McAuliffe Pushes for Medicaid Expansion

Women are not the only ones against whom the GOP is waging war.  Here in Virginia, the Virginia GOP is seeking to block Medicaid expansion and in the process toss 400,000 uninsured Virginians on the trash heap.  Meanwhile, of course like their Congressional brethren, members of the Virginia GOP have no viable alternative to offer.  It will ultimately be interesting to see how much pressure the chambers of commerce and hospital industry can bring to bear on these members of the party of "No."  Thankfully, Governor McAuliffe is likewise keeping up the pressure as detailed in a Washington Post article.  Here are highlights:

Gov. Terry McAuliffe intends to wrest the power to expand Medicaid away from a legislative commission and put it in his own hands, one of several moves threatening to undermine the new governor’s courtship of the GOP-controlled General Assembly.

McAuliffe (D) announced Monday that he will seek that authority through a proposed budget amendment if the Medicaid Innovation and Reform Commission does not agree within the next 60 days to enroll 400,000 more Virginians into the federal-state health-care program for the poor. Republicans flatly opposed his proposal on policy grounds and procedural ones: The governor does not have the right, they said, to propose amendments this early in the process.

McAuliffe devoted the nine weeks between Election Day and his inauguration to ardently wooing Republicans with moderate Cabinet picks, face-to-face meetings and lavish praise for the outgoing GOP governor, Robert F. McDonnell.

But he spent his first week on the job antagonizing a good number of them. Republicans who had initially succumbed to McAuliffe’s charm offensive were already bristling at his liberal rhetoric, planning to squash one of his political appointments and recoiling from his strong push for Medicaid expansion.

Some Republicans were put off by how strongly McAuliffe played up his stances on gay rights, abortion rights and immigration in two major addresses and in his inaugural parade.
Just over a week into the job, McAuliffe has revealed a lot about the kind of governor he wants to be: a bipartisan deal-maker who still intends to champion some distinctly liberal goals. While primarily casting himself as an intensely pro-business, non-ideological moderate, McAuliffe has unabashedly leaned leftward on a handful of key Democratic priorities.

McAuliffe’s unbridled support for the priorities of his party’s base represents a dramatic shift in tone and strategy from that of McDonnell, who tried mightily to avoid talking about social issues.

Rapid shifts in both public opinion and the state’s demographics have given McAuliffe freedom to stake out some positions — most notably on gay rights and immigration — that until recently were non-starters in the commonwealth. That pleases his liberal base and could put Republicans on the defensive, forcing them to take positions that in recent elections have worked against them in a changing Virginia.
 
But McAuliffe’s strategy carries some risk given how desperately he will need Republicans to get anything through a General Assembly. The GOP dominates the House and at least temporarily controls the Senate.

The major obstacle to moving Virginia forward is the Virginia GOP and the Christofascists at The Family Foundation that are the real puppet masters of the Virginia GOP.