Jan Brewer Brawled for Medicaid Expansion, and Won
by lizard
Jan Brewer rolled up her sleeves and shoved through medicaid expansion for her Arizona constituents. Instead of wagging that bony finger in disrespect of the president, she saw the critical need of her state and directed her hand to the more honest work of expanding access to health care for around 300,000 Arizonans.
Montana, unfortunately, does not have a comparable force willing to battle its own party to do the right thing. And with people like Jennifer Fielder getting voted into the vice chair position within Montana’s GOP hierarchy, well, the political landscape of ascendent right-wing extremism is fertile for more ideological fuckery deployed in callous disregard for the desperate need of tens of thousands of Montanans.
If one is politically invested in how this trend could benefit Montana Democrats, the worse they get, the better, as illustrated by this tweet from Don Pogreba:
I, for one, am THRILLED that the MT GOP is embracing its reactionary fringe. That tent’s getting smaller and smaller. #mtpol
In terms of voter turn out, both tents are small. If Montana Democrats only focus on what’s good for Montana Democrats, and celebrate how a significant movement on the extreme right is continually becoming more politically successful, then those celebrated trends will continue.
I know there is broad, bipartisan disgust in this state about our legislature’s failure to expand Medicaid to 70,000 Montanans. How could there not be? There is no sane, fiscally conservative argument for doing so. It really is, as Krugman puts it, a product of spite.
I believe there are conservatives without spite in their hearts; conservatives who don’t see denying health care to their neighbors as a political victory.
Jan Brewer saw the light—who cares if it was only for the shine of her political legacy as she terms out. She clearly saw the public benefit to her constituents, and did the right thing.
Is that really an impossibility for conservatives here in Montana?
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4&20 blackbirds 
June 18, 2013 at 4:17 pm
I think we should float a Citizen’s Initiative pegging Montana legislators’ health insurance benefits to going along with O’Care’s minimum Medicaid provisions. If they follow the minimum federal guidelines, then they can get their bennies…
June 19, 2013 at 8:16 pm
Lizard, FYI the citizen of Montana do not support the Medicaid expansion (Obamacare) –
Didn’t you vote last November ?
A resolution on the ballot was on there to PROTECT Montanans from Obamacare and it passed in a landslide.
June 19, 2013 at 9:34 pm
denying Medicaid access to 70,000 Montanans and denying money that would create 12,000 jobs DOES NOT PROTECT Montanans.
June 20, 2013 at 4:54 pm
I’m just pointing out, that implementing Obamacare is NOT popular with the general public. That was proven by the vote.
As a political blogger, I was sure that you voted last November, and understood the issues.
June 20, 2013 at 5:15 pm
you are right, I don’t understand what voters think they accomplished by voting for this:
health care is not a matter of “want” it’s a matter of “need”. at some point in life, EVERYONE will NEED health care. people with no health care still get treated in emergency rooms, and the cost is passed to all of us.
I did vote, Eric, and I voted against this idiocy. then I watched ideological morons and hypocrites who pocket ag subsidies deny medicaid expansion, something even a REPUBLICAN Governor like Jan Brewer couldn’t muster enough cruelty to do.