Maine Voters Approve Medicaid Expansion; Paul Ryan Shuts Down Voting in House

Two Tales of Democracy

The disdain that Republicans have for the democratic process was evident when despite repeated opposition to expansion of health care in Maine by its Republican Governor, the voters, when given a chance overwhelmingly approved it.

Maine voters on Tuesday delivered a strong rebuke to their governor by approving an expansion of the state’s Medicaid program under Obamacare — the first time state voters have directly authorized such an expansion.

The vote makes Maine the 32nd state to agree to expand Medicaid to thousands of low-income adults who qualify for coverage and represents a major setback for Republican Gov. Paul LePage, an ally of President Donald Trump who vetoed expansion bills on five occasions. The measure was winning 59 percent to 41 percent with roughly two-thirds of precincts reporting as of 10 p.m., according to the Associated Press, just weeks after Republicans in Congress failed in their efforts to repeal the health care law.

And Maine of course is a conservative state, where the obnoxious Republican has been elected twice and where its Senators are one Republican and one Independent. Had they listened to the people Medicaid expansion would have taken place a long time ago.  Of course the Governor will do everything to defeat the will of the people, so nothing is certain.  

And then there is the autocratic House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Paul Ryan vowed an end to the much-despised top-down approach of his predecessor when he took the speaker’s gavel in 2015, promising a House that’s “more open, more inclusive, more deliberative, more participatory.”

“We're not going to bottle up the process so much and predetermine the outcome of everything around here,” he said in his first news conference as speaker.

But two years later, the House Rules Committee, which is controlled by the speaker, just set a record for the most closed rules in a session — barring lawmakers for the 49th time from offering amendments on a bill.

This would be surprising only to people not familiar with Paul Ryan.