Are GOP Governors Trying to Bring Back Reconstruction?

     Those Republican Governors-and state legislatures-who refuse to accept the ACA Medicaid expansion are harming their own states in a way that recalls what Reconstruction did to the South-which was led by the GOP of the time. 

     Note: Don't get me wrong, at that time the GOP to an extent at least back then were the 'good guys.'

     However, Reconsruction was done in a very crude way though the goal of allowing African-Americans to participate in Southern government was obsiously the right one; the rub is Reconstruction wasn't jsut about that. 

    Now, the GOP is again disadvnataging the Red states they allegedly serve. 

    "Margot Sanger-Katz has an excellent piece explaining how a Court decision nixing subsidies could combine with the refusal of many GOP governors to expand Medicaid to deepen the polarization of the health system when it comes to access to health care. And it’s even worse than that:

Perversely, the states where the court could wind up reducing insurance coverage the most have the largest share of residents who would otherwise benefit. Many of the states with the largest number of uninsured residents could be shut out of the bulk of Obamacare’s insurance expansion while continuing to pay the law’s taxes and other costs. Meanwhile, richer states that had always insured more of their residents would reap the benefits of federal dollars to expand further.

     "So red states will increasingly subsidize the health care of blue state residents! Great work, GOP governors. (Of course, GOP state lawmakers could simply set up exchanges to keep the subsidies flowing.)"

     http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/03/04/morning-plum-three-things-to-watch-for-at-the-supreme-court-today/

     So that's the basis of my Reconstruction analogy-which might seem like overstating it: basically refusing the expansion helps larger, richer blue states at the expense of smaller, poorer red states. 

     How can we resist the obvious correlation between blue state and poor state?

     Now Kansas GOP Governor Sam Brownback may be forced to accept the Medicaid expansion-yes, Greg Sargent, these are threatened by King-Burwell-due to his own extreme supply side tax cuts of a few years ago. As virulently opposed to ACA he has been, he's left saying 'I won't say we'll take the expansion, and I won't say we won't.'

     And the GOP says President Obama provides feckless leadership:

     "Gov. Sam Brownback (R) and the Republican-controlled legislature in Kansas is inching ever so slowly toward expanding Medicaid under Obamacare. If Kansas did expand Medicaid, it would be the latest in a list of deep-red states—including Arkansas, Utah, and Indiana—to actually take federal dollars through Obamacare, despite having conservative legislatures and fire-breathing, anti-ACA Republican governors."

     "The chances of Brownback, who is facing an enormous budget deficit, signing into law a bill expanding Medicaid in the state is still far from a sure thing, but it became slightly more likely during some legislative maneuvering last week. Conservative legislators were forced to agree to hold a hearing on expanding Medicaid in exchange for getting state Rep. Jim Ward (D) to drop an amendment to an bill that would have simply expanded Medicaid in the state to 138 percent of the poverty line."

    "Brownback, who had previously expressed strong opposition to Obamacare, signaled Wednesday he wasn't totally opposed to a Medicaid expansion."

    "I haven’t said we’ll take it. I haven’t said we wouldn’t," Brownback said according the Lawrence Journal-World. "Last year, I signed the bill that the Legislature passed [saying] that the Legislature had to approve any Medicaid expansion. I think that’s the way to go because it’s going to involve long-term costs. And the Legislature, that’s their primary authority."

    "Now, the conservative Kansas state legislature will hold a hearing on a proposal being crafted by the Kansas Hospital Association in talks with Brownback's staff that would expand Medicaid in the state through Obamacare. It's an odd situation given that Brownback, a conservative governor who's gotten plenty of national attention for standing by his unusually deep tax cuts, has previously opposed expanding Medicaid through Obamacare."

     http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/sam-brownback-medicaid-expansion-kansas

     Meanwhile the Medicaid expansion is under threat. The GOP realizes the need for handwaving here to convince Justice Anthony Kennedy and Chief Justice John Roberts that there is a contingency plan if they strike down the federal exchanges. 

    "I don’t pretend to know for certain what motivated the conservative justices to say this stuff. But here’s a guess: The idea that a legislative solution might soften the disruptions could make it easier for Anthony Kennedy (who appeared torn over federalism concerns, particularly in light of the punishment that might be inflicted on states) and/or John Roberts (who seemed at least open to the idea that Chevron deference should be accorded to the government) to rule with the challengers."

    "If so, Congressional Republicans have perhaps endeavored to play their own part in this little dance. They, too, want to appear eager to step in to help anyone hurt by an anti-ACA ruling. In a remarkable display of fortuitous timing, a group of influential House Republicans produced a Wall Street Journal op ed vowing a contingency plan for millions who might lose insurance, only days before oral arguments, and several Senate Republicans floated their own plan in an op ed in the Washington Post."

    "Both plans were devoid of specifics. And what’s more, during oral arguments, the idea (floated by Scalia) that Congress might provide such a contingency plan was basically laughed out of the Court. Understandably so: No one who watched the chaos around Homeland Security funding could possibly imagine Congress producing any such plan."

     http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/03/05/conservative-justices-if-we-gut-obamacare-republicans-will-fix-it-no-they-wont/