Texas joins Florida, Wisconsin, and South Carolina on the list of states that refuse to implement Obamacare because Rick Perry thinks the federal government has beef with Texas and is making up data to make Texas look like a jerk in front of all the other states.
Seriously.
catdevotee
As a former Texan, I’m not surprised in the least. Gov. GoodHair is interested in his Tea Party bona fides, not in the best interests of his Texas constituents. I suspect though that the giant hospital corporations in Texas will be wanting a word with the Gov about this.
James E. Powell
This has to be turned into TV ads. We need an assault on the whole Republican “let him die” belief system. Let’s put it out there, what kind of country are we?
Joseph Nobles
Over 6 million people this leaves out in the cold to wander into emergency rooms when the pain gets to be too much. Meanwhile, Goodhair’s been on government healthcare his entire life, it seems like. If it was so damned awful, why doesn’t he leave it?
russ
exscuse me, I might be in the wrong spot, but where is the VIP entrance, I’m VIP.
MeDrewNotYou
Relatedly, here in the Hoosier State, the northernmost southern state, its looking like we won’t get the Medicaid expansion either. In the likely event of Mike Pence (and tell me that doesn’t scare the hell out of you), we almost definitely won’t get it. Not only that, the Democrat in the race is noncommittal and sounds like a no. And of course the only way I’d be getting insurance is via Medicaid, which I currently can’t get because I have a penis, but no kids. Fuck you Indiana.
(I am glad for the rest of the country and all the people in IN that will be getting insurance through the various mechanisms. But I’m furious with the shitty fed/state arrangement of Medicaid and with the Dems for not making the expansion more ironclad. Although, to be fair, most of the blame lies with the 4 1/2 hacks on the SCOTUS.)
owlbear1
As opposed to what, the Canadian federal government?
Holy fuck do Republicans elect some stupid and mean assholes.
MeDrewNotYou
Relatedly, here in the Hoosier State, the northernmost southern state, its looking like we won’t get the Medicaid expansion either. In the likely event of Mike Pence (and tell me that doesn’t scare the hell out of you), we almost definitely won’t get it. Not only that, the Democrat in the race is noncommittal and sounds like a no. And of course the only way I’d be getting insurance is via Medicaid, which I currently can’t get because I have a tallywhacker, but no kids. Fuck you Indiana.
(I am glad for the rest of the country and all the people in IN that will be getting insurance through the various mechanisms. But I’m furious with the shitty fed/state arrangement of Medicaid and with the Dems for not making the expansion more ironclad. Although, to be fair, most of the blame lies with the 4 1/2 hacks on the SCOTUS.)
I think I used a medically correct word for the male genitalia that got me moderated. So I ‘fixed’ it.
cmm
*snort* as though the gummint of Texas needs any help to make it look bad. But what do you expect from people who outlaw teaching critical thinking skills? This country has soooo jumped the shark.
amk
Didn’t lil’ ricky threaten to take his ball and go home ? Do it now, perry. Secede.
Randy P
Is “the facts have a liberal bias” still satire when the conservative idiots actually say it?
Discuss amongst yourselves.
Baud
@MeDrewNotYou:
I’m sorry for your situation, but blaming the Democrats is ridiculous. The GOP is 100% accountable for this travesty.
TR
God, what a fucking asshole. He’s going to deny millions of the citizens he allegedly represents health care because Obama hurt his feefees. Fucking asshole.
Randy P
@TR: Nope. Because the FACTS hurt his feelings. That’s worse.
arguingwithsignposts
In the pantheon of idiot Texas politicians, Rick Perry has sealed his spot in the top 5, at least. What a tool.
Mass
Move Fort Hood and NASA to a blue state. Listen to the wingnuts howl.
Southern Beale
“This federal government doesn’t like Texas” — aw someone’s fee fee’s have been huwt, whah. What, did the feds de-friend Texas on Facebook? Grow the fuck up you big baby. People are dying from lack of healthcare. No one gives a shit about your precious fee fees. It’s not about you.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Don’t mess with Texas, they’re fucking it up quite well on their own without any outside assistance. I’m sorry to say that the only way that Republicans are going to be seen for the craven fuckers they are and be publicly repudiated will be for a lot of people to get hurt. The only reason I am sorry to say that is because of the people who are going to get hurt who don’t deserve bad things happening to them. Regarding those who voted for the pricks known as the Republicans of today?
Fuck them, they deserve every bit of suffering that they voted for.
Haydnseek
I have a friend who has gone full wingnut on healthcare, constantly raging against a “government takeover” of the “best healthcare system in the world.” He has had both knees replaced at no charge, courtesy of the Veterans Administration. When I pointed out to him that this was government healthcare in its purist form, and that if he really believed what he said he would go back to the VA hospital and ask for his old knees back, he would earn my undying respect. Needless to say, we’re no longer friends, and he has moved back to, you guessed it, Texas.
Southern Beale
LOL. Rick Perry, 2011:
Who doesn’t like whom here?
MeDrewNotYou
@Baud: I know, I know. Who could have guessed at the time that states would turn down free money that also solves the huge problem of uninsured hospital visits? Even the GOP shouldn’t be that dumb/petty. Or, equally to the point, who would’ve guessed that Congress setting terms on the money they hand out would be seen as unconstitutional? Like with the mandate, 99% of lawyers would have laughed at the idea.
I know it shouldn’t, but the depths to which the GOP is willing to go still surprise me from time to time.
Joey Maloney
@MeDrewNotYou:
Ahem. Wisconsin would like a word with you.
MeDrewNotYou
@Baud: I know, I know. Who could have guessed at the time that states would turn down free money that also solves the huge problem of uninsured hospital visits? Even the GOP shouldn’t be that dumb/petty. Or, equally to the point, who would’ve guessed that Congress setting terms on the money they hand out would be seen as unconstitutional? Like with the mandate, 99% of lawyers would have laughed at the idea.
I know it shouldn’t, but the depths to which the GOP is willing to go still surprise me from time to time.
Joey Maloney
@MeDrewNotYou:
Ahem. Wisconsin would like a word with you.
Joey Maloney
@MeDrewNotYou:
Ahem. Wisconsin would like a word with you.
Joey Maloney
@MeDrewNotYou:
Ahem. Wisconsin would like a word with you.
Joey Maloney
@MeDrewNotYou:
Ahem. Wisconsin would like a word with you.
Joey Maloney
@MeDrewNotYou:
Ahem. Wisconsin would like a word with you.
MeDrewNotYou
@Baud: Bah! My first comment got eated up by the Internets. Basically, I know who’s to blame, and its unfair to ask the Dems to have foreseen just how fucked up the GOP can get. It seems obvious now, but we’re all continually surprised at the depths to which they’ll go.
I’m mad that the car is barely running and I’m bitching to the driver, even though I saw the guy that slashed the tires, busted the windows, cut the brake line, and put sugar in the gas tank.
EconWatcher
@Southern Beale:
“The federal government was created by the states to be an agent for the states, not the other way around,”
Wow. Rick Perry does not know the difference between the Articles of Confederation (a compact between the states) and the Constitution (a contract between citizens and the new federal government they were creating).
TR
Federal spending in Texas amounts to more than $200 billion a year.
President Obartlet really should just ask if we can have it back.
MeDrewNotYou
@Joey Maloney: My hometown, Kokomo, is second to none when it comes to good ole’ fashioned southern values.
Joey Maloney
Jesus feck, I have no idea what happened there. Sorry for all the dupes.
Baud
@MeDrewNotYou:
Some of these GOP states are too red to turn, but Indiana went for Obama in 2008, so maybe wiser heads will prevail there. And don’t listen to anything Daniels says. Right now, everything is just posturing for the election. After the Dems win big in November, a lot of these blowhards will have a change of heart (or, more precisely, will be lobbied by big money to have a change of heart).
kay
I personally think the situation in Texas qualifies as a public health emergency. 25% of the people there can’t get even basic, rock-bottom care. Emergency rooms are jammed, public clinics are overflowing. It doesn’t matter if they have “world class” facilities for the well-insured and/or affluent inside Texas and those who come to Texas from out of state. They’re failing a quarter of their citizens. Perry failed. Denying that he failed at basic public health is just delusional at this point.
neil
Folding your arms, digging in your heels, and holding your breath till you turn blue passes for leadership in the Republican Party.
Wazmo
@amk: Yep.
Vote yerselves out the USA, and then YOU get to deal with TWO country-wide borders, floating your own central bank and currency, treaties, etc. etc. Oh, and the US will pull all of our military assets out of there-you can buy your own weapons system on the open market (preferebaly from the French, since you just don’t trust ‘dem dere Yankees.) And don’t even THINK about retaining anything nuclear-tipped. You can make American Airlines your new flag carier for your new Texas country. You want to disband the Texas TSA? Go for it-just don’t expect your Texas-originated flights to have the same rights as ‘dem dere Canuckistans flights. Oh-as part of your separation, y’all get a one-time payout of your vested SSA accruals. After that-yer on your own, pardner. With your 346,000+ millionaires down there, you shouldn’t be hurting for taxes for your brand-spankin’ new country.
HRA
No surprise about Perry at all.
“The Obama administration on Friday denied Perry’s request for a major disaster declaration after the remnants of Hermine hit Texas in early September.”
No surprise about the above either. I believe this was after Perry gave his remarks about seceding.
Another Halocene Human
Perry just lied out his stank ass yesterday, fucking “access to healthcare” yeah asshole THATS DIFFERENT FROM ACTUALLY RECEIVING IT.
I have “access to fine dining”, “access to luxury good shopping”, “access to GOP donor events”…
Another Halocene Human
@cmm: it’s a felony to teach slaves to read
MeDrewNotYou
@Baud: Daniels has said he’ll leave it up to the next guy. I haven’t even heard of the Dem, and it seems to me the state Dems are more focused on the Senate race and getting Joe Donnelly* in. Honestly I can’t blame them; Donnelly’s got a great shot since Lugar was tea bagged. Personally, I’m resigned to Mike Pence as governor, and I don’t see him taking the expansion even if Obama wins IN again, which I’m very doubtful about this time around. (But man! Seeing Obama take the state for the first time since LBJ was a hell of a rush.)
*-He is/was a Blue Dog in the House, but pretty good for one of them. He’d probably be a bit better than Evan Bayh was, but at least he could swing Dick Lugar’s seat.
mai naem
Well, Prick Erry is right, I wish Texas would just secede. Like, yesterday. And, please, take along your deep south brothers along with you. And, South Carolina and Arkansas. Also. Too.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Joey Maloney:
If you go to post and it hangs, don’t try again. When you reload the page it will not put your post up but if you wait a few minutes it will appear. I had that happen with my post here and I just stopped the page while it was hung submitting the comment, waited three minutes, refreshed and there was my post.
Oh, and FYWP.
Joey Maloney
Swear to Buttafuoco I only pressed “submit” once.
nominus
Perry doesn’t *ever* mind taking federal money. In this case he just has to figure out how some of that money will make its way to him and his cronies, just like any other federal deal. I’m sure all of our university health science systems will enlighten him at some point. Preferably with cluebats to the head and/or kneecaps, but one way or the other they’ll figure out a way to get the money.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
I can’t believe Perry thinks he needs any help from anybody to make Texas look bad.
Another Halocene Human
@nominus: Isn’t that what they said on Nice Polite Republicans yesterday? Perry just wants some preconditions before he accepts that $100B. Seems like the feds are playing ball, too.
Makes me sick but I think it’s better to see people insured than hold out. Improving people’s material circumstances in this way should build good, liberal voters.
Chris
There people are pathetic. Krugman had them pegged when he called them the party of “Ma! He’s looking at me funny!”
Chris
@kay:
Texas, like most of the South, seems from over here to be a third world country that has the good fortune to be tacked onto a first world economy. The thing that’s saved them from their own state governments’ stupidity for the last few decades has been the federal government. If they’re not even going to allow them to help anymore, all bets are off. Let’s see how long it takes for Texas to turn into a real third world country, though if the state of health care is as shitty as you say, an argument could be made that they already are.
Chris
@Wazmo:
I’ve always found it delightful that the word “Yankee,” in the rest of the world, means “American,” and that in the U.S, it means “Northerner.” Real America FTW.
The Republic of Stupidity
Quick question before I go to find some hot coffee (PST here…)
When Perry made his appearance on Fox news to denounce Obamacare and whine about the Fed not liking Tejas…
Did he draw his six shooter, point it in the air, and start firing it off, all whilst shouting
… at the top of his lungs?
I thought this idjit was threatening to secede from the Union? Why is he still here?
Or is he just another liar, like Rush?
Randy
We have horrible, horrible people running my state. Horrible people.
danielx
@EconWatcher:
Hey, it was pretty evident that Rick Perry was dumber than dogshit during the Presidential debates, during which he was hard pressed to get out a coherent sentence. I can hear the sounds of Molly Ivins rolling on the floor laughing from wherever she is.
You’d think these states’ rights assholes would have gotten the message that we settled this shit with the rednecks and peckerwoods back in 1865.
Mino
Perry isn’t running for re-election. So maybe he just wants headlines.
This SC opinion is really throwing a wrench in the wheel. Scott Lemieux runs some projections on how Republicans will be empowered to screw with a variety of federal mandates, from Medicaid to EPA. I’m sure we’ll see lots more of this one. I can see this issue before the Courts again real soon as Republicans continue to make governing impossible with a new tool in the kit.
http://prospect.org/article/should-liberals-be-mad-kagan-and-breyer
And I would remind folks that we do not operate under Articles of Confederation that elevate the States, Tenth Amendment bedamned. We operate under the Constitution which is a compact between the people and their federal government.
scav
Consider this comparison of Adding 1,000 People to THE TITANIC! ! ! outburst. How many would agree that it’s an apt description of the current health care system in TX (and elsewhere). Poorly Designed structurally, not enough lifeboats en plus, has FAN-Tas-tic accommodations for the Very Rich with everybody else in steerage and when it comes to who dies, well, lookie who’s escorted to the lifeboats first.
nominus
@Another Halocene Human: I have no idea what Nice Polite Republicans would have to say about anything – I just know from experience that:
1)We have four major university systems that are big on medical care – Houston and UTexas in Houston and south Texas, Baylor and Tech in the north, and A&M/Tech in the rural areas. All of them have been good at raising money and making the case for their existence. They’ll point out very quickly that they can do a lot with all of that federal money.
2)Texas politicians are pragmatic, even when they’re not smart or full of truthiness. Perry’s instance of talking first and thinking/acting later is by no means rare, unique, or unprecedented. Sooner or later they’ll figure out that they can spin this into a Good Thing, especially for rural healthcare. This sound byte plays to the voters, and then the pork barrel politics will give them more points with the voters, as soon as they can separate the money from “Obamacare” in the minds and media.
3. There’s also the unknown factor of the Legislature – Despite Perry’s somewhat successful efforts to the contrary, Texas has a relatively weak governor combined with a legislature that has a tendency to do whatever dafuq it wants, often in unpredictable fashion. Conservatives in the state agencies will make their appeal to the Legislature, not the governor, and they will be more interested in getting money rather than scoring political points – they’ll be the ones who write the cases for point #2 above.
Villago Delenda Est
Governor Goodhair is a fucktard.
That is all.
Mino
@nominus: I read somewhere that Texas has already refused a whopping amount of matching funds for Texas hospitals.
Mino
@scav: Is that what these southern governors mean when they claim their citizens are different from blue staters–they’ve never seen healthcare, so they won’t miss it.
scav
Oh, and I forgot: Pilot Error for driving into the iceberg.
ottercliff
Could the gummint also be conspiring to make Rick Perry look like a jerk? If so, one of the best run federal programs in years!
Gus diZerega
It’s a shame we can’t vote to kick Texas out of the union.
Jebediah
@Southern Beale:
It never ceases to amaze me how often the big tuff manly men of the conservative tribe run off crying to momma.
pseudonymous in nc
If Goodhair wrote that letter himself, and it definitely sounds that way, then he’s even dumber than I thought, and I thought he was pretty fucking dumb.
@Chris:
Parts of the Deep South fit that description better, but I think Texas is more like a big Latin American banana republic tacked onto the US.
Jebediah
@kay:
Hell, if Michigan can deem towns as failed and take them over, why can’t we designate Texas a failed state and appoint an interim manager?
I am currently available and totally unqualified, but not maliciously stupid, so I couldn’t do any worse than Perry.
Triassic Sands
It’s time for Texas to secede and become the third world “nation” it so desperately wants to be.
Mr Stagger Lee
@Mass: That’s what LBJ or even Harry Truman would have done as a matter of fact Harry would have probably told Governor Goodhair not need to stay where the US gov isn’t wanted plus tell Gov Goodhair to get a haircut.
JGabriel
ABL @ Top:
Perhaps, “says” would be a better word choice than “thinks”. I mean, I’ve never seen any persuasive evidence that Rick Perry thinks.
.
JGabriel
@pseudonymous in nc:
Perry probably is getting dumber. He showed signs of physical or age related cognitive impairment on the campaign trail, in addition to his natural gifts for stupidity.
.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Governor Perry,
It isn’t that the federal government hates Texas. Its that EVERYBODY hates Texas (even some Texans).
bob h
I hope there are some good Democratic trial lawyers getting ready to sue these fatheads on behalf of the uninsured. Denying someone health insurance which might save or prolong his life just so you can grandstand is a rather serious matter when you think of it.