Who Is Being Intransigent Now?

Medicaid reform? We don't need no stinking Medicaid reform.

Medicaid reform? We don’t need no stinking Medicaid reform.

by James A. Bacon

Let me get this straight. Virginia Democrats in the General Assembly are saying that they will not pass a state budget until they get Medicaid expansion?

“We won’t vote for a budget — and I can’t be emphatic enough — we will not vote for a budget, nor will the governor sign a budget that doesn’t have some form of expansion,” Senate Democratic Leader Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, said during a brief conference call. So reports the Times-Dispatch.

The only possible conclusion to draw from that statement is that the Dems are willing to shut down state government (and much of local government) in order to get their way. Hmmm… Who does that sound like? Oh, I don’t know… maybe Congressional Republicans in the debt-ceiling debate with President Obama? The same Republicans whom the Dems denounced as maniacally irresponsible and willing to destroy the country in order to save it?

I’ve heard a lot of reasons why state Dems support Medicaid expansion: The money would come from Uncle Sam, it would expand health coverage for thousands of Virginians and it would pump up the state’s economy. These are not unreasonable arguments.

Here’s what I have not heard: why Democrats refuse to join with Republicans in pushing for Medicaid reforms. If Governor Terry McAuliffe and other Dems joined Republicans in petitioning the Obama administration, there is every reason to think the state could get the waivers and exemptions they’re asking for. President Obama has waived just about every other provision of Obamacare, why not this?

I truly don’t understand why the Dems can’t join the GOP in presenting a united front to extract Medicaid reforms from the Obama administration. They’ll get what they want, an expanded Medicaid program. It’ll just be a little leaner and more fiscally sustainable than what they’re asking for now. Are they really willing to shut down government over that? Who are the intransigents now?