Boehner vs Christian cons vs corporatist cons in AR today
The vote on Medicaid expansion has been playing out over the weekend in town hall meetings and over Twitter (#arleg is a fun place to be today). Seems the Koch conservatives are butting heads with the Christian conservatives and are in strong disagreement over the choice of traditional expansion, private option, or the "do nothing" option. Americans For Prosperity has been extremely vocal and has irked some citizens who feel they were given far less time during Q & A at the town halls than the special interests. Teresa Oelke, of AFP, dominated the conversation and made it more of a presentation on the cons of the private option and less of a Q & A session.
Our GOP voters really thought they were getting a "smaller government" with this new majority that was elected. Koch thought it was getting a team of puppets. Some true Christians, despite being republican, want the expansion because it makes many thousands of people eligible for insurance, but they are the minority. It's not all final yet. John Boehner is supposed to be phoning GOP legislators and urging them to vote no on private option. Nobody is happy except Arkansas Dems today. It's going to be an interesting day for the GOP here.
Here is an article from the WaPo blog on the matter:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/04/15/its-a-huge-day-for-obamacare-in-arkansas/
Edit:
The private option appropriation failed to pass 68 for - 28 against. Needed 75 to pass. They will vote again tomorrow.
