The Hill reported today:
Twenty states will operate their own insurance exchanges in 2014 under President Obama's healthcare law, according to a new analysis....I don't think I've ever quoted Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association approvingly, but I think he's absolutely right about how his ideological soul mates in the GOP crazy base will respond to that:
Governors have a choice as to whether to implement the law's exchanges or leave the task to the federal government. A third option is a "partnership" model in which the state and federal government jointly manage the marketplace....
Any GOP gov who sets up a state exchange under ObamaCare is toast as presidential candidate in 2016. newsmax.com/Newsfront/Obam…
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) November 8, 2012
I think the purity test could be even harsher. As The Hill notes:
... six states have indicated they will not pursue the law's offer to expand Medicaid.
In July, Talking Points Memo found seven governors who'd said no to the Medicaid expansion, including Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal, and Nikki Haley.
I'm not sure any GOP governor who accepts the Medicaid expansion can run for president in 2016 and expect to win, either. I think the federal money's going to have to be turned down. And that will also apply to runs for reelection, or for any other office, by these Republicans.
Fever break? Nahhhh.
4 comments:
And I suppose any Governor who goes into hospitals and pulls out IV's and plugs, will be a shoo-in?
Never mind the fever breaking, I think their cancer is metastisizing.
Turning down the Medicaid expansion is going to hurt "job creators" who have a low-paid workforce. Instead of low-paid employees going into Medicaid, they will cost the employer one way or another.
Once businesses figure this out, there will be huge pressure to expand Medicaid.
By 2016 this will be a non-issue.
I hope you're right. But right-wing pols tend to find rabble-rousing intransigence hard to resist.
Business interests in the South thought segregation was hurting business in the '60s, but pols' need to whip up the anger of the populace was too strong. And business these days doesn't want a crackdown on undocumented immigrants, but pols on the right won't budge.
The election and its aftermath (specifically, the rage & denial exhibited by the likes of Trump, Limbaugh & Nugent) makes me think that the single best thing that could happen to the Dems is a continuation - nay, an intensification - of the lumpenright fever infecting the GOP. If I were well-heeled and sufficiently cynical, I'd be very tempted to contribute to every loony-bin Tea Party outfit I could find. We need those GOP primaries to be simon-pure ideological tests... again.
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