Michigan: GOP Gov. Snyder tries to take credit for helping state lose $600M

I've posted several times about the appalling shamelessness of Republican candidates trying to take credit for the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion provision (which was only possible thanks to Democrats) while continuing to badmouth the law itself.

Then there's the ones who try to take credit for Medicaid expansion finally being put into effect even though it was their own ineptness which dragged the process out...in the case of Michigan, needlessly putting hundreds of thousands of people through 3 months of unnecessary anxiety and medical risk while costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds in the process:

Back when Michigan legislators were debating whether to expand Medicaid in our state through the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), Rick Snyder expressed his concern that our state didn’t “have enough capacity to put essentially 400,000 more people into a medical home model with a primary care environment, as opposed to having them simply go to an ER”.

That’s the sort of “leadership” provided by Rick Snyder on this issue.

Once Republican legislators finally figured out what a great deal this is for our state, they passed the legislation without giving it “immediate effect”, something they do for nearly every bill passed. This delayed the implementation of the program for several months, costing our state upwards of a half billion dollars in lost federal funding.

As Savage puts it:

Snyder’s in a well-earned tough spot here. He’s never going to sway Democrats that he’s somehow a friend to their interests and concerns. And, the more he embraces Obamacare, the more he’ll alienate the far-right tea partiers who helped sweep him and his Republican colleagues into power in 2010.

I'll just add that Michigan isn't Kentucky. I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of our new Medicaid recipients know exactly which party is responsible for their newfound peace of mind...and which one has done everything possible to repeal the law which provides their coverage or, at best, dragged their heels as long as possible before grudgingly enacting it.

Frankly, Snyder and the Michigan GOP trying to campaign on eventually, grudgingly expanding Medicaid (only 3 years after it was set up for them on a silver platter, and 3 months later than it had to for no particular reason) reminds me an awful lot of a classic skit by Chris Rock (cleaned up for obvious reasons):

"I take CARE of MY kids!!"

"You're SUPPOSED to take care of your kids, you dumb m*****f*****!! Whaddya want, a cookie???"

Apparently Rick Snyder wants a cookie just for doing the bare minimum necessary to have a soul...which reminds me of a slightly less controversial quote from The Russia House:

Nowadays you have to think like a hero just to behave like a merely decent human being.

Yep. Snyder thinks he should be treated a hero for merely behaving like a decent human being on this issue...and given the moral state of the Republican Party these days, that's actually not too far off the mark.