Governors begin to realize who will pay the ObamaCare bills
posted at 5:45 pm on July 20, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
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Another bipartisan consensus has coalesced on ObamaCare, and it’s not cheery. The New York Times reports that both Republican and Democratic governors across the country have realized what Barack Obama’s health-care reform means to them — and they’re not going to sit quietly while Barack Obama passes the buck to the states:
The nation’s governors, Democrats as well as Republicans, voiced deep concern Sunday about the shape of the health care plan emerging from Congress, fearing that Washington was about to hand them expensive new Medicaid obligations without money to pay for them.
The role of the states in a restructured health care system dominated the summer meeting of the National Governors Association here this weekend — with bipartisan animosity voiced against the plan during a closed-door luncheon on Saturday and in a private meeting on Sunday with the health and human services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius.
“I think the governors would all agree that what we don’t want from the federal government is unfunded mandates,” said Gov. Jim Douglas of Vermont, a Republican, the group’s incoming chairman. “We can’t have the Congress impose requirements that we are forced to absorb beyond our capacity to do so.”
In fact, the Times reports that this message was unanimous. Every one of the versions of ObamaCare in Congress at the moment expands Medicaid eligibility as a means to get to universal health care. The budgeting for these bills only reflect the federal responsibilities for this expansion, but it carries hefty costs for the states as well. Unless Obama wants to fund these mandates, the governors will universally oppose the reform, which gives opponents a powerful force in stopping it. And if Obama does absorb the costs to expand Medicaid, it will explode the federal deficit.
This exposes the shell game Obama has played with ObamaCare. He wants to argue that the de facto nationalization of the health-care industry will contain costs while expanding coverage and maintaining access, but that only can happen if the plan either rations services or shifts the costs elsewhere. The use of Medicaid instead of Medicare to cover the currently uninsured puts those costs on the backs of the states, which will have to find revenues to pay for their end of ObamaCare. In most cases, that will require state tax increases across a broad swath of the citizenry on top of the 5.4% surtax on the wealthy that Charlie Rangel proposes.
Obama can claim to have kept his promise not to raise taxes on the middle class by refusing to take responsibility for the massive, unfunded mandate ObamaCare places on the states. However, taxpayers in all income levels will feel the pain regardless of whether Obama takes ownership of it.
The governors have decided not to go quietly at the last moment. Is it too late? Perhaps not, but they cut it pretty close.
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But, but, but Obama PROMISED not to raise taxes on the middle class!!!!
Laura in Maryland on July 20, 2009 at 5:48 PM
The Governors are all getting a bitter taste of
Chicago ‘Community Organizers’ thuggery!!
canopfor on July 20, 2009 at 5:49 PM
Again, describing a strategy for change created by Obama’s heroes and buddies…
Daggett on July 20, 2009 at 5:50 PM
Has this meme replaced Alinsky as the new favorite? I see it all the time now.
lorien1973 on July 20, 2009 at 5:51 PM
Seems to me that the way the stimulus bill was written, governors didn’t have the ability to use the funds as they saw fit. I’m sure they’re petrified that any healthcare legislation – in addition to adding an unsustainable entitlement to their books – will come with all kinds of “requirements” that they can’t get out of, regardless of how damning they might be for the constituents who elected them.
What no one is talking about is how Obama, writ large, is trying to reduce the constitutional power of the states by sweeping, mandate-driven federal legislation. I hope some state govs sue over crap and tax and – if this abominable healthcare bill passes – let this be next.
It’s one thing that 52% of this country’s idiots voted for Obama, but last time I checked that doesn’t come with de facto governorships.
redfoxbluestate on July 20, 2009 at 5:51 PM
Yes! Daggett, you are awesome. This is all about hastening the fall of capitalism!
NTWR on July 20, 2009 at 5:52 PM
I’m sure glad that snowbilly moron Palin isn’t there to help push a national message for the NGA. I’ll bet the star power of Jon Corzine and David Patterson will suffice.
Flyover Country on July 20, 2009 at 5:52 PM
Do posts normally come every half-hour? Maybe it’s just me, but they seem to be piling up today.
Abby Adams on July 20, 2009 at 5:53 PM
Speaking of who’s paying the bills,ya know,if it was the
RIGHT,you just know,CNN would be seeking out those voters
and parading them on tv,with the questions,has the adminis
tration paid your home,car and credit card bills,just like
Obama promised!!
But with Hopey/Changey,not a peep!!
canopfor on July 20, 2009 at 5:53 PM
Weird. I never noticed that before.
lorien1973 on July 20, 2009 at 5:53 PM
Clever, by forcing the States to raise the taxes, he avoids raising taxes, thus fulfilling his pledge.
redshirt on July 20, 2009 at 5:54 PM
I do not know too much about their current governor so I risk sounding like an ass here but here it goes…
If the guy from Vermont is opposing it, God help us all if it gets through.
Joe Caps on July 20, 2009 at 5:54 PM
The Cloward-Piven strategy was inspired by Alinsky, so they’re one and the same. I believe Cloward and Piven were both students of Alinksy.
Daggett on July 20, 2009 at 5:54 PM
Michelle is cracking the whip. It used to be 45 minutes. The working conditions must be getting worser.
WashJeff on July 20, 2009 at 5:55 PM
Glad to hear it’s getting around.
Gee, I wonder what these unfunded mandates would do to a state, oh, I dunno, like Cauliforniah? We have Medicaid Escalades all over this state. Do we have a head count of state governors for and against? I wonder what the for/against ObamaCare map would look like?
NTWR on July 20, 2009 at 5:56 PM
considering that medicaid devours most of their budgets this isn’t much of a surprise.
rob verdi on July 20, 2009 at 5:56 PM
VT Governor is a republican. Not sure if it accounts for much, though.
lorien1973 on July 20, 2009 at 5:56 PM
Obama is waging war on the taxpayers. In the class warfare of America, the “bourgeoisie” – the “kulaks” – are the taxpayers who work hard, who want to prosper and who want to provide their families with a better life.
We are in the way of Obama’s Socialist Utopia. We are the enemy. We are the targets, and Obama will use taxation to destroy us.
OhEssYouCowboys on July 20, 2009 at 5:56 PM
A NE Republican that has to cater to the Ben & Jerry’s crowd. So probably not conservative, but I could be wrong.
WashJeff on July 20, 2009 at 5:58 PM
First Janet Nappy-litano leaves a pile of bills for AZ to pay, & now her new boss is adding to our woes. Yeesh.
jgapinoy on July 20, 2009 at 6:00 PM
Just heard on the top of the news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Obama is surrending the healthcare till the end of the year!!
Problems with the ‘BlueDogs’!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
canopfor on July 20, 2009 at 6:01 PM
There is a significant portion of the population that won’t fully understand what Obama will have done to them until they see it on the check stub. A little late then.
Yoop on July 20, 2009 at 6:02 PM
Do posts normally come every half-hour? Maybe it’s just me, but they seem to be piling up today.
Abby Adams on July 20, 2009 at 5:53 PM
The hits just keep coming faster and faster from the Bozo administration. Ed and AP are trying to keep up. Not sure how we can survive 3 more years of this disaster.
txag92 on July 20, 2009 at 6:02 PM
Obama: See how generous I am while your greedy Governors raise your taxes? Hey, wait a minute–don’t connect the dots!
Sebelius: I’m sure glad I’m not a governor any more!
Steve Z on July 20, 2009 at 6:02 PM
Calling it “Obamacare” isn’t going to make it somehow less successful. I think a few concessions will be made to make it a “bipartisan” bill, but an overhaul is almost completely certain by the fall at the latest. Screaming about it won’t stop it…just makes you look like an idiot.
dcwvu on July 20, 2009 at 6:03 PM
canopfor on July 20, 2009 at 6:01 PM
Are you serious or is your post missing the / tag? Please be the former.
txag92 on July 20, 2009 at 6:03 PM
TROLL ALERT! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
txag92 on July 20, 2009 at 6:04 PM
Not to spam the thread, but ObamaCare fits the Cloward Piven Strategy to a tee:
So is the target system the states or the economy or small businesses or health care in general or all of the above?
NTWR on July 20, 2009 at 6:04 PM
His website says he has vetoed every tax hike since he was in office. And he vetoed the same-sex marriage thing, too. (Eventualy over-ridden).
lorien1973 on July 20, 2009 at 6:04 PM
Lay back and take it. It’ll all be over soon. – dcwvu
lorien1973 on July 20, 2009 at 6:05 PM
NTWR on July 20, 2009 at 6:06 PM
While we are on the subject of governors…….
RICHMOND, Va. — A billionaire co-founder of the Black Entertainment Television network and an influential Democratic donor on Monday endorsed Republican Bob McDonnell for governor.
ICBM on July 20, 2009 at 6:09 PM
Wow! I remember the Gay Marriage thing, but “wow” on the taxes. Must have been elected in an odd number year when the under 30 crowd to too busy to vote.
WashJeff on July 20, 2009 at 6:09 PM
Are they asking for their electoral votes back too?
ted c on July 20, 2009 at 6:11 PM
Please be the former..
txag92 on July 20,2009 at 6:03PM.
txag92:
I just heard the news,at the top of the new nour spot on AM
radio,after Hannity,they said that Obama is giving up the healthcare till the ened of the year,do to support for blue
dogs!!
Thats what I heard!
The next comment about a troll,will be dealt with!!:)
Kidding txag92!!:)
canopfor on July 20, 2009 at 6:11 PM
Crap,spelling glitch,should be hour,end,not nour or ened!
canopfor on July 20, 2009 at 6:13 PM
Somebody senses a meltdown in the offing and is trying to keep up with the clues.
Yoop on July 20, 2009 at 6:13 PM
Wait, there are Republicans in Vermont? I thought it was a two party state – Democrats and Socialists.
Kafir on July 20, 2009 at 6:15 PM
When is someone going to found the White Entertainment Television network?
OmahaConservative on July 20, 2009 at 6:15 PM
Let’s elaborate and discuss what is idiotic about it. Are you game?
anuts on July 20, 2009 at 6:17 PM
Alright, which one of you gave this tool the idea that anyone here gives a squirt of piss what it thinks???
Fess UP!!!
BigWyo on July 20, 2009 at 6:17 PM
It takes time to have the problems “filter up”.
As people read this, and begin saying NO, then they point out what the leaders should be doing, reading and understanding…then finally the “leaders” take notice.
These bills are not seeing “daylight”, they are being kept opaque.
right2bright on July 20, 2009 at 6:19 PM
The Governors immediate problem–they don’t get to vote on it. By chirping up now they hope to get a few favorable footnotes in the final bill.
The game now is to stay at the table and hope not to be on the menu.
patrick neid on July 20, 2009 at 6:19 PM
Demand his academic records to include his application to NYU, Columbia and Harvard. I could never, ever have been accepted into any of these Ivy League schools despite the color of my skin or the Content of my Character.
Let the truth fall where it may. Demand the Application only.
Key West Reader on July 20, 2009 at 6:20 PM
I bet Charlie Crist is still kissing the booty (spoken in Pirate).
Charlie Crist has a rude awakening coming for him in the Senate vote.
Key West Reader on July 20, 2009 at 6:21 PM
Bad press and the cap and trade energy tax gets shelved.
Bad press and the healthcare takeover gets shelved.
Looks like screaming does something.
ROCnPhilly on July 20, 2009 at 6:24 PM
From an expert on the subject. getalife.
Del Dolemonte on July 20, 2009 at 6:25 PM
Canopfor:
The troll comment wasn’t directed at you. ;)
Scott H on July 20, 2009 at 6:25 PM
Cloward-Piven Strategy
Has this meme replaced Alinsky as the new favorite? I see it all the time now.
lorien1973 on July 20, 2009 at 5:51 PM
Alinsky stressed that success depended on upon infiltrating & co-opting the existing system….
“There’s another reason for working inside the system. Dostoevski said that taking a new step is what people fear most. Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution. To bring on this reformation requires that the organizer work inside the system, among not only the middle class but the 40 per cent of American families – more than seventy million people – whose income range from $5,000 to $10,000 a year [in 1971]. They cannot be dismissed by labeling them blue collar or hard hat. They will not continue to be relatively passive and slightly challenging. If we fail to communicate with them, if we don’t encourage them to form alliances with us, they will move to the right. Maybe they will anyway, but let’s not let it happen by default.”[4]
See, Obama, the chicago communist party renamed the “New Party”, of which Obama was a member and their migration into the structure of the Chicago Democratic party.
Cloward Piven picks up where Alinsky left off, once you’re inside C/P gives a detailed template on how to bring the system to it’s knees. Successfull demonsrated in NYC prior to Gullianni’s restoring some sanity.
ACORN pursued these tactics by the way of Carter’s CRA. Clinton’s/Rubin’s transfer of responsibility for dicey mtg’s from local banks onto Fannie & Freddie’s balance sheets. In the end with taxpayers holding the bag. A text book “manufactured crisis.”
As Alinsky posited….
They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution.
Obama & Co. think they’ve acheived the conditions with the US in such financial distress, for their agenda.
Archimedes on July 20, 2009 at 6:27 PM
Right. Because it’s the 2 trillion dollar deficit that gets the chicks.
Chuck Schick on July 20, 2009 at 6:27 PM
The troll comment:)
Scott H on July 20,2009 at 6:25PM.
Scott H: Oops,thanks for the heads up,I stuck my foot in
my mouth again!:)
canopfor on July 20, 2009 at 6:28 PM
P(OS)TUS Ogabe is getting pushback from every point on the compass now; I suppose it will be time to steamroller the American people and do what’s “best” for us.
Bishop on July 20, 2009 at 6:29 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9Q1Eegn2hw
Obama’s 1/2 white brother revealed?
Key West Reader on July 20, 2009 at 6:30 PM
Has this meme replaced Alinsky as the new favorite? I see it all the time now.
lorien1973 on July 20, 2009 at 5:51 PM
The Cloward-Piven strategy was inspired by Alinsky, so they’re one and the same. I believe Cloward and Piven were both students of Alinksy.
Daggett on July 20, 2009 at 5:54 PM
This is correct. And if Obama’s transcripts were available, I beleive you would find that both he and Ayer’s studied under them at Columbia and had apt’s a block away from each other.
Archimedes on July 20, 2009 at 6:32 PM
I’d be satisfied with his Student application. After all, we all have children that we’d like to college, now don’t we?
I just want to see what got Obama into the best schools in the USA, considering he was just a poor black child from Chicago’s Wouth Side, dont’cha know.
Key West Reader on July 20, 2009 at 6:35 PM
Frankly, I don’t give a damn what any democrat governors have to say. If ObamaCare gets through, I’m going to enjoy watching them twist and spin as they tax the hell out of their own citizens to pay for the Messiah’s legacy. They’re democrats, for God’s sake. What the hell did they think Obama’s presidency would do for their states? Bring them prosperity? Autonomy? Jobs? Puh-leeze. You lie down with fleas, you wake up scratching. Screw ‘em.
Rational Thought on July 20, 2009 at 6:37 PM
Is the evil moron honest about anything?
(hehe. just joking)
notagool on July 20, 2009 at 6:44 PM
“The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.”- V. I. Lenin
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences.” —C.S. Lewis
I would tend to say these sum up Bama and cadre pretty well.
Harry Schell on July 20, 2009 at 6:46 PM
Only problem with this is they will take us down with them. And being in the political class, eat first of the best at every meal. Like Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.
Harry Schell on July 20, 2009 at 6:48 PM
NRO Corner.
Imagine what Obama will do to Medicare, too.
Wethal on July 20, 2009 at 6:48 PM
I just want to see what got Obama into the best schools in the USA, considering he was just a poor black child from Chicago’s Wouth Side, dont’cha know.
Key West Reader on July 20, 2009 at 6:35 PM
This meme is utter misdirection, Obama was begot by a Kenyan party apparatchik/Minister Of Trans and a spoiled daughter of weathy commie parents. The so called humble beginings where Anne Dunham attended the “little red church on the hill” was located on Mercer Isl. WA. An exclusive patch of land on Lake Washinton and where Bill Gates very humbly currently resides!
Further, his indoctrination in Hawaii was at an exclusive private school where he was mentored by Frank Marshall Davis, the “Frank” of Dreams of my Father. A former editor for the commie rag “The Chicago Star” outta Hyde Pk. An upscale ‘hood where both he and Ayer’s now reside.
Hyde Pk. has long been the hot bed of American communism and Progressive politics, ala FDR’s stomping grounds.
The length and breadth of the connections is a bloody labryinth!
Archimedes on July 20, 2009 at 6:50 PM
Healthcare in Canada was originally 50/50 Federal and Provincial. Now the Feds still write the rules via the Canada Health Act, but IIRC, they pay about 25% of the freight – this has crushed the budget of every province except Alberta – squeezing out necessary spending on infrastructure and post-secondary education.
holdfast on July 20, 2009 at 7:03 PM
Sen. Richard Burr (R(ino)-NC) was saying this on WPTF 2 weeks ago. They are just transferring the costs onto Medicaid.
SouthernGent on July 20, 2009 at 7:07 PM
I suggest we repeal the 17th Amendment and select Senators as the Founders intended, selected by governors or state legislatures. Then the Senators would represent the State or the governor. In absence of the 17th, this Obama Care crap would never see the light of day.
Pelayo on July 20, 2009 at 7:33 PM
There will be huge cuts in medicare, because there will be huge cuts in the “elderly”.
There will be huge cuts in prenatal care because there will huge cuts in “prenatals”.
There will be huge cuts in newborn care because there will be huge cuts in “newborns”.
Currently, black women have the highest rate of overweight and obesity in the country. Will they be punished for not losing weight?
bloggless on July 20, 2009 at 9:39 PM
You from Cacalacky? Where abouts? Burr is our only hope. Hagan would never stray from the Obama crowd.
bloggless on July 20, 2009 at 10:05 PM
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