The Florida GOP: Chanting 'Liberty' While Engaged in Tyranny

     The state GOP itself is now in straight up civil war over whether or not to accept the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. The horrendous GOP Governor Rick Scott is doubling down; the senate GOP wants a 'conservative'  Medicaid expansion; the state House GOP is in lockdown mode. 

     "Now things are getting truly crazy in Florida. Legislators who oppose the Medicaid expansion are locking reporters out of meetings about the issue. And Republicans who support it are saying this episode is now reflecting badly on the national GOP."

    "Background: State Senate Republicans support a “conservative” version of the expansion.  The administration may withhold federal money for the Low Income Pool — which pays hospitals to treat the uninsured — that Scott and Republicans prefer, and instead wants Florida to take the expansion money, which would cover at least 800,000 Floridians. But that’s Obamacare, so Americans for Prosperity, Governor Scott and state House Republicans are dug in against it. Result: A budget impasse that’simperiling, among other things, the tax cuts Republicans want."

     "About Representative Wood chanting “liberty” at the assembled reporters: It’s worth noting that state House Republicans and Scott want federal money to cover health care in the form of LIP; they just don’t want it if it’s part of “Obamacare.” Their ostensible reason is that the feds can’t be trusted to keep their end of the Medicaid bargain, leaving the state on the hook. But state Senate Republicans reject that argument.

     http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/04/22/morning-plum-battle-over-florida-medicaid-expansion-goes-wild/

     The irony is that Mr. Liberty may just have engaged in a crime against liberty. 

     "State law bans three or more lawmakers from discussing pending legislation behind closed doors. But the House Republicans walked right past the journalists, then locked out the media, in order to privately discuss the legislative battle over health care. Representative John Wood chanted ‘liberty’ as he walked past reporters camped in the hallway…"

       "Florida reporter Marc Caputo notes that the impasse could result in a government shutdown, which could hurt the state’s economy. And one Senate Republican is now arguing that the whole mess could be a “problem” for “the image of the Republican Party in America.”

       It's an interesting microcosm of GOP politics today. Anything but admit you like or support any aspect of Obamacare. This is the party that Nate Silver claims has a 50% chance of winning the White House in 2016?!

      http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/04/hey-nate-silver-its-party-not.html

      P.S. Here, in my mind, Paul Waldman dignifies this upcoming hit piece on Hillary too miuch:

      "Furthermore, the fact that Peter Schweizer is a conservative operative whose previous books include such classics of objective journalism as “Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles In Liberal Hypocrisy” and “Makers and Takers: Why Conservatives Work Harder, Feel Happier, Have Closer Families, Take Fewer Drugs, Give More Generously, Value Honesty More, Are Less Materialistic and Envious, Whine Less…and Even Hug Their Children More Than Liberals” does not, in and of itself, mean his charges have no merit. You can write a partisan book whose arguments are based on verifiable facts. But it does mean those charges should be checked and rechecked before they’re simply passed on to the public with the usual “questions are being raised” justification."

       http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/04/21/getting-back-to-basic-facts-in-the-next-hillary-scandal/

       Waldman is thankfully more skeptical than he and/or Greg Sargent have been in previous Right gotcha scandals-the Plum Line writers seemed to take that whole email fiasco much more seriously than it deserved and Sargent initally even took the fake IRS scandal as a big deal. 

      Ok, I can agree that a writer can be 'partisan' and still accurate and fact based-after all that's the premise of Diary of a Republican Hater. Still Schweizer is more than just partisan-he's cried wolf many times. Based on his track record he has no credibility. 

     http://mediamatters.org/research/2015/04/20/clinton-cash-author-peter-schweizers-long-histo/203209#activist

      Why would you give a paid liar a fair hearing? To do so is dignifying him way too much. Waldman admits that Hillary gets the benefit of the doubt at this point-she's innocent till proven guilty as the GOP has cried wolf just so many times. But to me Schweizer is guilty until proven innocent and real liberals should treat him as such, rather than the usual David Brooks treatment.