Posted on 06/09/2014 7:43:16 AM PDT by cotton1706
A Virginia state senator is set to resign on Monday after cutting a deal with Republicans, a stunning move that gives the state GOP the upper hand in an ongoing fight over the state's budget and an expansion of the Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act.
Democratic state Sen. Phillip Puckett will step down on Monday, news first reported by The Washington Post. According to the report, Puckett's resignation leads the way for him to get a job as deputy director of the state tobacco commission and for his daughter to be confirmed for a state judgeship.
It also means Republicans now have a 20-19 majority in the state Senate, something that could stall an expansion of the Medicaid program in the middle of an increasingly tenuous, partisan fight over the state budget.
Puckett's office confirmed he will make the announcement on Monday but declined to discuss specifics of the deal that reportedly led to his resignation — a deal some characterized as "bribery."
A furious Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, called the situation "unacceptable."
"I am deeply disappointed by this news and the uncertainty it creates at a time when 400,000 Virginians are waiting for access to quality health care, especially those in Southwest Virginia," McAuliffe said.
"This situation is unacceptable, but the bipartisan majority in the Senate and I will continue to work hard to put Virginians first and find compromise on a budget that closes the coverage gap."
Virginia's government is rapidly veering toward a shutdown if neither side budges from its Medicaid position before July 1. McAuliffe says an expansion must be part of the new budget, while Republicans have so far resisted his calls.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
I’d forgotten about that. Sadly, Trent Lott now looks like he has a spine of steel compared to today’s GOP Senate leader.
Well, well, you CAN teach Republicans a few new tricks. Democrats are never expected to follow the customs and traditions of our legislatures, so Republicans are repaying them in kind. What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
Except for Maine, Illinois, and maybe North Dakota, there is no excuse for a liberal voting record.
The other 11 need to go.
The power of Tobacco, its tax dollars, and the commission set up from the days of the Tobacco Settlement fund for the govt. quota losses from the federal USDA. KMA mcaulliffe— you lose! LOL.
Courtesy at the federal level of Liddy Dole and others, it was formed by the state legislature with a charter to serve specific counties... NOT N.VA’s demo/rino federal dollar teat workers and their liberal voting that put Mcawful into office. Dominated by conservatives, and run by repubs to help out the people in VA truly ignored by the elitist libs.
McAwful’s cudgel/ carrot is “healthcare” ACA, treating SW and South VA like it was WV, with everyone on the dole. So this is a different sort of dole from Bob Dole’s wife. Directed primarily to manufacture and agriculture alternative use from tobacco.
website: http://www.tic.virginia.gov/tobmapupdated.shtml
The leadership is large and not listed as to party but chair and vice chair are repubs.
On that matter, there's this.
But one clue is in Sen. Hanger's comments last week that he did not want to see Virginia resort to gubernatorial executive power to keep state government open in the absence of a budget.
He's reportedly not the only long time legislator worried that the power the state Constitution gives to the General Assembly to appropriate state money is at stake.
More here.
How Puckett resignation could break the budget impasse (VA Senate)
Maine could have been smarter, and kept better control of the purposed money of the federal settlement, which did not come from liberals in the fed govt. It came from the Agribusiness backbone of US economy. It was not intended to perpetuate a medical foundation fiefdom and a dependent class.
Ref. my post #25. VA is a state that understands local control down to the county level, much as it understands States Rights delineated from federal progressivism with its strings. The original settlement with big tobacco had the states settle their Medicaid lawsuits against the tobacco industry for recovery of their tobacco-related health-care costs, and also exempted the companies from private tort liability regarding harm caused by tobacco use. That has been done already in the states by now, even in ME one would think— or is smoking still on the rise there?
Just wait until the Global Warming settlement— what would ME do with that money/commission? Jump on the liberal bandwagon while calling it progressive, and give wood stoves to the rural folk.
Root point: if tobacco is so deadly (and not just the smoke or the chew but the nicotine alone) then why didn’t the feds ban it outright? Because of the tax revenue it brings in, now re-distributed... see how it’s done. And just wait until Panama Red is a brand for RJ Reynolds, or the other big 3, of taxed & processed and even more carcinogenic pot cigarettes. The govt. is NOT benign at the federal level. VA was wise to do this, but mcaulliffe will surely want hitlery in office to control the payout to the state through the fed monitoring.
BTW, Puckett, might be a Rat, but he's a fairly conservative one and represented a fairly conservative constituency in SWVA. So I imagine that his decision was an easy one to make.
Should also say that ME tobacco settlement allocation is miniscule compared to say VA at 52 million pounds produced in 2013 or NC with 362 million pounds. With this much difference there is no way a state’s producers would not have the clout to affect how it is distributed-— fortunately.
Very sore subject in the South, brought on by busybodies again from academia centered in .... voila! the North.
A certain Sen from AZ backed this ‘lets be friends’ and split the pie down the middle (think this is when ‘crossing the aisle’ and sitting holding hands during SOU was a step towards KumBayYa)
McCain backed down when someone suggested JOINT CHAIRMANSHIPS and he sort of said NO....We ‘deserve’ the Chair, the Committees should be balanced 50/50....
People failed to see what a ‘slug’ he was in regards to ‘The Keating Five’ - which his ‘war hero/POW status afforded him a ride’
You hardly ever see this. It is usually the RINO who sides with the dimoKKKRATS to screw the Conservatives.
Thanks for filling me in.
What was he doing to puckett? Not doubting just interested.
If the VA Republicans can get their members lined up and pass a “clean” budget without Medicaid expansion, then it will be up to McAwful to decide to sign or shut down the government. Either way, he loses. A great move by our sometimes sqiuishy Republicans.
My memory of Jeffords is that he became a national media hero, a noble and honorable figure of extraordinary courage and character who’s ever word was enlightening and important, and that is how his new book was reviewed, and positively reviewed it was, as the media pushed it and him.
When I looked him up back then, it seemed to me that he had been a republican senator about 17 years, and a nobody, invisible, a nothing, and then he became a great statesmen when he switched parties, and of course he became invisible again after the GOP retook the Senate.
If my memory is accurate.
Just saw in my WaCompost Headlines that Puckett turned down the tobacco job.
Am not sure whether the VA Constitution allows him to change party affiliation?
The ‘headline’ did say he resigned Monday but said he will not take the Job....
Maybe, maybe not. If she was going to present a problem to Republicans as a judge, would they be so quick to cut that deal?
Southern democrat (small d) conservative from SW Virginia coal country, whom McAulliffe pushed around with his lib agenda and phoney yankee smirk between one two many bourbons.
Think like the time FDR came up against the southern solid democrat South that did not like his socialism— so he poured money at them in depression era make work— which is what Mcaulliffe is dangling with obamaumaocare.
McAulliffe is not going to be allowed much more than the counties he can schmooze from federal lib workers and the clintoonian (white lesbo/homo) base for ms. hitlery.
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