Missouri GOP Blocks Voter-Approved Medicaid Expansion

[applegrove]

Missouri GOP Blocks Voter-Approved Medicaid Expansion

March 25, 2021 at 7:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 88 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2021/03/25/missouri-gop-blocks-voter-approved-medicaid-expansion/

"SNIP.....

“Republican lawmakers blocked Medicaid expansion funding from reaching the Missouri House floor on Wednesday, posing a setback for the voter-approved plan to increase eligibility for the state health care program,” the Kansas City Star reports.

“The House Budget Committee voted along party lines not to pass a bill allowing Missouri to spend $130 million of state funds and $1.6 billion in federal money to pay for the program’s expansion. Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government picks up 90% of the tab on expanding Medicaid.”

.....SNIP"

[Ocelot II]

1. WTAF is wrong with these people?

[CottonBear]

2. They are racists. Can't allow the black & brown folks to get healthcare. NT

[questionseverything]

3. The repubs gonna show the voters who is in charge

[SoCalNative]

4. And the idiot voters

will continue to vote for them.

[questionseverything]

6. That's what we thought about Georgia for years

So ya never know

[bahboo]

7. that's what blows what's left of my mind...

[xmas74]

15. Yes and no.

In many rural areas of Missouri there is no one else on the ballot.

We had several races last fall where no Dems, no Indies, no Libertarians, no Greens, etc ran. The only candidate was a Republican whose family was multi generation from the area.

[James48]

18. Well you know- there IS a solution for that.

Why don’t YOU get on the ballot and run?

[xmas74]

21. Because I'm a government employee

I'm not allowed to run for any office unless I resign from my position first.

Don't tell me what to do. You don't know my situation.

[James48]

23. Then get a recent retiree to run.

I worked for the federal government for 33 years and was prevented by the Hatch Act from running for anything. I retired six months ago.

I will be running for something in 2022, and will be working with others to help recruit good candidates to stand for election.

And it doesn’t matter if you win. It matters that someone stands up and offers an alternative. You yourself said nobody else was even on the ballot. Well, We can change that, by recruiting good candidates up and down the ballot. Every community has SOMEBODY that can run.

[xmas74]

24. You helping to fund their race?

Even the smallest races need funding, which many around here don't have.

And who are you to say that I'm not already out there recruiting like I've been for 2 decades in my state? I'm tired of people who really don't understand the situation offering advice that hasn't been given thousands of times before.

[xmas74]

22. Also, in my neck of the woods

A single mom will not win an election. I've watched more qualified candidates-they don't win.

When your budget is $5,000 and your GOP opponent is spending over $125,000 on the same election, for a seat that pays $33,000 a year? Maybe there's something wrong with the picture.

[bluestarone]

5. TIME for

MAJOR RECALLS in this State!!

[ncf]

8. Missouri GOP Blocks Voter-Approved Medicaid Expansion

This is par for the course with the GOP Legislature in Missouri. This not the first time the legislature has overturned the voters. It seems like every few years we vote for something and the legislature overturns it because they don't like it. Only the rural voters in Missouri have any rights or say in what the legislature does.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

12. Missouri voters: "Thank you sir, may I have another?"

If you make your state legislature run by Republicans, you have no right to complain when they screw you over. "Silly woman, you knew I was a snake when you took me in."

[ncf]

16. Missouri GOP Blocks Voter-Approved Medicaid Expansion

I do not vote Republican. Unfortunately, in Missouri, if you live in St. Louis or Kansas City your vote very seldom counts statewide.

[gopiscrap]

13. welcome to DU

[patphil]

9. It's way past time for a major overhaul in the makeup of the Missouri legislature.

90% paid by the Federal Government, and they still vote to deny the residents of Missouri better health care.
I'm always amazed the way Republicans put up with this shit. I guess they would rather have bad, or no, health care than have certain people get the care they need.

[LiberalLovinLug]

14. Also....its the stepping stone to the Commies taking over the country

The RW media, which is all one can listen to in those States, keep the Republican voters in a constant state of fear about Democrats taking away their freedoms. Meanwhile they deny citizens of the freedom of having expanded medical insurance services.

[Grins]

10. Blocked "the voter-approved plan"?

Nice.

They declared war on their own constituents.

This was a ballot initiative only because their elected representatives REFUSED to take it up. It passed. BIGLY! And now this.

(Not just Missouri, either. Other GOP states had to do the same.)

[gratuitous]

11. So much for that whole "will of the people" booshwa

Voters in Florida approved a ballot measure to restore voting rights to felons who had completed their sentences. The Florida lege messed with the meaning of that to exclude anyone who hadn't paid the last dime of reparations, fines, court costs or other assorted financial penalties that attach when a person is convicted of a crime. The real kicker, though, was that there was no central government agency that could tell a person that he or she had paid the last farthing of their debt to society. So, no franchise for you!

Now in Missouri, Republicans are scared shitless that their constituents might see a government program that works for them, and nothing is more lethal to the Republican philosophy of governance than a government program that serves the common folk. Rather than allowing that horror any toe-hold in the Show Me State, Republicans would rather that thousands of citizens die of curable and preventable causes, and that more money is wasted on last-ditch medical efforts instead of early-diagnosis treatment, which is cheaper and more effective.

Are you sick and tired of this bullshit, Florida and Georgia? Or do you need another 50 years of Republican misgovernance?

[rdking647]

17. the courts shoudl take 2 steps

1) order the legislature to fund it and if they refuse the courts shoudl declare the seats of those voting to subvery the voters to be vacant....


its time for the courts to step in and block the GOP from subverting the will of the voters

[Hortensis]

19. Repubs: "We're choosing to prioritize different populations."

The expansion would have insured nearly 300,000 low-income Missourians.

They're apparently putting the money into other social services, including "the state’s embattled public defender system, school transportation and mental health, under legislation filed late Friday."

"The transportation money would clear the way for a controversial school choice program that would use tax credits to fund scholarships to private schools. Under a bill narrowly passed by the House last month, the tax credit program is tied to the state’s funding of public school transportation."

53% of voters voted to expand Medicaid last August. 56.8% voted for Trump last November, 41.4% Biden.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

20. We need to do everything we can to drive the gopernazis from

power, everywhere we can.

Wherever they can, they are doing everything they can to cause pain to anyone they can. Overturning the will of the people in order to deliberately cause physical, emotional, financial, and psychological pain to poor folks is absofuck***inglutely demonic.

What kind of sick, mean, twisted, evil human being does someone have to be, to choose to be a part of, and support, this hateful group of heartless people.

How long will it be until Republicans succeed at overthrowing our democracy, and start building concentration camps?

[oasis]

25. What if Tom Steyer and a few other billionaires kicked in the $130 mil?