Spite Cheats Texas Taxpayers by: Libby Shaw "an unspeakable and an unforgiving contempt for poor and sick people"

Spite Cheats Texas Taxpayers by: Libby Shaw Fri Jun 12, 2015 at 19:53:37 PM CDT

Most of us know by now that Texas Republicans, Texas Tea Party Republicans and the Texas Taliban have an unspeakable and an unforgiving contempt for poor and sick people. We also know Texas conservatives are not in the least bit concerned about the dire human consequences of its leadership's failure to accept federally expanded Medicaid, though such would not cost the state a dime. One has to hand it to the self-serving snake oil dealers that have been duping Texas voters for decades.Governors like Rick Perry and Greg Abbott have successfully campaigned against the federal government, President Obama and the evil Obamacare. Except that Obamacare hasn't been so evil for the formerly uninsured. According to the Gallup polling firm, the uninsured rate in Texas fell by 2.5 percentage points between 2013 and 2014 - it's now at about 24.4 percent. Community health centers in Texas have gotten $470,331,234 for services, extended hours and more providers, and 10,694,840 Texans who had pre-existing conditions are able to get coverage.According to the White House, 832,334 people in Texas have received a tax subsidy to help pay for their insurance. These subsidies are being challenged in a case at the U.S. Supreme Court - King v. Burwell. Justices are expected to rule by the end of this month on whether it's legal for people to receive these tax credits in states that use the federal health insurance marketplace. Texas is one of those states. The Republican party as a whole has been on a relentless crusade to gut social insurance programs such as Social Security. It labels social insurance programs such as Medicare and Social Security as entitlements in order to give the false impression that both are handouts when in fact all working people pay into these programs every month for as long as they work. The Party that stands by tax cuts for the rich and failed trickle down economics, intend to pay for the tax cuts by raiding the Social Security fund. Gutting a program in which seniors can barely survive by earning an average income of $17,000-$24,000 annually would be devastating for millions of Americans. But Republican politicians merely shrug and revert to their Party's prepared talking points. We also know Texas Republican policies can be especially cruel for poor women. The recent mean-spirited abortion law punishes the least among us. The vast majority of teens involve at least one parent when deciding whether to terminate a pregnancy. There are only between 200 and 300 teens a year who can't find a parent or cannot safely involve one in their excruciating decision about whether to have an abortion. This mean-spirited law is all about punishing them, the very least among us. Yes indeed. The holier than thou Texas Taliban that wears its Christian values on its sleeve has fled as far as it could from the compassionate value of "What would Jesus do?" straight into the Koch church of greed and ALEC imposed pro-corporate, anti-consumer, anti-union doctrine. A church in which a Koch manufactured Jesus (the fat cat money guy) is a ruthless free market capitalist who punishes the poor and the sick. His believers do as they are told. So, knowing that Texas Republicans cannot be swayed, or shamed, for that matter (unless one were to get caught w/a hooker, male or female) by the inhumane conditions of poverty, chronic illness, unwanted pregnancies and early death, perhaps the compassion bereft can be reasoned with on a fiscal level. I mean, this is the Party that crows about its fiscal responsibility. Except the TX GOP lost much of its fiscal swagger by it's leadership's spiteful decision  to refuse to expand Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). This is probably the dumbest decision the Texas GOP has made in a very long time. All because GOP ideologues like Rick Perry, Greg Abbott and others are blinded by their hatred for the President. The sole reason for failing to expand Medicaid for millions of Texans is nothing more than spite. Texas business leaders know it.  The Harris (Houston area) Co. Judge (R) knows it. Healthcare professionals know it. Many of the state's journalists know it too. Last week Houston Public Radio interviewed healthcare professionals at the Baker Institute at Rice University.  The consensus among experts? There is no rational reason to refuse to expand Medicaid. So how can we convince the cruel, stubborn doofuses that their stupid spitefulness is costing the state billions?

Libby Shaw :: Spite Cheats Texas Taxpayers

The only way to jolt of these ideological Republicans out of their spiteful stupidity short of outing them for personal misconduct or criminal acts is by fomenting the fear of a potentially informed and rebellious electorate.If Texas taxpayers wake up to the fact that the state leadership's failure to expand Medicaid is robbing them of their tax dollars many could think twice before voting for politicians whose policies are cheating them. For taxpayers are paying for services they will not receive. Texas, Florida, Georgia, and other GOP-led states rejecting Obamacare's Medicaid expansion are costing their residents billions of dollars by making them pay taxes into a system from which they won't benefit, according to a new study by the Commonwealth Fund.Obamacare gives states general federal funding to expand their Medicaid programs to all residents making up to 138 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). According to the study, the funding designated for states accepting the expansion is so substantial that it will be, on average, more than double the amount that states currently receive for transportation funds. But since Medicaid is financed through general tax revenue, all Americans - irrespective of whether or not they live in a state participating in the expansion - will pay into the system. Consequently, Texas residents will see over $9 billion flow out of their state in 2022 to help fund the expansion in states that accept it; Georgia taxpayers will lose out on nearly $3 billion; and Florida's rejection of the expansion will cost residents over $5 billion: Texas taxpayer dollars are going to states, like California and New York, that did expand Medicaid.  I cannot imagine why any rational, taxpaying citizen would be happy about this. Nor should it be lost on the more informed residents in large urban areas of the fact that the hospitals serving the poor are financially strained to a breaking point. Flood waters recently overwhelmed and devastated parts of  Houston and areas in Central Texas.  While the state's recently adjourned 84th Legislature did little to address the state's education, infrastructure and transportation needs, the state's flood victims could at least count on FEMA to have their backs. Obama bashing TX conservatives should not worry.  For the POTUS is a far bigger man than the former and current Governors.  President Obama and FEMA won't throw Texas taxpayers under the bus. The same cannot be said for the Texas Republican Party.