The NH Medicaid Expansion Waltz

Today, Beverly Woods and Shana Aisenberg were on hand at the Medicaid expansion rally in front of the LOB, to sing their new, witty and topical song about health care in NH:




There were about 60 people in front of the LOB, ready to welcome legislators heading in to the LOB for the budget committee of conference, where Medicaid expansion will live or die.

Of course, cowardly legislators headed in through other entrances. The group went upstairs, where the hearing room was jammed.

It's the Senate that is all boogered up about expanding Medicaid. This is largely because POLITICS. A number of our state senators are rumored to be thinking about running for higher office. One of them, Chuck Morse, is on the committee. Andy Sanborn is reportedly thinking about a goobernatorial run, and Jeb Bradley is thinking about using his famous charisma in a bid for the US Senate. The NH Senate has done their best to obstruct and undo anything positive the House has done. They may be under the impression this plays well with voters - but that's because they only talk to the Libertea types. 

Chuck Morse announced during this morning's Committee of Conference opening ceremonies that there would be no Medicaid expansion. That's that can-do spirit of bi-partisan cooperation we all know and love. The inmates took over the GOP asylum in 2010. Now everything is a contest, and it's all about winning. The state, and the people who live here aren't even a factor in their calculations. It's just about winning and scoring political points. I've sat behind a bunch of the fratboy libertea brigade during the House sessions this year, and that's what they do. They high five. They giggle, and pass the messages on their phone screens around. They whisper back and forth, and then some will get up and join the mini caucuses going on around the room. It's all about obstruction. It has not a goddam thing to do with what is right for the state. The GOP has a lot to answer for. When they ceded their party to these cretins, they ensured their own doom. 

So, no cigarette tax increase. No gas tax increase. No expanded Medicaid. What's all that mean?

It means hundreds of job losses. The Freedumb crowd wants to liberate hundreds of state employees from their jobs. Why? Because they want the state to run badly. Then they can say: "SEE, GUMMINT BAD." It also means that the 300+ bridges on the state's red list will be joined by more. It means that more people will pretend not to be sick until they have to go to the ER, and the cost of that visit will be more than their poverty can support. It means that NH taxpayers will be subsidizing the expanded Medicaid benefits received by people in states like Arizona. NH gets back $0.67 on each tax dollar we send to Washington. We're a donor state. And rather than get some of it back, our state Senators would just as soon shovel it at the states who want it. 

In the back row, wearing a white shirt is Greg Moore, of Americans for the Prosperous. Sitting next to him is Ashley Pratte, the director of the Cornerstone Policy Institute. Cornerstone claims to be a Judeo-Christian organization that promotes families and family values. That would explain why Ms. Pratte is at this hearing to register her disapproval of expanded Medicaid - her deep concern for families. She's following right along in Jesus' footsteps. 

These people are all loathsome. They're going to do a lot of damage to our state, in the name of scoring political points to appeal to their base. The teabagger, Free State, John Bircher crowd. Ignoranuses. 

Definition of ignoranus :.

(ĭg'nə-rā'nəs)

1. 1. (n.) A person who's both stupid and an asshole.