The Florida budget fiasco continues as Gov. Rick Scott and fellow House Republicans continue their implacable demands that they get federal money for health care that is not Obamacare money. Here's what it comes to, in the words of a
Palm Beach Post headline:
War between Florida Republican leaders may claim new victims: Taxpayers and school kids.
Appearing Monday night on FOX-TV's On The Record with Greta Van Susteren, Scott said he expected his call for $673 million in tax breaks and a record high level of per-pupil funding to be scrapped when lawmakers return in June for a special session.
Scott has sued the Obama administration, trying to get federal officials to continue giving the state $1.3 billion for Florida hospitals who treat the uninsured. Scott contends the Health and Human Services Department has tied the state's approval of a Florida Senate-backed form of privatized Medicaid expansion with any chance for hospital cash.
Scott and the House have refused to endorse the Senate's expansion plan. With the possible loss of hospital dollars deadlocking budget talks, Van Susteren told Scott he’s got a "perfect storm in a very bad way."
A year ago the Obama administration informed Florida that the hospital assistance was ending. The Florida Senate, led by Republicans, came up with a Medicaid expansion plan. But Scott and the House—egged on by the
Koch brothers—refuse to accept Obamacare money and keep insisting they have to have the other federal money. Again, this is not about federal government interference or state's rights or anything like that. This is all about federal money. They just want it from the pot that is not labelled "Obamacare" just because.
So Scott and the House Republicans are getting in the way of their own priorities—even cutting taxes! Scott says he assumes the deadlock will not break, and since he's not going to do anything to lead other than filing frivolous and expensive lawsuits against the feds, he's probably right.