Editorials
‘Proud to stand against the will of the people’ — Missouri GOP berserk over Medicaid
The competition for the looniest argument against expanding Medicaid in Missouri was stiff Tuesday, but state Rep. Justin Hill, a Republican, took the prize.
Hill, from Lake St. Louis, wandered away from the outer edges of sanity some time ago. He skipped his own swearing-in to attend the insurrectionist rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6. He has repeatedly questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election.
He wants to trash Missouri’s nonpartisan court system, because of course Missouri can’t abide impartial judges.
Tuesday, during the House debate on Medicaid expansion, Hill slapped his voters in the face.
“Even though my constituents voted for this lie, I’m going to protect them,” he said. “I am proud to stand against the will of the people.” Wow.
To be fair, Hill has lots of company in his hatred for voters. Most of his Republican colleagues resisted logic, compassion, respect for the law and the people of the state by turning down amendments that would put expanded Medicaid into the state’s budget.
To no one’s surprise, Kansas House Republicans were equally short-sighted Tuesday, rejecting a budget amendment expanding Medicaid. Unlike Missouri, Kansas lawmakers had no statewide referendum to guide their thinking.
Missouri has no such excuse.
Missouri Democrats put up a good and lengthy fight. “We are playing games with people’s lives,” said state Rep. Peter Merideth of St. Louis. “Lives are on the line,” added state Rep. Patty Lewis, a nurse.
Business people, social workers and others stood on the floor repeating the facts: Missouri has more than enough money to extend health insurance coverage to the working poor. Expanding Medicaid will actually bring more money into the state.
Voters want this, Democrats pointed out.
It made no difference. “A slow march to socialism,” one Republican said. Others insisted Missourians without jobs must simply work harder.
Republican House members lied about the budget, mischaracterized Medicaid and called voters too stupid to know what they were voting on last August. (The vote was not, as one Republican claimed, last November.)
“We’re not a democracy,” a GOP lawmaker thundered. His party’s votes proved it.
Republicans repeatedly dismissed the voters in Kansas City, St. Louis and other urban areas as somehow less important than their constituents. This pattern, repeated in other debates, is overtly racist.
A Kansas City vote is worth just as much as a vote from St. Charles, or Joplin, or Cape Girardeau. But this basic lesson in self-government is lost on the Missouri Republican Party.
The Missouri House’s partisan tantrum is regrettable, but it won’t be the last word on this subject. The state Senate still has to make up its mind. Perhaps senators will do what their ill-informed House colleagues did not.
But it seems increasingly likely this matter will be decided in the courts. Missourians who qualify for expanded Medicaid should and will sign up July 1. The state constitution requires those applicants to be admitted to the program.
Then a judge will need to explain to state legislators what the rule of law means.
At one point Tuesday, an amendment was offered to end taxpayer-supported health insurance for members of the General Assembly until Medicaid is expanded. It lost, of course.
Health care for lawmakers is essential. For you, it’s a slow march to socialism.
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