Walker wastes money on health insurance reform lawsuit at the same time he’ll apply for federal health reform grants
In a counter-intuitive move, Walker told Politico yesterday that even though he campaigned “aggressively” against the federal health insurance reform legislation, and on his first day in office granted Atty General Van Hollen permission to join a lawsuit against the reforms, he will still apply for federal health reform grants and won’t block the law’s implementation in Wisconsin.
But, here’s the catch: Walker claims he’s going to use those grants to put in place his own health “reforms.” Probably to pay for tax cuts and gifts to his corporate campaign donors.
Remember when Walker claimed that he would use the federal train dollars to pay for roads? And then the Republican Congressional delegation said that wasn’t possible, and Obama pulled back all that money to give to Illinois, New York and California, ending the possibility of a 21st century transportation system for Wisconsin for another generation. Well, now he claims that he’ll use the federal health reform dollars to pay for his own “reforms.”
I sure hope in the end those dollars come here and are used as intended – to guarantee quality, affordable health care for every Wisconsinite who needs care, regardless of employment – but if Walker’s “reforms” don’t do exactly that, then I hope Obama refuses those grant applications and sends the money to states who will do the right thing with it.
Newly sworn-in Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has aggressively opposed health reform. On his first day in office, Walker authorized Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to pursue a lawsuit against the reform law.
But in an interview with POLITICO, Walker acknowledged that he is still applying for health reform grants. He also won’t block the law’s implementation.
“If we can find a way to define our own reform, obviously within the realm of health care, and as long as [the federal government] doesn’t restrict how we can do that, then I think we’d be inclined” to do so, Walker said. “Right now, I’m not going to concede that we can’t put in place our own reforms.” [www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47065.html]