Swing Low Alabama

At another website where yesterday’s TWSA! entry is stashed, iReport.com, a commenter pointed to her own entry about another hypocrisy in the strident southern resistance to the Big 3 plan. Here’s her blog entry:

“What’s this, Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky need a bailout???

As I am from both a balanced budget state (Indiana) and the wife of a UAW worker, I am shocked to hear that the governors from states such as Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky, have the nerve to ask the federal government for a bail out for these states. Have they not been in contact with the Senators from these states or have they not seen the news? Do they not realize that if the UAW should take a 30-50% pay cut to get help, that so should all of the state and local government workers of these great states? Why the double standard? They say if the auto industry was ran correctly they would not be in this mess, doesn’t this mean that they too have not ran their states correctly and that they have caused this mess themselves? Why should they get a bail out or help? Let them go under. After all Indiana has a balanced budget, we are not in the red, we are not in debt and we do not need a bail out. I think that the old saying applies, ‘what is good for the geese is good for the gander’!”

“Oh, Oh Alabama.” It’s very interesting, indeed. From the Birmingham News, 12-12-2008: “State transportation officials have told the state’s congressional delegation that Alabama could have 16 major highway projects worth $877 million ready for construction within 90 days if a proposed economic stimulus package is approved.” More roads for those locally, union free, Toyotas, I guess . . .

Republican Governor Bob Riley said Alabama “certainly has billions of dollars worth of projects that could be started within 90 days if the state got extra federal money.” At some point in the distant past when he obviously wasn’t thinking straight, Riley also said, “Government does not create jobs. It only helps create the conditions that make jobs more or less likely.“

“You Got the Weight on Your Shoulders.” But lately the Guv also said – and this is interesting – “federal aid to stop or roll back the steep rise in state Medicaid spending required by the federal government would be a bigger help to Alabama.” The Montgomery Advertiser on 12-03-2008 reported, “Last year, Medicaid funded health care for nearly one out of every five residents of Alabama. That includes paying for almost half the deliveries of babies in the state and two-thirds of the cost for all nursing home beds.” Yeah, Guv, so implicitly threaten to reduce Medicaid services. Certainly, let’s hold Medicaid recipients hostage, and – hear this! – Alabama is already ranked in the bottom ten for its Medicaid program, particularly in measures of eligibility for women and children. It’s also near the bottom in scope of services offered. So, yeah Guv, let’s look for more excuses to hobble your Medicaid program. Roll tide! Oh yes, there’s also another inconvenient quote the Guv let slip by once upon a time: “When I read the New Testament basically, we get three mandates: to love God, to love each other, and to take care of the least among us.”

A review of state records found Wal-Mart first among 46 major Alabama employers with workers whose children receive health care through the state’s Medicaid program. Altogether, 3,864 children of Wal-Mart employees were on the Medicaid rolls, representing 1 in 5 of the Medicaid-insured children whose parents worked for the major employers identified in the state’s analysis. Wal-Mart accounted for more than twice as many children on Medicaid as McDonald’s, the next highest-ranking employer, which had 1,615 Medicaid kids.

The cost to taxpayers of providing health care to children of Wal-Mart’s workers in Alabama was between $5.8 million and $8.2 million. The Wal-Mart share is slightly more than 20 percent of the total cost ($27 million to $38 million) for Medicaid coverage for 18,000 children of 46 major Alabama employers. Wal-Mart has benefited from more than $38 million in taxpayer-financed economic assistance in Alabama since 1983, with the bulk of the benefits accruing over the last five years.

Alabama has identified Medicaid as one of the top fiscal issues it will have to address in the 2005 legislative session. Over the last two years, the state has taken several steps to rein in Medicaid costs, including cuts in benefits and eligibility. The state may need an additional $127 million from its general fund to meet Medicaid demands. Meanwhile, the state is predicting a budget shortfall of $300 million to $400 million (5 percent to 7 percent of its 2005 general fund spending) for fiscal year 2006.

“That’s Breaking Your Back.” And that’s for 2005-2006. So, notice the symbiotic relationship: WalMart gets millions of dollars per year in subsidies; Medicaid rolls increase because WalMart doesn’t provide its primary workers enough to scrap out a living that puts them above Alabama’s stringent (say, 2nd worst in the nation) Medicaid eligibility rules. Now, in a committed capitalist’s thinking, that’s a “twofer”: you get tax breaks AND you pass along the medical costs for your employees’ children to a tax-supported system! BINGO! What a country. No wonder they fight so hard to elect people like Bush and Riley. Finally, and not putting too fine a point on it, does not this whole arrangement sounds eerily analogous t0 the relationship Alabama has with the auto makers in their non-union state?

Admittedly, the Bush administration attempted to add immeasurably to the costs for the states by finalizing draconian and crippling Medicaid regulations (all but one of which were placed on a Congressional enacted moratorium until April 2009). Unfortunately Governor Riley, he’s your President; it’s the likes of you who helped create and cheer on the Bush agenda. Having those Medicaid changes that were enacted on Bush’s watch come back to bite you in the butt, seems almost poetic in its justice, if it weren’t, of course, adding to the already sad plight of those few “lucky” enough to meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid recipients in your state.

Also, whaddya think now about national health insurance, Governor? It just might be a solution to your state’s health care disaster . . . I know. I know. That’s unpatriotic socialistic commie red Muslim terrorist talk, eh?

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