When Senate Democrats unveiled a bill meant to expand health coverage and restrain spending growth, "Republicans saw little to like," The Associated Press reports. GOP senators characterized the package Thursday "as a collection of tax increases, Medicare cuts and heavy new burdens for deficit-ridden states." Meanwhile, Republican governors fretted that the bill would expand Medicaid, a program that insures the poor, and relies on states for a portion of its funding. "We all know a sucker play when we see one," said Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniel (Espo, 11/20).
The governors, who were in Lost Pines, Texas, for the Republican Governors Association meeting, said their states were "already overburdened with federal mandates that increase their Medicaid costs," according to The New York Times. "Governors grousing about Medicaid spending is hardly a new phenomenon — it is the one sure thing you will hear at any meeting of governors, from any state and any party. But it takes on an added resonance when Democrats are pushing through a major overhaul of health care that will impose new costs on the states at a time when governors, almost without exception, are struggling with huge shortfalls in revenues," the Times reports (Nagourney, 11/19).