Walker's Gaffe Within A Gaffe

Today the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Patrick Marley was all a-titter that Scott Walker made a Freudian slip regarding something that is old news - that Walker wants to be president:

Speaking to reporters at the National Governors Association in Milwaukee, Walker was asked
about the idea of Republicans trying to block the federal budget to halt the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

“Right now I’ve got my hands full being governor. I’m not real involved yet at the – strike that last word – at the federal level,” Walker said to laughter.

Wisconsin’s Republican governor is named frequently as a potential 2016 candidate for governor, though Walker has largely downplayed such talk. Walker’s own response to his use of the word “yet” shows he’s aware of how his comments can be read when speaking on national issues.

This gaffe prompted a press release from Mike Tate, head of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, including a pretty good zinger:

Even as he denies it, everyone knows Scott Walker is running for president -- he’s never here to govern Wisconsin because he's too busy raising campaign cash at Tea Party gatherings all around the country. So it’s pretty ironic that Walker's Freudian slip came on a day he was visiting Wisconsin.”

But Marley's article contained a more subtle, but more significant gaffe.

Per the article, Walker went on to talk about Obamacare and Walker, predictably, took the insane, inane and wrong-headed approach:

“I’ll let them work that out for right now,” he said. “Obviously I have concerns on principle about he Affordable Care Act, not only in terms of the implementation, but I don’t think it’s good pubic policy to have the federal nor the state government dictate to me and my family what we do or what any other family in this state or this country does on health care. But I’d have to look at all the different options are going forward.”

It's odd that Walker would take that stance, since dictating what poor people did regarding health care was exactly what Walker was doing for the vast majority of his time as Milwaukee County Executive, when he administered the GAMP program:

The program was called the General Assistance Medical Program orGAMP for short. The best description I've found of GAMP, and the benefits it gave to its consumers and to the taxpayers, comes fromThe Commonwealth Fund (emphasis mine):

Wisconsin's General Assistance Medical Program (GAMP) provides health care coverage to indigent Milwaukee County residents who are not eligible for other forms of public coverage (such as Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program) and are not enrolled in private coverage. The county redesigned the GAMP program into a community-based primary care model in the late 1990s to achieve two interrelatedgoals: to provide increased primary care services, and to do so via community-based clinics. The new design was intended to improve effectiveness and efficiency of care. Prior to this, indigent patients relied on the emergency room of the county hospital, which created access barriers for enrollees and cost inefficiencies for the county. Under the redesigned model,GAMP enrollees select a participating clinic as their primary care provider, which is then responsible for providing andcoordinating services. The clinic coordinates specialty care for the enrollee by working with specialists and hospitals that participate in the GAMP network. The program covered a total of 24,000 individuals in calendar year 2003, with some 10,000 to 12,000 individuals enrolled at any given time. All in all, GAMP estimated that it saved $4.2 million in 2000 (in comparison to the projected costs had the previous system remained in place). Administratorsbelieve that inpatient and outpatient costs have been controlled largely through a Utilization Management program that ensures delivery of care in the appropriate settings and using appropriate resources.

In other words, the County designed and ran a health care system that limited people's choices by having to go through a community clinic first, and only if it was covered in the network. Yet, instead of leaving people without insurance and forcing them to go to hospital ERs, it saved $4.2 million. That's a big chunk of change for a relatively small amount of people.

Other descriptions of the program include the one from Milwaukee County itself and a report(pdf) from the state after the program just started. The County page calls the program as "nationally recognized." The state's report summarized the program with this sentence:

Inpatient hospital and specialty services constitute the majority of the GAMP budget
although, the program has successfully used primary care services provided in community based clinics and selective utilization management techniques to control and reduce inpatient and outpatient hospital costs over the last two years.

The only reason GAMP ended was because Governor Jim Doyle was able to expand BadgerCare to cover these individuals, taking the load of the county.

Given that he has experience running a government-controlled health care program and knows that it saves taxpayers money and provided affordable health care, there is no valid reason for Walker to reject it on a higher level.

In fact, the only reasons that Walker would have for turning rejecting Obamacare is that he is using the poor as political pawns (something he has done before) , pure malfeasance or both.

Paul Ryan's, Love/Hate Relationship With Obamacare!

By Jeff Simpson

We all know that Paul Ryan hates Obamacare, he has voted to overturn it some 345362 times so far this year.  Hey for $174,000/yr + Cadillac benefits you have to do something with your day.  Paul Ryan, along with his mentor John Boehner sent a letter to the President asking for updated costs!

House Speaker John Boehner, meanwhile, called on the administration Tuesday to grant individuals a reprieve from the healthcare law's coverage requirement — just like the White House did last week for larger employers.

In a letter to the president Tuesday, the Ohio Republican and 10 other GOP leaders said  "we also believe American families need the same relief."

The Republicans gave the president until July 16 to come up with answers as to why he chose not to delay the mandate for individuals, who will face a fine if they do not have health insurance by Jan. 1.

The letter frames a new Republican argument against the law, one that could gain traction in next year's congressional elections.

Yes Paul Ryan(R- Wall St.) wants President Obama to tell him the "truth" on Obamacare numbers.  The problem is we are not sure.  With people like Paul Ryan(R-hypocrisy) continually writing him OTHER letters asking for more Obamacare money!   

 

You won’t believe what The Nation magazine obtained through a Freedom of Information Act Inquiry: a list of 17 Republicans who secretly pursued Obamacare’s medicaid expansion dollars while hypocritically slamming the law in public, as well as all of their letters begging for the funds from the big, bad federal government.
Every single one of the Republican congresspeople listed below, including master hypocrite Paul Ryan, have voted over 30 times to repeal the law while privately begging for its funding from the federal government.

Letter can be read here:

In a 2010 letter [pdf] signed by Paul Ryan and obtained The Nation through a Freedom of Information Act request, the GOP's VP nominee — a major opponent of President Obama's healthcare reform — asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to use Affordable Care Act dollars to fund a new health center in his district.

"The proposed new facility," Ryan wrote in his recommendation letter, "will serve both the preventative and comprehensive primary healthcare needs of thousands of new patients of all ages who are currently without healthcare."

New Access Points, the grant requested by Ryan to pay for the Kenosha Community Health Center's new facility, is paid out using money set aside by Obamacare.

Hard to believe this is the same Wisconsin lawmaker who has vowed to repeal every last provision of Obamacare because "[our rights] come from nature and God," not "the government."

Then again, this is the same Ryan who privately sought stimulus funds while condemning the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in public.

Publicly criticizing government programs while quietly milking them for every penny.  How very Ayn Randian of him! 

 

Mitt Was Thinking Ahead

H/T HuffPo:

Mitt's transition website was ready to go, 

For a while on Wednesday, a draft version of his transition website was visible to the public on a server belonging to the company that designed it, a Utah software shop called SolutionStream. The site, located at romney.solutionstreamcreative.com, was titled: "Mitt Romney Elected the 45th President of The United States of America."

The site opened with a quote from Romney: "I'm excited about our prospects as a nation. My priority it putting people back to work." On the home page was a placeholder link to video of Romney's acceptance speech.

But wait there's more: 

The page on "Repealing the Affordable Care Act" declared: " On his first day in office, Mitt Romney will issue an executive order that paves the way for the federal government to issue Affordable Care Act waivers to all 50 states. He will then work with Congress to repeal the full legislation as quickly as possible."

There was a list of nominees -- all blank, except for the position of vice president.

And the "Join the Administration" page warned applicants that "government service is not for everyone."

Mitt was ready to repeal Obamacare on day one.  I am sure that would have worked as well for the people if this country  as Scott Walker repealing the train has done for the taxpayers of Wisconsin.  

Thank Goodness, we will never have to use the words - President Romney! 

Paul Ryan Knows Nothing

Paul ryan recently went public with his opposition to Obamacare, he even went so far as to argue it with Ted Kennedy's widow - Victoria on ABC's This Week. 

During an interview on ABC, former Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy’s widow, Victoria Kennedy, told host George Stephanopoulos that the Supreme Court had made the right decision by upholding the Affordable Care Act.

“This health care reform was the cause of my husband’s life,” she explained. “He believed that it was a moral issue, that it defined the character of who we were as a society, who we were as a country, and that decent quality, affordable health care should be fundamental right and not a privilege.”

But Ryan rejected Kennedy’s assertion and promised to completely undo the law.

“We’re going to repeal the entire law and then we’re going to advance patient-centered reforms that address these kinds of issues,” the Wisconsin Republican said.

“I think this at the end of the day is a big philosophy difference,” he continued. “What Ms. Kennedy and others were saying is that this is a new government-granted right. We disagree with the notion that our rights come from government, that the government can now grant us and define our rights. Those are ours, they come from nature and God, according to the Declaration of Independence — a huge difference in philosophy.”

To paraphrase Jesus - Forgive him Father for he knows not how dumb he is. Lets take a quick look at paul ryan's premise. The Treaty of Tripoli was signed on June 10th, 1797 by our first conservative President John Adams.

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen [Muslims],—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan [Muslim] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

Sorry Paulie, the United States is not in any sense a Christian nation! You obviously have never had a grasp on the Constitution, now it looks like you have even less of a sense of religion.

Well digging into what Paul Ryan (R- Wall St.), actually does and says, we know that he really is not the person to be interpreting what God tells us either. Ryan, the ayn rand disciple and worshiper, now pretends to interpret what God tells us.

Paul Is definitely NOT one of the Apostles!

Just ask the Nuns on the Bus!

 If you want to the end the reign of incompetence that Paul ryan brings to Wisconsin, throw some support to his opponent - Rob Zerban!!