Walker Takes Another Shot At The Poor
Scott Walker has repeatedly aimed caustic state power at the very people with the fewest resources to fight back.
I've listed examples in one often-updated posting, including targeted tax increases, arbitrary grant cuts, disruptions in medical services available to low-income women, and, of course, his denial of federally-funded health insurance to tens of thousands of Wisconsinites who earned $1 or more above the official poverty threshold.
Now he's added a snotty, spiteful, self-serving snipe to the mix - - a callous dismissal of the value of a focused effort by the federal government to help an estimated 38,000 state men, women and children find alternative coverage- - the very people who remain in the health-care gap which he created:
His motivation at the time was to show himself equal to President Obama in policy creation - - thus stature politically, as he fantasized it - - though we know that state taxpayers are having to pay tens of millions of dollars annually under Walker's 'plan' despite the federal funding availability while also leaving some people in the coverage gap.
Call it a lose-lose.
To support the short period of informational assistance to people in the gap,Walker would have to concede that his approach was as short-sighted and potentially harmful as it is, so his answer is a cold-hearted and sarcastic barb.
How easy would it have been to say, 'If one state resident is helped, I'm happy about it.'
Instead, out comes the defensive armor, protecting some awfully thin skin.
What a small-minded, one-dimensional man we have in the Governor's office.
I've listed examples in one often-updated posting, including targeted tax increases, arbitrary grant cuts, disruptions in medical services available to low-income women, and, of course, his denial of federally-funded health insurance to tens of thousands of Wisconsinites who earned $1 or more above the official poverty threshold.
Now he's added a snotty, spiteful, self-serving snipe to the mix - - a callous dismissal of the value of a focused effort by the federal government to help an estimated 38,000 state men, women and children find alternative coverage- - the very people who remain in the health-care gap which he created:
"I think this is something where somebody is looking for a problem that doesn’t exist.”Walker is irked that anyone would have the temerity to question the wisdom of his decision to reject federal Medicaid funding that would provided more more low-income people in Wisconsin with health insurance.
His motivation at the time was to show himself equal to President Obama in policy creation - - thus stature politically, as he fantasized it - - though we know that state taxpayers are having to pay tens of millions of dollars annually under Walker's 'plan' despite the federal funding availability while also leaving some people in the coverage gap.
Call it a lose-lose.
To support the short period of informational assistance to people in the gap,Walker would have to concede that his approach was as short-sighted and potentially harmful as it is, so his answer is a cold-hearted and sarcastic barb.
How easy would it have been to say, 'If one state resident is helped, I'm happy about it.'
Instead, out comes the defensive armor, protecting some awfully thin skin.
What a small-minded, one-dimensional man we have in the Governor's office.
1 comment:
Walker's Affordable Care Act proposal was always projected to cost billions more and cover 10s of thousands fewer people than accepting federal funds. Attached is the Legislative Fiscal Bureau's analysis from Feb. 15, 2013. He has always had it in for the poor - in the Assembly, as County executive.
http://media.jsonline.com/documents/medreport.pdf
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