JDubya
04-22-2015, 09:46 AM
You can smell the stench of the Republicans' desperation from Tallahassee all the way down to Key West.
These nutjobs are simply coming unglued. First, Rick Scum files a lawsuit to get the Federal Medicaid funding he wants without having to take the Federal Medicaid funding he doesn't want.
Now, the teabagger House has violated the state's Sunshine Law by locking reporters out of the chamber while they discussed it.
And as if all that isn't wacky enough, Scum is now threatening that he will have to scuttle his precious $600+ billion dollars in tax cuts, most of which go to corporations & millionaire property owners, if they can't get the Bush-created Federal Medicaid funding without having to take the Obama created Federal Medicaid funding.
All of this, some are beginning to hint, is taking it's toll on the Republicans' national image.
Gee.... ya think? Could it be because they are acting like the insane, partisan goofball, tantrum-throwing babies many of us have been saying they are all along????
BATTLE OVER FLORIDA MEDICAID EXPANSION GOES WILD
Your humble blogger has been tracking the battle over the Medicaid expansion in Florida, because it’s a really big deal. If the administration can get Governor Rick Scott and state House Republicans to accept the expansion, it could help weaken the blockade against it that conservatives have built in other states, which has slowed down Obamacare’s health coverage expansion after a number of states accepted it last year.
Now things are getting truly crazy in Florida. Legislators who oppose the Medicaid expansion are locking reporters out of meetings about the issue. And Republicans who support it are saying this episode is now reflecting badly on the national GOP.
Background: State Senate Republicans support a “conservative” version of the expansion. The administration may withhold federal money for the Low Income Pool — which pays hospitals to treat the uninsured — that Scott and Republicans prefer, and instead wants Florida to take the expansion money, which would cover at least 800,000 Floridians. But that’s Obamacare, so Americans for Prosperity, Governor Scott and state House Republicans are dug in against it. Result: A budget impasse that’simperiling, among other things, the tax cuts Republicans want.
Fox 13 News in Florida captures the latest developments:
Florida House Republicans just discussed the showdown over health care in a secret meeting in Tallahassee. But they may not have realized a veteran Associated Press reporter was listening through the door. AP reporter Gary Fineout held his ear to the closed door, because House leaders would not let the public see or hear what they’re doing.
State law bans three or more lawmakers from discussing pending legislation behind closed doors. But the House Republicans walked right past the journalists, then locked out the media, in order to privately discuss the legislative battle over health care. Representative John Wood chanted ‘liberty’ as he walked past reporters camped in the hallway…
“It’s important for our members to ask questions and that’s what they did,” said House Speaker Steve Crisafulli. He said they did not discuss pending legislation. But when Crisafulli was told that [he] was overheard telling members to ‘stand like a rock on the issue,’ he justified his remarks by saying there is no legislation in the house on Medicaid expansion.
About Representative Wood chanting “liberty” at the assembled reporters: It’s worth noting that state House Republicans and Scott want federal money to cover health care in the form of LIP; they just don’t want it if it’s part of “Obamacare.” Their ostensible reason is that the feds can’t be trusted to keep their end of the Medicaid bargain, leaving the state on the hook. But state Senate Republicans reject that argument.
Florida reporter Marc Caputo notes that the impasse could result in a government shutdown, which could hurt the state’s economy. And one Senate Republican is now arguing that the whole mess could be a “problem” for “the image of the Republican Party in America.”
Indeed, as Brian Beutler noted recently, this mess provides a window into a much bigger story: In multiple ways, GOP opposition to Obamacare has “boomeranged” on Republicans and come into conflict with their own core interests. Alas, all the national attention to this one corner of that story is only likely to inflate the symbolic status of this budget battle into yet another Great and Glorious Struggle against Obamacare Tyranny, perhaps making it less likely that opponents accept the Medicaid expansion in the end, whatever the consequences.
WHAT THE FLORIDA MEDICAID FIGHT TELLS US:
Jonathan Cohn has a good piece explaining how the Medicaid battle in Florida shows that opposition to Obamacare isn’t really about policy anymore. Conclusion:
The level of hostility to Obamacare makes very little sense — unless it’s about something beyond the policy particulars. It could be the fact that Democrats finally accomplished something big, for the first time in several decades, thereby expanding the welfare state at a time when conservatives thought they were on their way to shrinking it. Or it could be the idea that, on net, the Affordable Care Act transfers resources away from richer, whiter people to poorer, darker people. Or it could be the fact that “Obamacare” contains the word “Obama,” whose legitimacy as president at least some conservatives just can’t accept.
Of course, Rick Scott and state House Republicans could always solve their mess by taking the Medicaid expansion money andsaying it isn’t Obamacare.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/04/22/morning-plum-battle-over-florida-medicaid-expansion-goes-wild/
These nutjobs are simply coming unglued. First, Rick Scum files a lawsuit to get the Federal Medicaid funding he wants without having to take the Federal Medicaid funding he doesn't want.
Now, the teabagger House has violated the state's Sunshine Law by locking reporters out of the chamber while they discussed it.
And as if all that isn't wacky enough, Scum is now threatening that he will have to scuttle his precious $600+ billion dollars in tax cuts, most of which go to corporations & millionaire property owners, if they can't get the Bush-created Federal Medicaid funding without having to take the Obama created Federal Medicaid funding.
All of this, some are beginning to hint, is taking it's toll on the Republicans' national image.
Gee.... ya think? Could it be because they are acting like the insane, partisan goofball, tantrum-throwing babies many of us have been saying they are all along????
BATTLE OVER FLORIDA MEDICAID EXPANSION GOES WILD
Your humble blogger has been tracking the battle over the Medicaid expansion in Florida, because it’s a really big deal. If the administration can get Governor Rick Scott and state House Republicans to accept the expansion, it could help weaken the blockade against it that conservatives have built in other states, which has slowed down Obamacare’s health coverage expansion after a number of states accepted it last year.
Now things are getting truly crazy in Florida. Legislators who oppose the Medicaid expansion are locking reporters out of meetings about the issue. And Republicans who support it are saying this episode is now reflecting badly on the national GOP.
Background: State Senate Republicans support a “conservative” version of the expansion. The administration may withhold federal money for the Low Income Pool — which pays hospitals to treat the uninsured — that Scott and Republicans prefer, and instead wants Florida to take the expansion money, which would cover at least 800,000 Floridians. But that’s Obamacare, so Americans for Prosperity, Governor Scott and state House Republicans are dug in against it. Result: A budget impasse that’simperiling, among other things, the tax cuts Republicans want.
Fox 13 News in Florida captures the latest developments:
Florida House Republicans just discussed the showdown over health care in a secret meeting in Tallahassee. But they may not have realized a veteran Associated Press reporter was listening through the door. AP reporter Gary Fineout held his ear to the closed door, because House leaders would not let the public see or hear what they’re doing.
State law bans three or more lawmakers from discussing pending legislation behind closed doors. But the House Republicans walked right past the journalists, then locked out the media, in order to privately discuss the legislative battle over health care. Representative John Wood chanted ‘liberty’ as he walked past reporters camped in the hallway…
“It’s important for our members to ask questions and that’s what they did,” said House Speaker Steve Crisafulli. He said they did not discuss pending legislation. But when Crisafulli was told that [he] was overheard telling members to ‘stand like a rock on the issue,’ he justified his remarks by saying there is no legislation in the house on Medicaid expansion.
About Representative Wood chanting “liberty” at the assembled reporters: It’s worth noting that state House Republicans and Scott want federal money to cover health care in the form of LIP; they just don’t want it if it’s part of “Obamacare.” Their ostensible reason is that the feds can’t be trusted to keep their end of the Medicaid bargain, leaving the state on the hook. But state Senate Republicans reject that argument.
Florida reporter Marc Caputo notes that the impasse could result in a government shutdown, which could hurt the state’s economy. And one Senate Republican is now arguing that the whole mess could be a “problem” for “the image of the Republican Party in America.”
Indeed, as Brian Beutler noted recently, this mess provides a window into a much bigger story: In multiple ways, GOP opposition to Obamacare has “boomeranged” on Republicans and come into conflict with their own core interests. Alas, all the national attention to this one corner of that story is only likely to inflate the symbolic status of this budget battle into yet another Great and Glorious Struggle against Obamacare Tyranny, perhaps making it less likely that opponents accept the Medicaid expansion in the end, whatever the consequences.
WHAT THE FLORIDA MEDICAID FIGHT TELLS US:
Jonathan Cohn has a good piece explaining how the Medicaid battle in Florida shows that opposition to Obamacare isn’t really about policy anymore. Conclusion:
The level of hostility to Obamacare makes very little sense — unless it’s about something beyond the policy particulars. It could be the fact that Democrats finally accomplished something big, for the first time in several decades, thereby expanding the welfare state at a time when conservatives thought they were on their way to shrinking it. Or it could be the idea that, on net, the Affordable Care Act transfers resources away from richer, whiter people to poorer, darker people. Or it could be the fact that “Obamacare” contains the word “Obama,” whose legitimacy as president at least some conservatives just can’t accept.
Of course, Rick Scott and state House Republicans could always solve their mess by taking the Medicaid expansion money andsaying it isn’t Obamacare.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/04/22/morning-plum-battle-over-florida-medicaid-expansion-goes-wild/