The next conservative litmus test: Opposition to Medicaid expansion

By Greg Sargent

The other day, Republican businessman Vance McAllister defeated a fellow GOPer in a Louisiana House special election, even though he supports the Medicaid expansion, which is of course a feature of the hated Obamacare. While there’s some argument as to how much the expansion meant to the outcome, McAllister’s willingness to embrace the idea of accommodating a part of the health law to bring in federal money suggests something of a schism between pragmatic and ideological Republicans over the issue.

Now the Daily Caller’s Matt Lewis reports that opposition to the Medicaid expansion is set to become a major litmus test issue in GOP primaries:

The issue is now making its way into Idaho’s Second Congressional District — in what is shaping up to be a brutal primary between Rep. Mike Simpson and a conservative challenger named Bryan Smith.

In a press release earlier today, The Club for Growth, a powerful fiscally conservative group, pointed out that a Super Pac backing Simpson has also endorsed expansion. (It’s not clear where Simpson stands on the issue, and that’s sort of the point.)

“Does Mike Simpson support or oppose expanding Medicaid under ObamaCare in Idaho, just as his supporters in the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry do?” asked Club for Growth Spokesman Barney Keller in the release. “Medicaid expansion will cost taxpayers billions and stick future generations with the bill. Conservatives across the country are rejecting ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion, and Mike Simpson should have to answer if he joins with the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry in supporting ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion in Idaho.”

If Idaho is a harbinger of things to come, expect Medicaid expansion to be a huge issue in Republican primaries — a sort of litmus test for true conservatives.

Meanwhile, House conservatives are beginning to hatch a new strategy for the coming budget talks that would involve pushing for a defunding of the law’s Medicaid expansion, and usubf the money to offset the sequester’s defense cuts. Though this idea seems to have very little support, it’s not impossible it could gain some momentum.

And in Tennessee, the Republican governor is coming under increasing pressure from local business interests who want him to embrace the Medicaid expansion. He is caught between GOP lawmakers who oppose the expansion, and hospital groups and the local chamber of commerce, who want it.

Meanwhile, the Medicaid expansion seems to be emerging as a bit of a political bright spot for Dems.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/11/20/the-next-conservative-litmus-test-opposition-to-medicaid-expansion/