Governor’s Haslam’s plan to expand Medicaid in the state failed to get out of a state senate committee Wednesday.
State Senator Lee Harris, a Democrat from Memphis and State Senator Brian Kelsey, a Republican from Germantown talked with WREG about the vote and it’s impact.
“In my view this is a disaster. I think it was the case where politics won out over policy. I think we had a pretty good program, at least for a start and we could have talked about it and worked out some type of compromise solution. We didn’t have discussion of policy, at all. We just had political football that was tossed around for a few days and that was it. It’s sad. A lot of folks are going to suffer as a result of it and I don’t know where we go from here. If it does come up again I’m going to push the same way I pushed this time that it has got to be some kind of compromise solution. It’s got to be a modified plan because this plan was good. It was a good start, but we need a plan that will get a little bit more support among legislators.” Harris said.
“I’m glad we were able to save taxpayers one-and-a-half billion dollars a year from being added to the federal debt. This is not money that simply falls from heaven. This is real taxpayer dollars. I think the messaging that was put out there was false in saying this is Medicaid expansion under Obamacare. I think the governor was ill-served by his staff that he try to pull a bait and switch. Killing this plan didn’t cut one dollar from The Med. What did cut those dollars was passing Obamacare two years ago when the Democrats did that in Congress. I think any Republican who advocates for the expansion of government with a new entitlement program under Obamacare needs to rethink what the Republican Party stands for,” Kelsey said.