Greg Abbott’s Obamacare and other promises won’t stand
Republican politicians are running two distinct campaigns. If one listens to them while campaigning to their base, Obamacare is red meat. I just got back from a Greg Abbott rally in Conroe, a very Conservative Republican town in Montgomery County Texas. Greg Abbott (R-TX) is running against Wendy Davis (D-TX) for Texas Governor.
Despite the fact the latest polls show Gregory Abbott comfortably ahead he is campaigning hard against Wendy Davis who was endorsed by most major Texas newspapers. What is ironic is unlike many Republican governors, Gregory Abbott continues to run hard against the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) bragging that he has sued President Obama over 30 times. It should be noted that Texas has the distinction of being the state with the highest percentage of uninsured citizens.
Nine Republican Governors, including Jan Brewer (R-AZ) and John Kasich (R-OH) accepted the Medicaid Expansion to Obamacare. Slowly but surely the reality is setting in.
The Huffington Post has a most prescient piece that caught on titled “GOP Governors Say Obamacare Is Here To Stay” that should be read in its entirety.
While Republicans in Congress shout, “Repeal Obamacare,” GOP governors in many states have quietly accepted the law’s major Medicaid expansion. Even if their party wins control of the Senate in the upcoming elections, they just don’t see the law going away.
Nine Republican governors have expanded Medicaid for low-income people in their states, despite their own misgivings and adamant opposition from conservative legislators. Three more governors are negotiating with the Democratic administration in Washington.
ather than demanding repeal, the governors generally have sought federal concessions to make their decisions more politically acceptable at home. That approach is in sharp contrast to the anti-Obamacare fervor of their party in Congress.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich says he doesn’t think there will be a repeal in Washington, even if Republicans win a Senate majority and consolidate their hold on the House in next month’s election.
“That’s not gonna happen,” the Republican governor told The Associated Press during a recent re-election campaign swing.
The article went on to say that Kasich called the AP to clarify that he was simply referring to the Medicaid Expansion and not Obamacare proper. He got caught up in the similar wordsmithing used by Mitch McConnell that made him look silly.
What is obvious is that the GOP is trying to get one more election out of maligning Obamacare. They however acknowledged it is here to stay. They will likely attempt to amend it slightly if they get into power, change the name, and call it their own. Sadly, they could have already done that as Obamacare used so much of their ideas in the first place. The insurance companies will continue to rip us off even as Obamacare adds much protection for the insured. The next step must be Medicare for all, a single payer system.