30 April 2019 — 1725 mdt
Bipartisanship produced a shameful, mean-spirited
expanded Medicaid bill Democrats should not praise
Progressives should not be too proud of the 2019 session of the Montana Legislature. It wasn’t an utter disaster, but neither was it a vindication of the virtues of bipartisanship that some are alleging. Ultimately, it was another reminder that Democrats must win working majorities in both house of the legislature if they want to pass truly progressive legislation.
In his latest post, Let’s not all start singing Kumbaya, Montana legislators, The Montana Post’s Pete Talbot, offers faint praise:
It was a tolerable session. The worst of the worst didn’t make it out of committee or off the floor, or past Gov. Bullock’s desk (yet), although nearly 300 bills are headed his way.
Medicaid expansion passed (with work requirements, asset caveats and a sunset date of 2025), bailing out Colstrip and sticking ratepayers with the tab didn’t make it (but not for lack of trying), an infrastructure bill passed (with limits on bonding and debt) and Hanna’s Act passed (addressing missing and murdered Indigenous women). That’s all pretty darn good stuff.
Democrats did a masterful job of negotiating better amendments to bills or killing the really odious language in others.
But I, and I imagine every other progressive Montanan, want more.
That’s one way of looking at the session. Some terrible things didn’t happen, which is good. But few good things happened, which is bad.
Although expanded Medicaid was extended, the extension was grudging and mean-spirited, incorporating gratuitous and onerous work requirements that are designed to kick people off the program. In other states, Republicans are pushing the same requirements as part of a nationwide campaign to sabotage Medicaid.
Yes, the program — already twisted to serve hospitals and private health insurance companies — provides health insurance to almost 100,00, at least initially, but it’s not an accomplishment that Montana’s Democrats should be celebrating. It’s a debacle they should be mourning — and one that could have been avoided by winning legislative majorities instead of deciding to work with “moderate” Republicans. The so-called Solutions Caucus is not moderate. It’s deeply conservative, but generally excludes the GOP worst anti-government wackadoodles.
In 2020, Montana’s Democrats must make a heroic effort to replace each and every member of the Solutions Caucus with a Democrat.