a:1:{s:15:"field_news_body";a:1:{i:0;a:2:{s:5:"value";s:5329:"(The opinions expressed in the following statement do not necessarily reflect those of the Clinton County Republican Party)<br />
<br />
Steve Willis, Chairman<br />
Clinton County Republican Party<br />
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MEDICAID MANIPULATION TACTICS<br />
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Governor Snyder has expressed his disappointment, and perhaps outright disdain, for Senator Richardville and the Michigan Senators who didn't jump on the Medicaid Expansion bandwagon. The governor was irate that all of his toy soldiers weren&rsquo;t walking in lock step with his agenda to federalize Michigan's health care system as part of the Affordable Health Care Act&rsquo;s Medicaid Expansion.<br />
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It would seem the Governor forgot, or ignored the fact, there are three branches of government in Michigan according to Michigan&rsquo;s constitution. I guess he didn&rsquo;t realize just because he wants the legislature to pass what he wants passed they won&rsquo;t comply blindly.<br />
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Since the initial shock of not having what he wants the &ldquo;Nerd&rdquo; has been in full tantrum mode by demanding the senate take a vote. His tantrum included various forms of intimidation including making threats to individual senators with potential retribution if they don&rsquo;t vote for passage; going on the road with his dog and pony show with his promotional props to tell everyone what a great deal it will be for Michigan and to call and badger their senator; making robo calls to individual Senator&rsquo;s districts asking voters to call their senator and put pressure on them to vote for passage; have state employees calling from state phones to make calls pushing for passage; using state employees on state time from a state department (Public Health) to send out twitter messages telling people to call their senators to vote for passage; badgering the Senators using all of the media to intimidate them&nbsp; to &ldquo;not go on vacation but come back to Lansing and vote&rdquo;.<br />
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For not having any political experience it hasn&rsquo;t taken long for Governor Snyder to learn how to play the game of pressure politics and to use all of the tools in his toolbox to get his way &ndash; NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES! <br />
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Saul Alinsky and Barack Obama would be proud of&nbsp; &ldquo;THE ENDS JUSTITY THE MEANS&rdquo; mentality the Governor has used to accomplish his socialist Medicaid expansion agenda.<br />
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The governor&rsquo;s political bullying and demanding that the Senate come back and take a vote shows his total disregard for his own party&rsquo;s ideological differences. The truth is a &ldquo;majority&rdquo; of both the house and senate republicans are opposed to Medicaid Expansion as it currently is being proposed. But I guess ideology isn&rsquo;t important to the governor because he isn&rsquo;t a true republican. He is a CEO and he thinks he gets to make the big decisions regardless of what his underlings think.<br />
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It appears now the governor and Senator Richardville have agreed to play nice and a special senate committee will be meeting on July 3 to discuss how Medicaid Expansion can be made palatable to get the votes the governor needs for passage. I am sure the governor will be cutting deals for votes and ultimately it will pass and become law in Michigan.<br />
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The bottom line is anything that encourages the implementation of Obamacare needs to be treated like the malignancy it is. It needs to be killed before it gets its tentacles into our state&rsquo;s infrastructure and destroys us economically.<br />
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We all know the ultimate goal of Obamacare is a single payer system so why would we be complicit in the federal governments&rsquo; plan to move us into a medical care system that will be run inefficiently, cost us monetarily and ultimately diminish the quality of our health care.<br />
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Each of us needs to make sure we contact our state representative and senator and let them know we want them to reject ANY Medicaid Expansion. They are in office because we put them there. They don&rsquo;t work for the governor and they shouldn&rsquo;t give away their vote for promises from the governor or lobbyists. <br />
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SCHEDULED MEETING ON MEDICAID EXPANSION:<br />
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There WILL BE a Government Operations Committee meeting on Wednesday, July 3, 2013 on&nbsp; HB 4714, Medicaid Expansion . The meeting will be open to the public and statements can be given regarding the Medicaid Expansion.<br />
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The meeting time has not been set yet but it is imperative that &ldquo;WE THE PEOPLE&rdquo; get as many people there as possible to testify and/or fill out testimony cards stating you opinion on the Medicaid Expansion.&nbsp; If you are unable to make the meeting in person, you can send an e-mail to the Committee Chair, and/or the Committee Clerk to enter your email statement into the public testimony for the hearing.<br />
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Committee Members:<br />
Randy Richardville (R) Committee Chair<br />
Toll-Free: (866) 556-7917 <br />
Lansing local Number: (517) 373-3543 <br />
Fax:(517) 373-0927<br />
email: senrichardville@senate.michigan.gov <br />
<br />
Committee Clerk:<br />
tambs@senate.michigan.gov&nbsp; <br />
Lansing local Number: (517) 373-3543<br />
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