Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Somebody Help Me Here--Rick Scott's Mother

Florida Governor Rick Scott, in the vanguard of the soak-the-poor and succor-the-rich school of governing, says he has changed his mind and will allow the Feds to shower money on him for the expansion of Medicaid, providing it doesn't cost his folks a red cent.   Per the local press:
The governor said he gained new perspective after his mother's death last year, calling his decision to support a key provision of the Affordable Care Act a "compassionate, common sense step forward," and not a "white flag of surrender to government-run healthcare."
Wait, his mother?  So far I can't find anything that explains this cryptic remark but I can't think of any reading that puts it in a good light.  Is he saying that it took the death of his mother to remind him that Floridians might have a tough time getting medical care if they earned $9,001 a year?  If so, he's an impressionable sentimentalist who doesn't have any business making decisions for the mass of us.

Or perhaps he meant it took the death of his mother to teach him how expensive medical care can be?  If so, welcome to hard times, guv, and you might want to spend a few more minutes with the briefing book.  Or could he be saying  he's damn glad his mother fell under the protection of those socialists in Washington who implement Medicare, else he might have had to stump some--but wait a minute, isn't this guy a stalwart of the family values party?  Wouldn't it have been the honest and honorable--indeed the life-affirming thing to reject all tainted lefty dollars and make mom comfy on the couch himself?  

Afterthought:  yes, I am aware that Scott built his personal fortune on the looting of Medicare.  I'm open to the notion that his real reason for his changed of mind is tht his cronies in the hospital business can smell money.  Mother would have loved that.

Oh. Here's morePer The Atlantic Wire, the hers of Republican governors who switched sides on Medicaid
 bleed for the suffering poor. Florida's Scott, for example, talked about his mother in his announcement Wednesday. "I remember my Mom's heartbreak when she could not afford to give my younger brother the treatment he needed when we learned he had a hip disease," Scott said. "She eventually found him a Shriner's Children's Hospital hundreds of miles away… where my brother would go back and forth for treatment."
 I think I'll stand by original snide remarks.

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