By Steve Albertson - May, 2nd, 2014
‘Woodward and Bernstein’ she’s not…yet. But give Washington Post reporter Laura Vozzella some credit: she’s catching on.
We at The Bull Elephant have been beating a particular drum about Medicaid Expansion in Virginia for some time now.
Recognizing the political imperatives for each party, we’ve been looking at a showdown on the budget that has to have some “third way” type of resolution. The new Governor, with his assertive majority in the Virginia Senate, has made Medicaid expansion under Obamacare his signature issue. The House Speaker, and bolstered by his rank-and-file Republican majority, has spoken endlessly about GOP resolve against it. Both sides profess an unwillingness to let state government—with its funding for local first responders, schools, and transportation—actually shut down in the absence of a deal on Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.
We’ve written extensively about how the Governor will believe he has the authority inherent in the executive to manage the state’s Medicaid plan many times, and how the same appropriations that would allow Medicaid expansion through the special legislative commission established last year (as part of the Governor “Rolex” McDonnell’s deal to secure his taxportation plan) to expand Medicaid would be available to Governor McAuliffe. Our latest efforts on this subject are available here and here.
