[Vision2020] Nice guys no more

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (January 17, 2014) Lewiston Tribune.

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Nice guys no more
Marty Trillhaase
CHEERS ... to Dan Chadwick of Boise, executive director of the Idaho Association of Counties, and Roger Christensen of Idaho Falls, chairman of the Idaho Catastrophic Health Care Fund.
The plan, as outlined by Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter, was for lawmakers to get out of town without addressing the fate of 100,000 Idahoans who can't afford health insurance and make too little money to qualify for subsidies under Obamacare.
Federal law expanded Medicaid to cover their needs and offered the states a free ride for the first three years of the program - and pledged to cover at least 90 percent of the costs thereafter.
For Idaho, that was a particularly good deal. The state already covers those bills - about $38 million through the CAT fund and at least that much at the local level through the counties' medically indigent program.
For a GOP establishment that is scared witless of its Tea Party fringe, Obamacare is politically toxic. So Otter and lawmakers would rather go on wasting close to $80 million a year in state and local taxes.
Not so fast.
As reported by the Tribune's William L. Spence, Chadwick laid down this challenge: How can the counties be responsible for medically indigents when Obamacare outlaws indigency? If everyone in this country obeys the mandate to get health insurance - they're no longer medically indigent.
End of story.
The counties can close it down.
They are off the hook.
And they don't need the Legislature's permission.
If state lawmakers timidly refuse to expand Medicaid, that's their problem. Let them explain to the hospitals, clinics and doctors why they must write off bills, raise rates or go bankrupt.
Then Christensen called them out on the politics of it. Speaking to the Legislature's budget committee Thursday, the Bonneville County commissioner said Otter's do-nothing option implements Obamacare on steroids. Rather than resisting the federal program, lawmakers would have Idaho taxpayers prop up the health care system anytime it fails.
Talk about no more Mr. Nice Guy.
Logic and compassion have not swayed Otter and the GOP.
Perhaps this new-found bare-knuckle leverage will.
JEERS ... to U.S. Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. Last week, they helped block the extension of federal jobless benefits to the nation's long-term unemployed.
That cuts 2,200 unemployed Idahoans off at the knees.
We're not talking about generous benefits, either. The maximum unemployment check is $383 a week.
Are so concerned about the federal deficit that they would tolerate 7 percent unemployment as the new norm? Why stomp on people who are already desperate? Why not first do something about the corporations that manage to evade their obligations to pay taxes in this country?
JEERS ... again to Risch and Crapo. Wednesday, they were asked: Can we please keep the federal government open until Congress passes a budget? The House already acted. The Senate soon will. Passage is assured. All we need is three days.
Answered Risch and Crapo:
No.
Shut it down.
Who would do that?
The 14-member wacko-bird squad includes not merely Risch and Crapo, but such marginalized figures as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Kentucky's Rand Paul and Utah's Mike Lee.
Coming from Risch, whose penchant for pulling the grenade pin won him the National Journal's Mr. Conservative title, this is nothing new.
But from Crapo, who has taken responsible stands on reducing the deficit, protecting the environment and ending domestic violence, you expect more.
CHEERS ... to Genesee school teachers Tauna Johnson and Donna Wommack.
Amid all the debates that swirl around testing, accountability, funding and technology, it's easy to lose track of that essential ingredient in education: A talented, skilled and dedicated classroom teacher.
Genesee has that in spades.
Johnson, a 24-year veteran who teaches fifth grade, and Wommack, who has 19 years invested in the profession and teaches fourth grade, are among 102 recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.
Johnson and Wommack are the only pair of winners from the same school, let alone the same town.
"Both Tauna and Donna are exemplary teachers in our district," said Genesee Principal and Superintendent Wendy Moore.
Moore nominated the two teachers for the national recognition.
"It's always fun to go in and observe their classrooms."
JEERS ... to Congressman Raul Labrador, R-Idaho. Wednesday, he voted against the compromise $1.1 trillion budget that avoids another government shutdown. He was on the losing side of a 359-67 vote - and that put him in the ranks of such radicals as Justin Amash, R-Mich., Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and Steve King, R-Iowa.
They caused the shutdown crisis last fall and then refused to back off.
What's different is Labrador's reason. The package does not fund Payment in Lieu of Taxes - which is worth $1.52 million to Idaho County and $628,098 to Clearwater County.
Set aside the fact that PILT funding is set to be addressed in the farm bill.
Last year, Labrador wanted to maintain the sequester cuts that gutted PILT.
In 2012, he opposed the transportation bill that preserved the program for another year. What's changed? - M.T.
Correction: Wednesday's editorial on welfare contained an error. Idaho's monthly cash benefit is $309.
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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"There's room at the top they are telling you still.
But first you must learn to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

- John Lennon
 
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