18 April 2019 — 0139 mdt

Mueller Report, Medicaid, & possible Colstrip jiggery-pokery

The Mueller Report will be released today — redacted to an extent yet unknown, and only after Attorney General Barr briefs the White House and delivers a speech to spin public opinion. Democrats are in high dudgeon over that sequence, not without good reason, but once the report is out, the questions will begin, the truth will emerge, slowly but inexorably, and the effects of Barr’s dog and pony show will fade rather quickly.

The effects of Barr’s redactions may linger longer. At the Just Security legal blog, Ryan Goodman reports that Barr has a history of misleading Congress. Therefore, the prudent reader of the report will verify Barr’s judgment instead of trusting it.

Expanded Medicaid

HB-658, passed by the MT Senate after being larded-up with amendments, is back in the MT House, scheduled as the first item of business today beginning at 0900. If the House concurs with the Senate’s version of the bill, the legislation goes to Gov. Bullock for his signature. If the House rejects the amendments, the bill goes to a conference committee to reconcile the differences, and perhaps make HB-658 worse than it already is.

When — if — the bill is signed into law, Democrats would do well to limit their cheering to a subdued “Whew!” and not sing hymns praising bipartisanship. Reaching across the aisle to submit to Republican policy is what the weak are condemned to do when they fail to win legislative majorities. If Democrats want to pass good legislation, they need to win elections and stop conflating working together with getting worked over.

Possible Colstrip jiggery-pokery

SB-331, Sen. Tom Richmond’s sweetheart bill for Northwestern Energy, failed on its third reading in the House two days ago. The bill probably is dead, but the bad ideas in it remain alive in the hearts of Northwestern’s lapdog legislators. No one should be surprised if someone tries to sneak the gist of SB-331 into another bill. Gov. Bullock needs to advise the legislature, pronto and fortissimo, that he will veto SB-331’s bad policy no matter what bill it’s wrapped in when it lands on his desk.

SB-331’s saga has been disgraceful. Big Pacific Northwest utilities have played Northwestern for a sucker, and Northwestern has played Montana’s legislators and PSC commissioners for suckers. Everyone should be outraged, but no one should be surprised. Lobbyists have an outsized influence on part-time legislators who must be their own experts and usually are not.