Georgia lawmakers are the worst in the country.
House GOP: Take Medicaid expansion away from governor
Just before the state Capitol shut down on Tuesday, House GOP leaders dropped a bill that would take the power to expand Georgia’s Medicaid program and place it in the hands of the Legislature.
In other words, the governor of Georgia would no longer have a free hand in negotiating with the White House over a deal – as has been cut in Arkansas and elsewhere — that would broaden health care coverage with the billions of federal dollars that are being made available through the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare.
As such, consider H.B. 990 the most important bill of the 2014 session.
The lead signatures on the bill: Speaker pro tem Jan Jones of Milton; Speaker David Ralston of Blue Ridge; and Majority Leader Larry O’Neal of Bonaire.
From the bill:
[N]either the department, the board, nor any other representative of the state shall expand Medicaid eligibility under this article through an increase in the income threshold without prior legislative approval.”
In an interview from a downtown Atlanta apartment, where he is waiting out the storm, the House speaker said the measure is not a power grab, nor an expression of doubt in Gov. Nathan Deal’s re-election.
Or concern that Republican control of the governorship may slip after Deal.
Ralston pointed to a fourth signature on the bill, belonging to Chad Nimmer, R-Blackshear, the governor’s floor leader, as evidence that Deal is on board with the effort.
“I’m totally confident that Nathan Deal is going to be re-elected governor. This is simply an opportunity for the Legislature to stake out the issue as policy,” Ralston said. “I have no concern about Republican governor getting elected this year, four years from now, or eight years from now.”
Tim Sweeney, director of health policy for the center-left Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, declared himself startled that the Legislature would stake out the territory at the expense of the executive branch.
“Seeing the bill was a little surprising, given that just last year the Legislature was giving the Department of Community Health taxing authority,” Sweeney said.
Updated: At a presser to address the aftermath of the ice storm, I asked the governor if he was indeed on board with ceding the power to expand Medicaid to the Legislature. “I’m fine with that, yeah,” Deal replied — clearly preoccupied with other matters.
One thing to note in the language of H.B. 990: The bill would not give the Legislature the power to reduce Medicaid coverage in Georgia. Only expand.
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On that same note, the Washington Post notes this milestone for Obamacare:
For the first time since the federal and state health-insurance marketplaces opened early last fall, the number of people who signed up for coverage exceeded the government’s expectations for the month in January, bringing the overall total to about 3.3 million.
Across the country, nearly 1.2 million people enrolled in health plans last month through the new insurance exchanges — more than federal officials had envisioned when they compiled monthly targets late last summer, weeks before the sign-ups began.
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2014/02/13/house-gop-leaders-want-to-take-medicaid-expansion-away-from-governor/
= new reply since forum marked as read
They're definitely in the running, but you don't get to be the "Worst Legislature in the Country" without directly taking on the competition is a head-to-head matchup. While your say-so is high qualification, we're going to need more before bestowing this coveted title.
& R & 
