Did The Union Leader Intend to Sell a Big Lie About NH Medicaid Expansion? - Granite Grok

Did The Union Leader Intend to Sell a Big Lie About NH Medicaid Expansion?

There is no spoon
When paying for Medicaid Expansion in NH, there is no ‘small portion.’  That’s impossible.

In one of Grant Bosse’s UL editorials this morning he takes Sen. Jeff Woodburn to task for exaggerating the value of Medicaid expansion. He’s right to do so but did he intend to sell another lie about the expansion in the process? (Emphasis mine.)

Expansion supporters like Woodburn will have a chance to make their case in January that putting New Hampshire taxpayers on the hook for a small portion of the program’s cost is a worthwhile investment.

They will be hard-pressed to show it’s made any progress in fighting drug addiction.

It has not, but is that worse than selling the idea New Hampshire taxpayers will only shoulder a small portion of the cost?

The rest of the money to pay for the program (after NH taxpayers ‘small portion’) comes from NH taxpayers, after it is laundered by the federal government. It doesn’t grow on a tree or appear magically in swaddling clothes on the State House steps. It is a government program 100% funded by taxpayers. A massive, inefficient, government program, that also puts otherwise productive people’s health insurance and medical costs on to the backs of taxpayers.

Given that NH is advertised by the local political class as a donor state, one that pays more out in Federal tax dollars than it ever gets back, the small portion meme becomes more misleading. We are paying our ever-growing small portion (taxed locally), our ever-growing large portion (taxed nationally), and some growing “portion of something,” for other states, on top of that.

The small portion reality is not unlike the reality of the movie, The Matrix. It’s not really there. It is something sold to you that you are meant to swallow and incorporate in to the collective consciousness.

The correct turn of phrase might be that, ” Expansion supporters like Jeff Woodburn will have a chance to make their case in January that putting New Hampshire taxpayers on the hook for the entire cost of expanding a bloated, inefficient, program like Medicaid is worth the investment.”

But that would also be a lie. They don’t have to do any such thing.

While they could do nothing and just let it expire at the end of next year, and no one could stop them, we know Republican leadership, with the blessing of the state party and our congressional delegation, are already prepared to expand Medicaid in New Hampshire while telling the same lie; that New Hampshire taxpayers will only need to pay a ‘small portion.’ But expansion could and likely will become the fastest track to a new broad-based sales or income tax we have faced in years.

Short of a conservative/liberty representative hijacking the legislation or the proceedings, it’s a done deal. The talk is just window dressing to excuse the inexcusable expansion of power that will make us more dependent on the Federal government and the influence-peddling of federal lobbyists and the professional Troglodytes we send to Congress.

Not to worry. They, like the local Republicans, are more interested in the party and their own political fortunes.  And that new state tax will only take a “small portion” of your income in the beginning. You’ll hardly feel a thing, at first.

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