Obamacare has developed into quite the boogeyman for the right wing who have seemingly turned it into an all-encompassing theory of everything that is wrong.
Cruz: So if you think it’s important for the state to continue spending on public education, you should be glad that the state is not signing on to Medicaid expansion. If you want state funds to provide for our prisons and law enforcement to incarcerate violent criminals and keep them off the streets you should be glad we’re not signing up for this Medicaid expansion because every state that does so is going to be regretting it mightily because the pressure is going to crowd out just about every other priority in the budget.
For the sake of debunkery — or making Ted Cruz look like a buffoon — I’ll repeat it again.
The federal government will cover 100 percent of the cost of expanding Medicaid until 2017. In 2017, the federal government will cover 95 percent of the cost. And in 2020 and beyond, and federal government will still cover 90 percent of the cost of expanding Medicaid.
States that are struggling to cover the cost of education and law enforcement are facing difficulty because of a steady stream of corporate tax cuts that have virtually no stimulating effect on the economy and deprive the treasury of funds. Furthermore, the cost of not expanding Medicaid will be far greater than the cost of covering 10 percent of the bill in 2020 and beyond.
I’m old enough to remember when Ted Cruz was considered one of the party’s next great hopes for reaching out to minorities. Of course that only sounded good before he was elected.