Do we even have laws anymore? It hardly matters what voters vote for if Republican politicians are simply going to ignore the laws they pass out of spite.
The LePage administration is rejecting applications for Medicaid from people who became newly eligible for the program under an expansion approved by voters last fall, according to documents and a progressive advocacy group that is suing the state.
Maine's LePage is a prime example of a law-averse crackpot politician who in better times would have been run out of town on a rail by better people; in this case his administration has simply decided that no matter what measures voters approve they're going to ignore it. Right now LePage and allies are appealing a court decision requiring them to Follow The Damn Law, an effort that appears to be nothing more than an effort to delay an inevitable outcome but, what the hell, maybe LePage can kill off some of Mainers in the meantime. Can't win lawsuits against him if you're dead, right?
About 70,000 Mainers would be eligible for Medicaid under expansion, including low-income childless adults and parents who were previously ineligible for coverage.
I don't have it in me to argue the fine points of this one, because there really aren't any fine points worth arguing. The voters of Maine passed an expansion of Medicaid via the ballot box after LePage vetoed a legislative effort to do the same. LePage is refusing to implement it because he's a half-senile old crank who spends far more time pursuing personal vendettas against other elected officials and against everyday Maine citizens than he spends doing his actual job. This is all going to play out in court yet again, LePage is going to lose again, and for some reason America is going to refuse to fire him into the Atlantic Ocean via circus cannon when he does.
In the meantime LePage's actions mean individual Maine citizens are going to suffer physical harm that they would not have suffered if the man wasn't a revenge-focused law-flouting pile of crap. There, there's your serious pundit takeaway. You won't hear that in the New York Times because they're too busy interviewing America’s dumbest diner patrons about why rank corruption and repurposed fascist slogans are Good Now.