By Pat Mullins
Many in our society lament the fact that theater, in its truest form, is a dying art.
Those folks didn’t see Terry McAuliffe’s press conference on Monday.
Terry told the press he was going to make a “big announcement” that would assure the passage of Medicaid Expansion under Obamacare this legislative session. The rollout was some of the best theater to hit Richmond in quite a while.
Waving it over his head like magic talisman warding off an evil spirit, Terry ranted and raved about how the Federal government had approved a two-year pilot project for Medicaid expansion, and that doing so would free up an amazing amount of money that his new budget — which just appeared out of nowhere — would spend on public employees.
But TMac wasn’t done yet. No, waving the magic letter, Terry told the world that if the “pilot program” went south, it was going to be on his shoulders and his shoulders alone.
Like I said, quality theater. Too bad it has nothing to do with reality.
Dig just a little deeper, and Terry’s entire act falls apart. Let’s start with the magic letter.
If you bother to read it (unlike some of our friends in the press corps) you’ll see the words “pilot program” aren’t in there. Anywhere. At all.
In fact, the letter just refers to a page of Frequently Asked Questions posted on the Internet. What our Governor is selling as a guarantee from the Federal government is in fact, an Internet brochure. Sort of like how those GreenTech things were cars, instead of glorified golf carts.
Medicaid, as it stands, can’t be a pilot program. It’s been around for decades. We know how it works — badly, and inefficiently. It doesn’t take two more years of experience to figure that out.
Couple that with the fact that Terry McAuliffe has never taken “responsibility” for anything in his life.
Case in point — Terry’s budget had a clause in it that would have turned the entire state budget into a slush fund to make Obamacare expansion work. It’s on Page 516, and it would have let the administration move money around as need to be sure the program succeeded.
Can’t make it work? Throw some school money at it. Like I said, “responsible” it isn’t.
And when the costs take off, like they have with every other entitlement program, Virginia taxpayers will be left holding the bag. We’ve seen what happens when a new entitlement program is created — it grows beyond everyone’s expectations, and any attempt to end it, or even slow its growth, becomes politically infeasible.
Let me be blunt. We need to expand Obamacare in Virginia through a temporarily funded, federal program in our state like a hole in the head. State taxpayers would foot the future bills for the billions of tax increases this would create.
If you’re looking for someone to take responsibility for anything, find Terry McAuliffe. Then make a 180 degree turn and run far away.
Thank you, House Republicans for standing firm against this. Speaker Howell and his team are doing a fine job, and I’m proud of them. Keep it up.
And Senate Democrats? Get your behinds back into your Senate seats and get to work.
We’re not paying you to sit at home.
Pat Mullins is chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia
