Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The new August tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is the resource for public opinion on the Affordable Care Act aka "ObamaCare," makes the case that the public is opposed to the Tea-Publican fantasy to "defund ObamaCare."
The public is decisive about its opposition to defunding ObamaCare, with 57 percent saying they would disapprove of such a move — including roughly one in three Republicans — while just 36 percent would approve.
The Kaiser poll proves what many establishment Republicans have been saying for weeks: The only way for their side to lose, politically speaking, is to focus the debate on removing the funding for it. And yet, this is what the pied pipers of the conservative media entertainment complex and Tea Party organizations like FreedomWorks and Americans For Prosperity are demanding. They are leading the GOP over the cliff.
Another Tea-Publican controlled state legislature has enacted the expanded Medicaid provisions of "ObamaCare." Medicaid Expansion Battle in Michigan Ends in Passage:
The fierce struggle among Republicans over whether to make Medicaid available to more low-income people played out in Michigan on Tuesday as the Republican governor, Rick Snyder, narrowly succeeded in swaying enough conservative senators in the State Legislature to accept the expansion, which was part of President Obama’s health care law.
Mr. Snyder’s preferred bill — one he had lobbied for intensely for months — initially fell short by one vote, but the governor salvaged a deal hours later. The vote in the Republican-controlled Senate was 20 to 18, with only 8 Republicans in favor. The Michigan House, which had earlier approved a similar measure, will need to vote on the Senate version before Mr. Snyder can sign the bill.
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Mr. Snyder said after the vote, “I just ask that all Michiganders step back and look to say this isn’t about the Affordable Care Act. This is about one element that we control here in Michigan that we can make a difference in here in people’s lives.”
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For months, the fight in Michigan, which has the nation’s 10-largest uninsured population, has been intense. Mr. Snyder, a former businessman in his first term, said the expansion would ultimately save money, control medical costs and help the state’s economy. That pitted him against more conservative members of his own party, and led some Tea Party leaders in the state to say he will lose support if he seeks re-election next year.
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Advocates praised the measure as fiscally sensible for the state, given the promise of federal money, and crucial for hundreds of thousands of low-income residents without insurance.
Already, Medicaid covers more than 1.8 million people in the state, Michigan officials said, and the expansion would ultimately grant coverage to more than 400,000 others. People making up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level — or about $15,500 a year for a single person — would newly be covered.
“It’s a benefit to every person in the state of Michigan,” said State Senator Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic leader, said on the floor. “It’s good public policy, and it makes good fiscal sense.”
Senator Roger Kahn, a Republican, told his colleagues, “This is not Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act.” Instead, he argued, the measure will reform the costs of medicine across the state and become what he described as “a national model” for other states.
The tide is turning on "ObamaCare."
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