Posted on 05/31/2013 10:10:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Jan Brewer’s eagerness to impose new taxes to help the Obama administration finance its expansion of the welfare state has gone from unwise to unseemly: The Republican governor of Arizona is attempting to force the Republican-led state legislature to expand Medicaid and is threatening to veto all legislation until she is satisfied. She is calling her gambit a “moratorium” on legislation, and she already has vetoed five unrelated bills. This is conduct unbecoming of a chief executive.
Governor Brewer’s desire to expand Medicaid is predicated on a particular kind of economic illiteracy – to wit, the belief that there is such a thing as “free money” from the federal government, as though Arizona taxpayers were not also federal taxpayers. Medicaid is an extraordinarily expensive program, and one that has been shown in study after study to produce little or nothing in the way of measurable health benefits for recipients. It is an additional indicator of the program’s low quality that nearly a third of all U.S. doctors refuse to take on new Medicaid patients. It is the definitive federal entitlement boondoggle: big cost, little upside.
In addition to elementary economics, the governor requires a remedial education in civics. We have multiple branches of government and divided powers for a reason; she is the governor of Arizona, not its viceroy. Executives are entrusted with veto power to ensure that defective bills do not become law, not to hold the entire legislative process hostage until they get their way. Governor Brewer’s shenanigans are the political equivalent of holding one’s breath and stamping one’s feet. She is the Veruca Salt of governors. Other Republican governors have made it clear that they intend to reject the Obama administration’s plan to expand Medicaid, a key part of the president’s wider program of cultivating maximum dependency upon the federal government by the states and the people at large. It is a companion piece to Obamacare — a program Governor Brewer has criticized — and necessary to the full implementation of that regulatory mess. Governor Brewer’s calculation here is particularly cynical: She rejects Obamacare, but wants the money that goes with it.
The Medicaid expansion is superficially attractive in that states are at first required to kick in only 10 cents for every $1 in new spending. They will have to pay more down the line, of course, but Governor Brewer does not seem to be looking beyond the next election. The 10 percent that Arizona will be responsible for will be paid for with a new tax on hospital services. It takes a special kind of genius to make health care more affordable by making it more expensive.
Under law, the states cannot be forced to accept the Medicaid expansion. It is up to them. Some Republicans have stood strong against it, and some are rolling over for the Obama administration. Governor Brewer is for the moment unique in that she is throwing a gubernatorial temper tantrum on behalf of expanding government-run health care. Our hope is that Arizona’s legislators will keep the Medicaid expansion out of the budget and, for the good of the state, pass the budget over the governor’s veto. Governor Brewer may not be around to see the bill for the Medicaid expansion when it comes due, but Arizona taxpayers will.
I agree-
Brewer and those who support her in this tantrum are only seeing what they perceive as free money-now.
Any expected financial benefit will be short lived at best, then the state gets smacked with the greater share of the cost of that medicaid expansion-never mind what a magnet for more illegals sneaking over the border to try to get a piece of the action it may become in short order.
Those who reason that “If we don’t take the money someone else will get it” are right in the short term, but by the same token, those who get the money will also have to pay it back, sooner than later...
I’ve been an admirer of Governor Brewer, but I think she is completely off in Lala land on this one-may cooler heads prevail...
Where does the part on higher taxes come in? Authors creative writing?
Doesnt Obama-care pick up the medicaid tab the first few years? That's why some other GOP states went along with it.
Where does the part on higher taxes come in?
After Obama-care pick up the medicaid tab the first few years, they’re not going to pick up the tab forever. THEN, Arizona has to pay for the bulk of it.
Gov Perry seems to realize this. I pray he stays strong and continues to reject 0's *Medicaid Stash*.
Chris Christie?
I think that the idea of the illegal influx to Texas is a good deterrent-as well as the voter pressure and idea of an Obama tax egg hatching a year or two down the road that may keep our legislators on the proper path.
It’s because she’s not a conservative. Never was.
Not me. My wife and I detested her and her smarmy husband from the first moment we met them.
It takes a special kind of genius to make health care more affordable by making it more expensive.
Damn, I wish I had written that!
That may be the way it works in practice when no-one has the guts to cut off the free cheese but technically the Obama-care doesnt require (state) money for that expansion and the states could just opt out when the money dries up, say in a automatic trigger would be the best way.
You have the advantage of living in the same state she does, providing a closeup for those who are aware, like yourselves...
RE: the states could just opt out when the money dries up, say in a automatic trigger would be the best way.
Experience always tells us that the moment you create or expand an entitlement, it becomes almost impossible to take it away.
“The closest thing to eternal life on earth is a government program.” — Ronald Reagan
“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” — Ronald Reagan
Christie is you garden variety Yankee RINO, not a woman throwing a temper tandrum and vetoing everything until she gets her way.
Too bad, I had liked Brewer but this will cut her chances at higher office.
I made it clear that it wouldn’t be a surprise if it worked out that way. And posting that ‘taxes’ line in the title goes great with the choir here.
But in rough world of real political debate a Republican running would have to do better.
Obama is offering free stuff to states with no increase in taxes directly connected. That is a powerful weapon to fight, but they must or either fold or lose.
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