The Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, Andy Tobin, surrendered today, acceding to Governor Brewer's demand that the House vote on whether to accept Obamacare's Medicaid expansion for Arizona.
Previously, the Speaker had refused to allow the proposition to come to a vote. The Governor, despite being obsessed with headless corpses in the desert, had the sense to understand that anti-Obamacare obsession by Tea Party Arizona Republicans was no reason to refuse free money and at the same time keep people from receiving medical care. She, giving credit where credit is due, fought back against this obsession by threatening to veto all legislation until a vote on Medicaid expansion was called - and carried through on that threat by vetoing five bills that reached her desk.
It's a BFD:
The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that expanding Medicaid would cut Arizona’s uninsurance by almost a third. That means that about 50,000 poor Arizonans would have access to basic and specialty health care, including diagnostic and clinical services, as well as care for the disabled and the mentally ill.
The Medicaid expansion passed the Arizona Senate last month, so the House vote is the only thing now standing in the way. There are 36 Republicans and 24 Democrats in the Arizona House. Assuming there are no insane Democrats that means Brewer requires seven non-insane Republicans in the House.
Republicans opposed to the measure admit that it’s likely to pass. "I don't know if we have the numbers to stop it. But we are going to continue to fight," said state Rep. Bob Thorpe (R).
Perhaps she could threaten to create some headless corpses along with a few conspicuously vacant seats in the House, thereby killing two loons with one stone.