Posted on 06/14/2013 8:41:11 PM PDT by Baynative
TUCSON — Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer won a battle with state lawmakers this week, defying most other conservatives in her party to get a key component of President Obama’s Medicaid expansion through the Legislature.
The Arizona Senate voted Thursday to approve the measure 18 to 11. That followed approval earlier this week by the state House of Representatives.
The issue had inflamed passions and divided the Legislature for weeks. Things came to a head Tuesday when Brewer called lawmakers into the Capitol in Phoenix for a surprise special session.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I agree with you.
Politicians by tradition “triangulate” and play the “moderate’ to insure their re-election.
Bill Clinton was willing to go part of the way with Newt Gingrich in 1995 on his way to re-election in 1996.
That meant signing “welfare reform” legislation and the Defense of Marriage Act.
Jan Brewer thinks the right thing to do politically is to expand Medicaid.
You defend Brewer’s actions but many find it hard to support them because while you see a leader following the will of those who elected her I see a calculating politician just like I saw in Bill Clinton back in 1995.
Where do we end up at the end of the day when the politics of “the possible” or “triangulation” is used by our elected officials?
We end up further in the direction of bigger government, less freedom and a totalitarian state at this point in our nations history.
Chris Christie is playing this game big time now for his re-election along with Marco Rubio on immigration and so on........
I find it all thoroughly disgusting and I am reflecting on what the alternative is.
Maybe its some sort of resistance because it appears from history that movements involving resistance have the potential to change things to go the way you want them to go.
Politics as usual is moving this country in the wrong direction that’s for sure.
>> Look, the GOP house repealed Obama-care about 40 times in the House and lose seats in the last election.
The last election was a General that reelected the incumbent Democrat. That’s the reason for the R losses in the House.
Healthcare is the financial mess (and excess) it is today because of longstanding governmental involvement in controlling delivery, protecting franchises, dictating benefits, industry capture of regulators, limitations on innovation, etc.
In my opinion, our challenge in the years ahead - given massive unfunded liabilities for Medicare - and given the huge baby boomer cohort moving into retirement - is huge. We do need to move toward more market-based solutions at the state level where we can experiment, innovate and learn.
In making that transition in the direction of less govt and more market, we should not, in my view, just throw the poorest under the bus. We’ve made them dependent over decades, and just dropping their coverage when they are seriously ill seems wrong to me.
I have never seen a church willing to pick up major hospital costs; never. It is certainly not going to solve much of the problem even if a few churches were willing and able to do so ( and I love self dependence and private charity!)
Getting out of the Mega Welfare State without a collapse is not going to be easy, for sure... In the meantime, the financial system is stealing from the responsible saver class and dramatically subsidizing the speculator class through the Fed, the big banks, and easy money QE. Top that off with a corrupt executive, legislative and judicial government which has become a law unto itself, and it is hard to not be discouraged by it all.
“In the last days, men’s hearts will fail them... “ Yup!
Well I’ll go after her.
On balance she’s been pretty good but she’s a dumb ***** sometimes.
She also signed a tax hike in her first term.
IT’s 4 FED dollars for 1 State dollar! What would you do?
Pay the five?
I wouldn’t need or want a bunch of federal funds cause I’d slash spending.
You are correct, it was/is a “catch22” for her. Under the circumstances,and in her state, it is most likely her best option.
You and people like you are the reason this country has gone down the drain. Cutting slack to sellouts because they have a R next to their name just encourages them and now we have the current GOP that is nearly indistinguishable from the Marxist Democrats.
Do really think such is required to get a politician to flip-flop, “compromise” or otherwise do something out of character? This crap has been happening since long before NSA existed.
Welcome to FR.
“The fun part will be when Uncle Sugar begins pulling the plug on this a few years down the road and the screaming starts to keep funding it out of state coffers instead.”
Yep, bankrupting the states or making them borrow like the mamma bear government does putting it in debt for ever. Obama’s and Soros’s dream is coming of age.
Well, living in the people's republic of Cali I had this image of Brewer (a finger wagging at the Kenyan) as a politician who might have a core set of values.
Disappointing to see her push so hard for this expansion of socialism. Seems out of character for her to do so.
You should get your facts straight before making baseless accusations. Governor Brewer attempted formally to restore the Medicaid program to its former status with eligibility up to 100% of the Federal Poverty level. However, the Obama Administration, thru CMS, denied the request and required eligibility at the 138% level per the AFA.
It is a matter of public record. But then, it takes effort to find and use facts, doesn’t it.
Without a doubt the Marxist in chief has found dirt on her and she is being blackmailed. I say it’s time for a conservative with balls (if they exist anymore), to parade Larry Sinclair on national TV so he can tell the world what kind of lowlife we have “running” this country. Sinclair passed a lie detector test. Everyone in the media knows about him and not a not damn network will give him the time of day, not even FAUX News. You have to fight fire with fire, and this lowlife human POS Obama is destroying this country and must be stopped or there will be no country left in a couple of years. He is a disgrace as president, the worst in American history. No one even comes close.
Immigration reform...seems so simple to me. At the neighborhood level, find these people and send them home.
God, are we that stupid NOT to see the democrats ploy?
There are two important points to bear in mind.
1. Those who are not founded in principles and truth are terrified and swayed by the opinions of others. In politics, this translates into not wanting bad press and not wanting to be cast outside the GOPE.
2. Many politicians understand that our economic structure (deficit spending) is heading invariably to economic and monetary catastrophe and they are desperately trying to obtain whatever funds they can and reduce spending as much as possible. Most of these politicians do not understand the basics of Austrian economics, and so they do not understand that all deficit-spending by the government results in a drain on the economy. That is, even those who claim to be fiscal conservatives can be swayed that deficit-spending can help their economies.
One good result of the economic collapse we are watching in slow-motion is that politicians in both parties are revealing their true beings: the liberals/leftists as being hardcore soviet-style statists whose ultimate goal is to destroy America’s prosperity, freedom, and sovereignty; and GOPEs as being spineless lemmings seeking to please the loudest mouths and to protect their own careers, which they believe are best protected by the GOPE, not their constituents.
The worst part of all this is that those of us who are truly conservative and who understand monetary science and basic economics now realize that there are only a few people at the state and national levels who understand what is happening and who are trying to prevent a collapse.
In short, we can now see clearly that the overwhelming majority of the forces are aligned with the side that is destroying this country.
My tagline has remained unchanged for years.
So what you’re saying is that she is a good leader because, in order to compensate for the economic drain that criminals have put on her state’s budget, she is going to take more money from honest, tax-paying citizens?
What a great leader.
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