Senator Mike Lee has very hurt little feelings
by David Atkins
Oh, this poor, poor man:
Sen. Mike Lee said Thursday that President Barack Obama engaged in a “sophomoric” exchange with Republican lawmakers when he met with them earlier in the day, during which GOP Senators had to restrain themselves from “calling him out on it.”
“One of my favorite moments was when one of my colleagues stood up and said, ‘You know, Mr. President, it’s not all that helpful to have you publicly questioning our motives, publicly accusing us of wanting to eviscerate Medicaid, for example, simply because we want to call for reform or block grants,’” Lee (R-Utah) told Fox News host Greta Van Susteren.
This would be the same Mike Lee who called the Medicaid expansion under the ACA "coercion" while complaining about how underfunded Medicaid is by most states.
If Mike lee's plan isn't to make devastating cuts to an already struggling program while preventing the federal government from giving out quid pro quo grants to the states to expand it, then what is his plan?
The President's response, ever seeking conciliatory balance, was:
“[He said,] ‘I don’t speak nearly as badly about you as some of you do about me,’”
Personally, I'd have been less measured. Mike Lee does want to eviscerate Medicaid. He and his colleagues believe that if poor people get basic healthcare it creates a culture of dependency saps their initiative to work a 90-hour week at a series of minimum wage jobs--preferably without the whole minimum wage part.
It's a monstrous ideology that has been proven false time and again in the real world. If Mike Lee and his friends don't want to be called out for what they're trying to do, perhaps they should stop doing it.
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