It’s not until the very last line of the long and tedious article on Medicaid cuts:
“I would say that many legislators had no idea that they were voting for such severe cuts,” Helena’s Senator Mary Caferro told MTN’s Mike Dennison today.
Wow…I mean, wow!
Many legislators “had no idea” what they were voting for?
Why the hell is that? When I go and look up SB 261 – the bill in question that is causing these additional $15 million in Medicaid cuts – I can see right away that it’s only 42 pages.
Our Montana legislators – each of whom is making nearly $200 a day in pay when you include the per diem – can’t even read 42 pages?
Again…wow.
Honestly, I can do a simple Ctrl+F on the PDF of that bill, searching out Medicaid, and I can see 13 such instances of that word coming up.
Page 28’s Note 3 lays it out pretty clearly – “The legislature intends…to reduce medicaid [sic] provider rates over the 2019 biennium.”
In the previous note, we were told that the “Health Resource Division” would see cuts of $3.5 million.
I can find that out in a less than a minute…but our 150 legislators can’t?
Pure incompetence.
Reminds me of Tester in the District of Criminals a few weeks back when the Trump tax bill was before him.
Remember that silly video of him lambasting the 400-or-so-page bill that he refused to read? Then he says he doesn’t even know what he’s voting on.
No shit, Sherlock – you didn’t read the thing. Now he's forgotten all about that and is going around talking to high school students.
Were there any plans to talk to voters this year, Jon?
We have to be a little harder on Congress, as they have staffers that could read these bills. In Helena, there are no staffers, for the most part.
But again…42 pages, and if it’s on the computer you can search out terms.
I’m saddened by Caferro’s admission of her own, and her colleagues’, incompetence today…but I’m not surprised.
If you’ve been following the legislature over the past 20+ years in this state, then you know it’s always been incompetent. Look at energy deregulation, for goodness sake!
I’m sure we’ll see a lot more incompetence in Helena a year from now when these clowns get ‘back to work.’
Let’s just hope they don’t screw up our lives in the process.
