Morning Briefing
For February 21, 2013
1. I Am Very Disappointed in Governor Rick Scott
I was one of the few national conservatives to support Governor Scott in 2010 during his primary. He is a fundamentally great person. I really like him. He has been a friend to this site.
But I am terribly disappointed in his decision to expand Medicaid in Florida.
As one of the chief opponents of Obamacare and, before it, Hillarycare, Governor Scott knows this is not the right thing to do. I would like to blame the staff around him, but the ultimate decision was his to make and he made it.
The long term ramifications for Florida will be bad. The federal flow of dollars will not last and Florida will have to make up more and more funding. This decision will, long term, seriously harm Florida and make it less and less competitive.
Governor Scott is interested in getting re-elected and has terrible poll numbers. No doubt part of this decision has to do with his wanting to get re-elected.
When politicians do what they feel they must to get re-elected instead of doing what they know is right, they often lose re-election and, even when they do not, lose their way.
It is a sad day for conservatives.
Rick Perry and Bobby Jindal, who have competed with Scott and Florida on attracting business and growing their states economy should be on notice. They should not follow Rick Scott’s lead. They should not expand Medicare in their states. The money will not be there forever. Might as well let Florida roll that rock up the hill and take advantage of Governor Scott’s terrible mistake.
It is worth pointing out that before making this decision Governor Scott was able to extract a few concessions from the Obama Administration. HHS is going to allow Scott to privatize Medicaid coverage, which is actually a huge deal and Scott will only do this for three years in a trial run, that he may then end after that time and before federal funding drops.
That last bit, however, could potentially turn his re-election campaign into a referendum on the expansion of Medicaid with Charlie Crist arguing that Scott was only punting a rejection of expansion until the second term and Crist would guarantee the expansion stays. Not sure how well that would play out, but it could be dicey
By the way, you should read this portion of Governor Nikki Haley’s State of the State address on this very issue . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
2. Why Are We Not Talking About America’s $123 Trillion In Unfunded Liabilities?
Most Americans know that our nation is spending more than it is taking in (the deficit). Though many on the Left do not seem to understand (or care about) the consequences of out of control spending, most Americans do know that the nation has America has over $16.5 trillion in debt–or, nearly $53,000 of debt for every man, woman and child.
While $16.5 trillion of debt is clearly unsustainable, what is even more alarming is what we are not talking about: The fact that, in addition to the $16.5 trillion of debt we currently have, every man, woman, and child in America also is on the hook for nearly $400,000 in unfunded liabilities–or, over $1 million for every household. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
3. Obama’s Cowardly Mendacity Over Sequestration
In August 2011, Obama hatched a deal to grant himself a free $2.1 trillion increase in debt, which would take him past the 2012 elections, thereby sparing him the embarrassment of another debt limit request during the campaign season. He knew that such a request was so bold it needed to be ensconced in a deal that would give voters the impression he was committed to cutting spending. To that end, the Budget Control Act called for the creation of a super committee to identify $1.2 trillion in baseline cuts and tax increases. Given that the committee would be evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, Obama knew that this would trigger the sequestration. And that is exactly what he wanted. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
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