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The nation's governors met last week and were treated to the kind of White House pressure Republican senators have been getting to support the latest version of Trumpcare, the bill that would destroy state budgets by drastically reducing the federal commitment to Medicaid. Governors get this, which is one of the reasons they've been less than enthusiastic about the whole thing—as of yet, not a single governor has given his or her full support. But there was Vice President Mike Pence at their meeting, trying to woo them aboard. He chose the wrong way to do it, by levying an attack on Ohio Gov. John Kasich and with massive lies that he has since had to try to walk back.
Pence, former governor of Indiana, singled out Kasich during a speech at the National Governors Association gathering in Providence, Rhode Island.
“I know Gov. (John) Kasich isn’t with us, but I suspect that he’s very troubled to know that in Ohio alone, nearly 60,000 disabled citizens are stuck on waiting lists, leaving them without the care they need for months or even years,” Pence asserted.
The Dispatch, followed by the Washington Post and others, pointed out the lack of a relationship between Ohio’s Medicaid expansion and the long-standing list of those waiting for home- and community-based services for the developmentally disabled. The Post also reported that Pence’s jibe “drew private criticism from governors of both parties” because not only was it untrue, “many interpreted Pence’s remark as an overly aggressive shot at Kasich,” which could further alienate key Senate GOP swing vote Rob Portman. […]
By Saturday night, the Post said, a Pence spokesman maintained that the vice president was not trying to link the Medicaid expansion and the waiting list, but was only talking about need for reforms.
The end of Medicaid as we know it? No exaggeration. The Senate version of Trumpcare has worse long-term cuts to Medicaid than the House version—all to pay for tax breaks to the wealthy. Call your Republican senator at (202) 224-3121, and give them a piece of your mind. Tell us how it went.
Kasich's office immediately swung back, calling Pence's speech "fake news," adding that the waiting list cited by Pence "is not accurate," and that suggesting the state's Medicaid expansion hurt the state's disabled "system is false, as it is just the opposite of what actually happened." The attack on one of their own did nothing to bring governors around to Pence—or Trump's—side. In fact, it probably added to the inclination they already had against him.
So did an independent analysis of the bill from the healthcare firm Avalere, presented to the governors Saturday morning. It "projected federal Medicaid funding reductions in all 50 states, ranging from 27 percent to 39 percent by 2036. In Nevada, the study projected a 37 percent reduction." Nevada is key, since Gov. Brian Sandoval (R-NV) has been loudly and publicly opposed to the bill, and has been providing cover to Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) who is the single-most vulnerable Republican incumbent in 2018 and therefore the most pressured senator on this bill.
Sandoval hasn't yet out-and-out declared he's opposed to the new version of the bill, but since his big issue all along has been Medicaid and this bill is as bad on Medicaid as the first Senate version and worse than the House bill, it's hard to imagine his opposition will change. But Sandoval coming out against it now makes life more difficult for Heller. Sandoval also met one-on-one with Pence, so it's possible some kind of Trump/McConnell bribe is in the works for Nevada. It's going to take a hell of a bribe to make up for Nevada losing almost 40 percent of its funding.