No more Medicare, Medicaid
By RICK YENCER
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - An under the radar health care compact allowing the state to opt out of Medicaid and Medicare.and adopted by the Republican Senate has the support of the Muncie 9.12 Tea Party.
And that action requires an act of Congress before the state bails out and goes to a compact among different states to supply health care. The only problem is lots of people object to to losing government health care, and don't trust a state run system that would continue coverage.
About 30 local Tea Party members gathered Monday under the big top of Kennedy Library to discuss the Medicare-Medicaid option besides get an update on other Tea Party issues like getting a tax refund from state government thanks to that projected $1.7 billion surplus this summer and having the state phase out inheritance taxes over the next decade.
Tea Party member Margaret Niccum, once secretary to former Mayor and now Delaware Circuit Court 2 Judge Alan Wilson, thought letting the states decide their own health care programs along with others was a good idea. That also was the concensus of Frank Weyl, who went to Indianapolis with other Tea Party regulars, to challenge placing President Barack Obama's name on the Indiana ballot.
Weyl said the Indiana State Election Board was initially civil and then became "Gestopo" like and denied the challenge of the President.
That Medicare and Medicaid checkoff did not get the same reaction Monday at a group of Borg-Warner Automotive retirees. The retired auto workers were ready to write, send and post letters to Senate Republicans who passed the measure over the objection of Democrats. Sue Errington, a former state senator and now seeking the House District 34 seat, said the action endangered health care for all seniors.
Ken Baskette, who manages Bill Frazier's congressional campaign, said the Tea Party had one goal in the upcoming election and make sure Obama is not re-elected President. .
Baskett was a Rick Santorum supporter although he also plans to support whoever the Republican nominee is, even if it is Mitt Romney who might have the nomination locked up on Super Tuesday. He also supports Ron Paul, who still has not won his first primary. And the Tea Party is still not much different than the Occupy movement in not trusting banks and big government besides opposing a central bank that is not a part of the Constitution.
Only a couple Republican candidates ventured to the local Tea Party outing, including Steven Fields of the United Taxpayers Association and with Cary Malchow, a Good Goverment guy who has Outfiters, a business next door from Chris Hiatt and his Hiatt Printing operation on Wheeling Avenue. Neither seemed totally committed to Tea Party values. And both seek Republican nominations to county commissioner seats.
There also was some literature for Tea Party favorite Richard Mourdock, also state treasurer, over Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind. besides other legislation that would impose a flat income tax. NIccum said the Tea Party was all about good government, but not all Good Government people are also Tea Party. As Hiatt says, "I am a Democrat."
That health care compact
That health care compact that no one is talking about or reporting about did pass on the last day of the Legislature with Republican lawmakers leading the charge.
House Bill 1269 establishes a health care compact that allows states to provide their own health care and opt out of Medicare and Medicaid. It also requires an act of Congress.The Senate passed it out on a partisan vote of 37-13 and the House did the same with some absences, 58-36.
It's a measure that was championed by Tea Party supporters and despised by senior retiree groups.
Sen. Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, said the measure was no more than a political stunt by Republican lawmakers that appeased the far right who who sees the end of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. "That is not likely to happen," he said.
That one party Republican rule at the Statehouse could bleed over to Washington D.C. in 2012 with conservatives pushing their agenda for more states rights and ending government social service programs.