South Carolina’s House of Representatives shot down an amendment to the state budget which would have dramatically expanded the Palmetto State’s already oversized Medicaid population.
The amendment – one of several filed in conjunction with U.S. President Barack Obama’s socialized medicine law – failed the GOP-controlled chamber along party lines.
The issue isn’t dead, though. The state’s Medicaid budget could still be amended in the “Republican-controlled” S.C. Senate – which leans much further to the left than the S.C. House. In fact it has a champion there in the person of S.C. Sen. Vincent Sheheen (D-Camden), who is hoping to use the issue on the campaign trail in 2014.
Not only that, South Carolina lawmakers will likely be fighting this same battle again during next year’s budget debate as Obamacare-related dollars will remain on the table.
S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley has pledged to oppose the Obamacare expansion. However, her administration has already spent more than $60 million on a bid to expand the state’s Medicaid population – and wants to spend additional money to expand it even further.
So this is really a question of degrees …
Let’s look at the numbers: The Obamacare expansion would add approximately 545,000 new beneficiaries to the state’s already bloated Medicaid rolls over the next seven years – sixty percent of which would likely go on the taxpayer dole within the first year.
Along with other growth, this expansion would balloon the state’s Medicaid population from its current level of 1.1 million to 1.7 million by 2020.
That’s a whopping 54.5 percent increase in just seven years.
Even without the Obamacare expansion, South Carolina’s Medicaid population is set to expand by more than 130,000 people in the current fiscal year. Meanwhile the state’s total Medicaid budget is projected to soar from $5.9 billion to $6.5 billion in the current fiscal year – in large part to cover all those new enrollees.
That’s a nine percent hike – in just one year.
Tea Partiers refer to this expansion as “Haleycare” – and have derided the governor for her hypocrisy on this issue.
Nonetheless Democrats – led by S.C. Rep. Mandy Powers-Norrell – weren’t satisfied, and lobbied aggressively for the Obamacare expansion on the House floor.
“We’ve already paid for the coverage,” Powers-Norrell said, arguing that South Carolina should claim its fair share of Obamacare dollars.
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32 comments
Duuuuhhhh…!!!!..
You had a gaggle of ignorant democrats, who have borrowed the country broke promising there is a pot of money that Obama can keep dumping on us…
Somebody’s GOT TO BE Responsible, when you have Obama in Washington, FITS as media and Sanford just Raped the state for EIGHT years, wasting the Bush Prosperity that was in full swiing…
Ain’t no money to keep funding these stupid liberal pipe-dreams…
Even the Idiots who voted for Obama are starting to firgure out FITS was the Dumb@$$ who lied to them, telling them Romney and Obama were the same…
Bush and Prosperity form an oxymoron.
If you do your research– history shows that budget deficits decline with Democrat Presidents and increase with Republican Presidents. But you Fox News worshipers don’t believe the facts.
$9 Trillion when Obama started…$17 Trillion four years later. Obama has spent 4 times what Bush spent..and Bush fought a war Clinton Cowered from…
You F*#kin Brain dead Idiot…
I would not be so incredulous if I thought you blithering imbeciles were just Acting Stupid…but you are really this F*@kin’ ignorant….all the while sitting up at the coffee house perfoming acts on each other about how brilliant you tell yourselves you are…
T you represent the problem with the “Far right extreme”. You are right and always right– facts be damned. Your only recourse to facts are profane insults. Grow up, read the Huffington Post, watch MSNBC. See what “the dark side” is talking about. You really are not entitled to an opinion when you don’t understand all sides of the argument.
Who borrowed money for two wars? Hint: It’s a 4 letter word.
Duuuuhhhh…!!!!..
You had a gaggle of ignorant democrats, who have borrowed the country broke promising there is a pot of money that Obama can keep dumping on us…
Somebody’s GOT TO BE Responsible, when you have Obama in Washington, FITS as media and Sanford just Raped the state for EIGHT years, wasting the Bush Prosperity that was in full swiing…
Ain’t no money to keep funding these stupid liberal pipe-dreams…
Even the Idiots who voted for Obama are starting to firgure out FITS was the Dumb@$$ who lied to them, telling them Romney and Obama were the same…
Bush and Prosperity form an oxymoron.
If you do your research– history shows that budget deficits decline with Democrat Presidents and increase with Republican Presidents. But you Fox News worshipers don’t believe the facts.
$9 Trillion when Obama started…$17 Trillion four years later. Obama has spent 4 times what Bush spent..and Bush fought a war Clinton Cowered from…
You F*#kin Brain dead Idiot…
I would not be so incredulous if I thought you blithering imbeciles were just Acting Stupid…but you are really this F*@kin’ ignorant….all the while sitting up at the coffee house perfoming acts on each other about how brilliant you tell yourselves you are…
T you represent the problem with the “Far right extreme”. You are right and always right– facts be damned. Your only recourse to facts are profane insults. Grow up, read the Huffington Post, watch MSNBC. See what “the dark side” is talking about. You really are not entitled to an opinion when you don’t understand all sides of the argument.
Who borrowed money for two wars? Hint: It’s a 4 letter word.
Going to have come up with the money somehow, SC!!
Stupid is as stupid does!!
Going to have come up with the money somehow, SC!!
Stupid is as stupid does!!
I hate that all these stories fail to mention that over 150K of these people that become ‘eligible’ with the medicaid expansion already have health insurance. These are not people that don’t have coverage. And once they become eligible, they will jump on medicaid fast as they can. Why pay for something, pay deductibles, be responsible for yourself in other words, if you can get if for free off of everyone else??? We should be working for other ways to get health care to the rest of them ( notice I say ‘care’ and not insurance), because there are cheaper and easier ways that don’t suck the gov. dry.
I hate that all these stories fail to mention that over 150K of these people that become ‘eligible’ with the medicaid expansion already have health insurance. These are not people that don’t have coverage. And once they become eligible, they will jump on medicaid fast as they can. Why pay for something, pay deductibles, be responsible for yourself in other words, if you can get if for free off of everyone else??? We should be working for other ways to get health care to the rest of them ( notice I say ‘care’ and not insurance), because there are cheaper and easier ways that don’t suck the gov. dry.
either way,you’re gonna pay.the for-profit medical industry isn’t working,and never will
it’s a capitalist nightmare
call it ,’socialism’ ,if you’re that shallow and incapable of reasoning and simple logic…
Obama won reelection,the tea party is over, get used to it
You started off well in your argument(not that I agree), but denying its socialism when it obviously is, doesn’t help you.
Instead you should be pitching why socialism is better(not that I agree)and be honest in your viewpoints(like Chomsky) so that people at least know you are being genuine. You linked a Marx argument on labor, so why shy away from the concept of socialism?(even if it’s mixed, like most of our current gov’t)
One reason of many I can’t stand most GOPers is because the are not genuine about wanting limited gov’t.
It’s greed and capitalism at its worst.But, keep using that tired cliche.It has been rendered completely meaningless.Knock yourself out.Write your own dictionary.
What tired cliche? Do you really think the health care system is any form of pure capitalism now or in the last 60 years, or even 100 for that matter?
Look, here’s one thing to think about when you label what we all agree is some weird monstrosity as “capitalism”.
The prominence(meaning the growth) of health insurance in use for daily medical stuff, instead of the use of cash for example…instead of being relegated solely to big emergency rose under the price & wage controls instituted by the War Labor board during WW2 as a way to compensate people outside of the now outlawed pay increases.
The current environment has nothing to do with free markets/capitalism.
It’s a perfect example of gov’t helping to create a problem and then people assuming gov’t is the answer to the very problems it created.
either way,you’re gonna pay.the for-profit medical industry isn’t working,and never will
it’s a capitalist nightmare
call it ,’socialism’ ,if you’re that shallow and incapable of reasoning and simple logic…
Obama won reelection,the tea party is over, get used to it
You started off well in your argument(not that I agree), but denying its socialism when it obviously is, doesn’t help you.
Instead you should be pitching why socialism is better(not that I agree)and be honest in your viewpoints(like Chomsky) so that people at least know you are being genuine. You linked a Marx argument on labor, so why shy away from the concept of socialism?(even if it’s mixed, like most of our current gov’t)
One reason of many I can’t stand most GOPers is because the are not genuine about wanting limited gov’t.
It’s greed and capitalism at its worst.But, keep using that tired cliche.It has been rendered completely meaningless.Knock yourself out.Write your own dictionary.
What tired cliche? Do you really think the health care system is any form of pure capitalism now or in the last 60 years, or even 100 for that matter?
Look, here’s one thing to think about when you label what we all agree is some weird monstrosity as “capitalism”.
The prominence(meaning the growth) of health insurance in use for daily medical stuff, instead of the use of cash for example…instead of being relegated solely to big emergency rose under the price & wage controls instituted by the War Labor board during WW2 as a way to compensate people outside of the now outlawed pay increases.
The current environment has nothing to do with free markets/capitalism.
It’s a perfect example of gov’t helping to create a problem and then people assuming gov’t is the answer to the very problems it created.
Who is the fat guy with the white hair staring at the camera? He lost the sock competition.
Who is the fat guy with the white hair staring at the camera? He lost the sock competition.
Here’s my theory, the harder we make it for the deadbeats to ride the gravy train – whether that be food stamps, medicaid, etc – in SC, the better. Ultimately, I believe that such fiscal conservatism will repel the unproductive and thus, they will likely leave to seek greener pastures. Such is what happened in the 1950s/1960s in California as they expanded their social safety nets, and the deadbeats flocked to them. And ultimately, they now teeter on the verge of bankruptcy as a result of their earlier actions. So what I’m saying is this, great job GOP House!
Here’s my theory, the harder we make it for the deadbeats to ride the gravy train – whether that be food stamps, medicaid, etc – in SC, the better. Ultimately, I believe that such fiscal conservatism will repel the unproductive and thus, they will likely leave to seek greener pastures. Such is what happened in the 1950s/1960s in California as they expanded their social safety nets, and the deadbeats flocked to them. And ultimately, they now teeter on the verge of bankruptcy as a result of their earlier actions. So what I’m saying is this, great job GOP House!
Hi,
The sequester, a series of self-imposed, unfocused cuts will impact a wide array of government agencies and services, from the Social Security Administration to national security to education. This wrongheaded and indiscriminate use of the austerity ax will harm the economy, the public, and the future capacity of the government. It will undermine the growth of the economy.
We must not allow the sequester to be used to force unpopular cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits through the Congress. The only responsible thing to do is to completely cancel the sequester through legislative action.
Representative John Conyers understands that and released “The Cancel the Sequester Act of 2013 (HR 900).” It is a simple one sentence bill that, if passed, would completely eliminate the sequester.
We need every single office in the House to hear from their constituents, tell them you are sick and tired of these self-imposed budget crises, tell them they need to get out of the way and let America work and tell them to vote yes on HR 900 The Cancel the Sequester Act of 2013!
That’s why I signed a petition to The United States House of Representatives, which says:
“Vote for HR 900 The Cancel the Sequester Act of 2013”
Will you sign the petition too? Click here to add your name:
http://pac.signon.org/sign/congress-vote-for-the?source=s.fwd&r_by=7311743
Thanks!
Hi,
The sequester, a series of self-imposed, unfocused cuts will impact a wide array of government agencies and services, from the Social Security Administration to national security to education. This wrongheaded and indiscriminate use of the austerity ax will harm the economy, the public, and the future capacity of the government. It will undermine the growth of the economy.
We must not allow the sequester to be used to force unpopular cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits through the Congress. The only responsible thing to do is to completely cancel the sequester through legislative action.
Representative John Conyers understands that and released “The Cancel the Sequester Act of 2013 (HR 900).” It is a simple one sentence bill that, if passed, would completely eliminate the sequester.
We need every single office in the House to hear from their constituents, tell them you are sick and tired of these self-imposed budget crises, tell them they need to get out of the way and let America work and tell them to vote yes on HR 900 The Cancel the Sequester Act of 2013!
That’s why I signed a petition to The United States House of Representatives, which says:
“Vote for HR 900 The Cancel the Sequester Act of 2013”
Will you sign the petition too? Click here to add your name:
http://pac.signon.org/sign/congress-vote-for-the?source=s.fwd&r_by=7311743
Thanks!