If you were looking for common sense and common decency on Medicaid expansion from Tallahassee this legislative session, you probably revisited the outrage that had subsided over high-speed rail. If you were looking for help on the environment or medical marijuana or backyard shooting ranges or abortion autonomy or texting while driving, you were out of luck.
Because of the robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul approach, the Legislature spent $450 million in state money to compensate for lost federal dollars and help hospitals cover the cost of charity care. Too bad we couldn’t rob the Florida House and help the working poor buy health-care coverage. It would have been both humane and business-savvy.
“Flori-duh,” as we know, doesn’t traffic in such approaches if there’s an Obamacare “entitlement” association and serious pander points up for grabs.
But if you were hoping for, say, the elimination of the sales tax on gun memberships, the status quo on “Stand Your Ground” or an insulting rebuke to President Obama on detente with Cuba, you were not disappointed.