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Republicans don’t have to listen to their Black colleagues. That’s how they designed it.

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Republicans don’t have to listen to their Black colleagues. That’s how they designed it.

Note: This editorial anchored Mississippi Today’s weekly legislative newsletter. Subscribe to our free newsletter for exclusive access to legislative analysis and up-to-date information about what’s happening under the Capitol dome.

Mississippi Republican legislative leaders don’t have to listen when their Black colleagues tell them that they’re stripping voting power from Black Mississippians.

They don’t have to listen when they’re told that they’re passing a bill that is bound for yet another federal court battle, that they’re stoking racial division across the state, that they’re once again drawing horrible national attention, that they’re dragging Mississippi back in time.

Republicans have carefully created for themselves a legislative body with virtually unlimited and unchecked power. It allows them to completely shut people who don’t look like them or think like them out of the legislative process, and they often use it to pass legislation that stretches the limits of democracy.

This is no accident. Over the past 30 years, as Mississippi’s electorate shifted from the Democratic to Republican Party, Republicans used their newfound power to strategically redraw legislative districts and give themselves supermajority control of both the Senate and House. They can, without any say whatsoever from Democrats, pass any bill they want. Inside the Capitol, a small handful of GOP leaders have drawn up rules that give them all the power, and rank-and-file legislators — including the vast majority of Republican legislators — wield little influence over what passes or fails.

Democrats, meanwhile, the party of the overwhelming majority of Black Mississippians, have no voting power at all inside the Capitol. They can give impassioned speeches at the wells, they can stretch debates to four-plus hours, they can walk off the floor to protest racist bills, they can hold fiery press conferences, but they cannot stop Republicans from passing any single piece of legislation.

There is almost never partisan compromise. There is rarely genuine debate. There is plenty of one-sided control.

READ MORE: The purposefully broken lawmaking process in Jackson

With this power, Republicans have passed all sorts of legislation the past couple years despite vocal pushback from Black lawmakers: a critical race theory ban, which famously led every Black senator to walk off the floor in protest before the final vote; tighter legislative and congressional redistricting maps that diluted Black voting strength; the nation’s strictest voting laws in a state with a sordid, racist history; massive tax cuts that disproportionately affect poor and Black taxpayers; and anti-LGBTQ legislation that threatens the lives of a vulnerable population.

But perhaps no legislation better showcases the unilateral GOP control under the dome better than House Bill 1020, which passed the House late in the evening of Feb. 7.

Yes, the national headlines you read last week were accurate: A mostly-white House supermajority passed a bill that would create a completely white-appointed judicial district and expand the police force within the whiter areas of Jackson, the Blackest large city in America.

READ MORE: ‘Only in Mississippi’: House votes to create white-appointed court system for Blackest city in America

For more than four hours, Black House members delivered what should be certainly considered some of the most cautionary and impassioned speeches ever made in the Mississippi State Capitol building. Many of their comments echoed ones made by their predecessors in the building and civil rights leaders of 60 years ago.

Rep. Ed Blackmon, D-Canton: “Only in Mississippi would we have a bill like this, with our history, where you say solving the problem is taking the vote away from Black people because we don’t know how to choose our leaders … This is just like the 1890 Constitution all over again. We are doing exactly what they said they were doing back then: ‘Helping those people because they can’t govern themselves.'”

Rep. Solomon Osborne, D-Greenwood: “I don’t even know why I’m down here, frankly, because it’s like being at a Klan rally with people with suits on. That’s the only difference I see between these people here. They wear suits rather than sheets … Every day we get up here and open this body with prayer. I wonder what God are these people praying to?”

Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville: “Again, we end up being the laughingstock of America because of what we do here today.”

While Black House members were doing all they could to plead with the humanity of their GOP colleagues, a large number of Republicans left the House floor altogether for a majority of the debate, reappearing from the back halls of the Capitol to cast a final “yea” vote. House Speaker Philip Gunn sat on the speaker’s dais leaned back in his chair with his legs crossed, talking regularly with various Republicans who came to visit with him. Rep. Trey Lamar, the GOP leader who authored and defended House Bill 1020 on the floor floor, sat behind the well and scrolled his phone.

They didn’t seem to listen to what their Black colleagues were saying. They didn’t have to.

Now the bill moves to the Senate, in recent years the more moderate of the two chambers. But it’s an election year, and Republicans believe nothing seems to motivate Republican voters more than being “tough on crime.” And this is Mississippi, so being tough on crime in the Blackest city in America is probably not the worst thing for Republicans who want to go home and flaunt their GOP bonafides.

Considering legislative Republicans have passed legislation in recent years that they knew would face federal lawsuits to hopefully draw the attention and reforming action of the U.S. Supreme Court — remember Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization? — it’s difficult to write off anything that moves through the Mississippi State Capitol.

Meanwhile, the Republican supermajority rolls on for at least six more weeks this session. And if you’re hoping political change is on the horizon, there’s more bad news. According to a recent Mississippi Today analysis of this year’s legislative elections, there’s no possible way the GOP will lose control.

For at least four more years, the current trajectory of policy making in Mississippi could very well continue.

READ MORE: Republicans again a lock to control Legislature after November election

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Mississippi Today

On this day in 1997

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-22 07:00:00

Dec. 22, 1997

Myrlie Evers and Reena Evers-Everette cheer the jury verdict of Feb. 5, 1994, when Byron De La Beckwith was found guilty of the 1963 murder of Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers. Credit: AP/Rogelio Solis

The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers. 

In the court’s 4–2 decision, Justice Mike Mills praised efforts “to squeeze justice out of the harm caused by a furtive explosion which erupted from dark bushes on a June night in Jackson, Mississippi.” 

He wrote that Beckwith’s constitutional right to a speedy trial had not been denied. His “complicity with the Sovereignty Commission’s involvement in the prior trials contributed to the delay.” 

The decision did more than ensure that Beckwith would stay behind bars. The conviction helped clear the way for other prosecutions of unpunished killings from the Civil Rights Era.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Medicaid expansion tracker approaches $1 billion loss for Mississippi

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mississippitoday.org – Bobby Harrison – 2024-12-22 06:00:00

About the time people ring in the new year next week, the digital tracker on Mississippi Today’s homepage tabulating the amount of money the state is losing by not expanding Medicaid will hit $1 billion.

The state has lost $1 billion not since the start of the quickly departing 2024 but since the beginning of the state’s fiscal year on July 1.

Some who oppose Medicaid expansion say the digital tracker is flawed.

During an October news conference, when state Auditor Shad White unveiled details of his $2 million study seeking ways to cut state government spending, he said he did not look at Medicaid expansion as a method to save money or grow state revenue.

“I think that (Mississippi Today) calculator is wrong,” White said. “… I don’t think that takes into account how many people are going to be moved off the federal health care exchange where their health care is paid for fully by the federal government and moved onto Medicaid.”

White is not the only Mississippi politician who has expressed concern that if Medicaid expansion were enacted, thousands of people would lose their insurance on the exchange and be forced to enroll in Medicaid for health care coverage.

Mississippi Today’s projections used for the tracker are based on studies conducted by the Institutions of Higher Learning University Research Center. Granted, there are a lot of variables in the study that are inexact. It is impossible to say, for example, how many people will get sick and need health care, thus increasing the cost of Medicaid expansion. But is reasonable that the projections of the University Research Center are in the ballpark of being accurate and close to other studies conducted by health care experts.

White and others are correct that Mississippi Today’s calculator does not take into account money flowing into the state for people covered on the health care exchange. But that money does not go to the state; it goes to insurance companies that, granted, use that money to reimburse Mississippians for providing health care. But at least a portion of the money goes to out-of-state insurance companies as profits.

Both Medicaid expansion and the health care exchange are part of the Affordable Care Act. Under Medicaid expansion people earning up to $20,120 annually can sign up for Medicaid and the federal government will pay the bulk of the cost. Mississippi is one of 10 states that have not opted into Medicaid expansion.

People making more than $14,580 annually can garner private insurance through the health insurance exchanges, and people below certain income levels can receive help from the federal government in paying for that coverage.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, legislation championed and signed into law by President Joe Biden significantly increased the federal subsidies provided to people receiving insurance on the exchange. Those increased subsidies led to many Mississippians — desperate for health care — turning to the exchange for help.

White, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, Gov. Tate Reeves and others have expressed concern that those people would lose their private health insurance and be forced to sign up for Medicaid if lawmakers vote to expand Medicaid.

They are correct.

But they do not mention that the enhanced benefits authored by the Biden administration are scheduled to expire in December 2025 unless they are reenacted by Congress. The incoming Donald Trump administration has given no indication it will continue the enhanced subsidies.

As a matter of fact, the Trump administration, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is looking for ways to cut federal spending.

Some have speculated that Medicaid expansion also could be on Musk’s chopping block.

That is possible. But remember congressional action is required to continue the enhanced subsidies. On the flip side, congressional action would most likely be required to end or cut Medicaid expansion.

Would the multiple U.S. senators and House members in the red states that have expanded Medicaid vote to end a program that is providing health care to thousands of their constituents?

If Congress does not continue Biden’s enhanced subsidies, the rates for Mississippians on the exchange will increase on average about $500 per year, according to a study by KFF, a national health advocacy nonprofit. If that occurs, it is likely that many of the 280,000 Mississippians on the exchange will drop their coverage.

The result will be that Mississippi’s rate of uninsured — already one of the highest in the nation – will rise further, putting additional pressure on hospitals and other providers who will be treating patients who have no ability to pay.

In the meantime, the Mississippi Today counter that tracks the amount of money Mississippi is losing by not expanding Medicaid keeps ticking up.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1911

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-21 07:00:00

Dec. 21, 1911

A colorized photograph of Josh Gibson, who was playing with the Homestead Grays Credit: Wikipedia

Josh Gibson, the Negro League’s “Home Run King,” was born in Buena Vista, Georgia. 

When the family’s farm suffered, they moved to Pittsburgh, and Gibson tried baseball at age 16. He eventually played for a semi-pro team in Pittsburgh and became known for his towering home runs. 

He was watching the Homestead Grays play on July 25, 1930, when the catcher injured his hand. Team members called for Gibson, sitting in the stands, to join them. He was such a talented catcher that base runners were more reluctant to steal. He hit the baseball so hard and so far (580 feet once at Yankee Stadium) that he became the second-highest paid player in the Negro Leagues behind Satchel Paige, with both of them entering the National Baseball Hame of Fame. 

The Hall estimated that Gibson hit nearly 800 homers in his 17-year career and had a lifetime batting average of .359. Gibson was portrayed in the 1996 TV movie, “Soul of the Game,” by Mykelti Williamson. Blair Underwood played Jackie Robinson, Delroy Lindo portrayed Satchel Paige, and Harvey Williams played “Cat” Mays, the father of the legendary Willie Mays. 

Gibson has now been honored with a statue outside the Washington Nationals’ ballpark.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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