2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumGOP governors name their price on health care law expansion
Two dozen Republican governors fought all the way to the Supreme Court to win the right to reject President Barack Obamas expansion of Medicaid under the health care law.
However, just a few weeks after the Supreme Court sided with them, some of these governors are leaving themselves an opening to expand Medicaid anyway but on their own terms.
Five Republican governors said Friday they would consider expanding the program if the feds gave them Medicaid dollars in block grants, which has been a goal of Republicans since the 1990s.
That was when the states had their strongest leverage, with the help of a Republican Congress, to demand freedom from federal rules to reshape the social safety net the way they wanted it. They pushed a welfare reform bill that President Bill Clinton signed into law, and almost had the same success with Medicaid block grants. That idea was too much for Clinton, and he vetoed the bill that passed Congress.
And the idea mostly dropped away after that. It stayed on the Republican radar, but it didnt get far enough to become part of a serious national conversation.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78499.html
bluestateguy
(44,173 posts)Sounds like some buzzword from a Heritage Foundation conference.
MindMover
(5,016 posts)"a block grant is a large sum of money granted by the national government to a regional government with only general provisions as to the way it is to be spent. This can be contrasted with a categorical grant which has more strict and specific provisions on the way it is to be spent."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_grant
The Magistrate
(95,247 posts)'Free money' from a state government point of view, that can, and has, been used for everything from hookers to blow....
quaker bill
(8,224 posts)Block grants generally go to private contractors, who generally make a fine living, and contribute to the correct campaigns.
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)bit by bit. That has been their long issue for a long time. We are worried short turn and those bastard take the long root.
BeyondGeography
(39,374 posts)Jeff In Milwaukee
(13,992 posts)Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but block grants are subject to annual appropriations, so it could be offered in one year and amended a year or two down the road. So once voters get used to coverage, then lay the restrictions on the governors and say, "Take it or leave it." Which would be political suicide for them. But it's a gamble.
But I would ONLY make that gamble for large, important swing states, and of the five, only Virginia falls into that category. Utah? Fucking forget it. Wyoming? Fucking get in line behind Utah.
Not worth doing it. When Ohio and Pennsylvania and Michigan get on the list, we'll talk.
MindMover
(5,016 posts)as Harry would say ....
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