, think they do, think it’s one or the other, and it’s not. It’s both.”
Going forward
These issues aren’t going away. Indeed, the passage of Trump’s signature legislation ensures that children and families will face uncertain times ahead. Cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will leave children hungry and sick. And lawmakers that Kansans sent to D.C. helped make it happen.
“We heard time and again that there’s families that are barely making it, and they may be getting help in the smallest of ways, but it’s making a huge difference,” Jordan told me as we wrapped up. “And maybe getting some food assistance, or they’re able to have their child enrolled in Medicaid. But some of these new changes have the potential of ripping away that help, and there’s a lot of fear and worry about that.”
I wish there was a simple answer. I our government could restrain its drive to pump dollars into the bloated ghouls of Wall Street.
Perhaps the best option we have was demonstrated by the Philly sports fans last week, as they drove the angry woman and her ill-gotten baseball out of the stadium with heckling. But that takes everyone paying attention and raising their voice.
Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
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