So here's the thing about Medicaid: Most people do not want to think about it.
Most people do not want to think about prisons, either.
These are things which happen to other people and we have enough to think about when it comes to things which might happen to our own selves.
So, when Obamacare (now the Affordable Care Act) gets passed, New Hampshire gets offered a lot of dollars if it will only sign on, but Republicans in New Hampshire, particularly Republicans in the Senate, like Nancy Stiles, see treachery in these dollars, and they know those are tainted dollars, dollars likely to lead us down some dark, sinister road to perdition. These are dollars with Democratic fingerprints all over them, and they vote to refuse the money, on principle. On the principle that no money from Democrats, even if it goes to New Hampshire citizens, can be good money.
But, as Mad Dog has said, Medicaid is not something most people in New Hampshire care about, because Medicaid is for poor people, welfare queens, people who are not willing to work, people who would accept government charity, people who are lazy and undeserving.
Even if all that were true, there is a problem with the Republican position: When those lazy, undeserving people get sick, they do what? They go to...you guessed it, THE EMERGENCY ROOM. And guess who pays for their care? The deserving, upright, hard working citizens of New Hampshire.
It's not a direct tax bill you see on April 15th, but that does not make it any less real.
Think on that, Granite staters.
As Chris Muns said, rather forlornly, after Nancy Stiles voted with her Tea Party friends to reject federal Medicaid funds, these Republicans don't care who they hurt, or how crazy their position is, from a public policy or public health viewpoint--they only care about an ideology: Government is bad. Democrats are bad. Democrats handing out money is doubly bad. Bad. Bad. Bad.
The question is, do the good folk of New Hampshire really want to be led by fundamentalists?
Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving Mad Dog....As for Nancy "The Chameleon" Stiles-she's one who has never let common sense, the public good or her previous public comments stand in the way of how she votes. Oh sure, she flirts routinely with doing what's best for her constituents, but in the end she always opts for doing what's in her best interest and what will keep the wingnuts on the right happy. Luckily the voters of the Seacoast will have a far superior alternative to Senator Stiles in Chris Muns who is intelligent, informed, consistent and actually matches what he says to how he votes...
ReplyDeleteMaud
Maud,
ReplyDeleteAgreed: Chris Muns is a stellar public servant, and that is saying something.
The problem will be whether or not the citizens and voters of Hampton will see that.
Mad Dog