Thursday, March 7, 2013

Gov. Bryant in full-on meltdown mode over Medicaid expansion

I was right.  Yesterday, I wrote the following:
Well, in a sane world, this would be checkmate.  Mississippi Democrats in the Legislature held a press conference this morning to discuss a letter they sent to Gov. Phil Bryant (R) regarding his concerns over Medicaid expansion, and offering a compromise.
...
But it won't be.  After all, our governor thinks if you're not rich like him, you're a no-good, lazy, layabout who doesn't deserve health care in the first place.  Go, Mississippi, keep rolling along....
Like clockwork, here comes Gov. Bryant this morning in the Clarion-Ledger, flailing around like a bass on the bottom of a jon boat:
The first thing I’d do is sue (the federal government),” Bryant said Wednesday after state House Democratic leaders offered what they call a compromise to the governor and House GOP leadership on Medicaid expansion.
Never mind the fact that members of his own party have said that the litigation over the Affordable Health Care Act is finished, here goes Gov. Don Quixote tilting at windmills.

But that's not even the interesting part about what he said yesterday.  Gov. Bryant went on to decry the Medicaid system in Mississippi as replete with waste:
"I do not see expansion of Medicaid in Mississippi as it exists today, with all its waste, fraud and abuse,” Bryant said.
Let's play a game.  Which of the following do you think Gov. Bryant will have brought to his attention first by his staffers:

  1. That, as Governor, he is actually in charge of the Medicaid system he just said was full of "waste, fraud, and abuse", or 
  2. That he just called the doctors, nurses, and hospitals of Mississippi a bunch of frauds?
We have almost three more years of this, y'all.

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