04.02.13

Unwilling to compromise on the moral choice

Posted in Around The State, Bad Government Republicans, Health Care at 11:51 am by wcnews

Via One Texas.

From yesterday’s dueling press conferences, A Deafening Roar for Medicaid Expansion.

This morning, volunteers with Progress Texas and the Texas Organizing Project rallied outside Governor Perry’s office demanding he expand Medicaid in Texas to cover hard working Texans. Perry hosted a 10 minute long “roundtable” discussion - where no members of the public were invited - and a joint press conference on Medicaid expansion with Senators John Cornyn & Ted Cruz, along with other Texas Tea Party members. Texans came from across the state to make it known that we need health care, and we need it now - check out our Facebook photos from the rally.

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The protest only finished a couple hours ago and we’ve already been mentioned by Politico, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Dallas Morning News, and the Houston Chronicle. We were so loud, members of the press inside could barely hear what the Governor and Senators Cruz & Cornyn were saying!

Here’s video from the press conferences yesterday via the Texas Tribune.

“This is no longer a Democratic issue or a Republican issue,” Julián Castro said. “This is about providing health care insurance so that more of our Texas families can be healthy.”

“Governor,” Joaquin Castro said, “I hope you will give up the swagger and get serious about expanding Medicaid in Texas.”

More, State Leaders Make Case For, Against Expanding Medicaid.

Republicans including U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and members of a conservative think tank gathered first, reaffirming their opposition to expanding Medicaid, a key tenet of “Obamacare” that is widely supported by Democrats. The expansion — and, in particular, the flexibility the federal government has shown some Republican-led states in implementing it — has in recent months drawn the support of some fiscal conservatives reluctant to pass up billions of federal dollars and the opportunity to curb Texas’ ranks of the uninsured.

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The Republican event was followed by a Democratic one led by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio; his brother, San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro; U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin; and legislative Democrats. They demanded that state leaders find a way to draw down the federal money and lift Texas’ stigma as having the highest uninsured population of any state.

“Even though many states with staunch Republican governors have said expanding Medicaid is the smart thing to do, the governor has stubbornly refused to do so,” Joaquin Castro said.

Julián Castro said: “As elected officials, the public hires us not to do the ideological thing but to do the smart thing. People from across the political spectrum … have suggested that Texas should do the right thing and accept the expansion of Medicaid.”

The other part is that this is Texas taxpayer money that will go to other states if we don’t opt in…and we’ll still be paying for these people when they show up at the emergency room.

“This is federal money that is going to be spent whether we opt into the program or not,” he said. “In other words, if we don’t reclaim our federal dollars that Texas taxpayers are paying, they’re going to go to other states.”

There is nothing that can be said to fight against the ideological bias of Perry and the wing nuts. They will not compromise on anything Obama related. The Democrats in Texas, the Obama administration, and many traditional GOP supporters are willing to work on a deal. But Perry and the wing nuts, who have locked themselves into an ideological box, are unwilling to compromise on this, the moral choice of our day.

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