Medicaid expansion

Superior Court Judge upholds Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid (AHCCCS) expansion plan

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We-Love-ObamacareIn a bit of a surprise today, Maricopa County Superior Judge Douglas Gerlach ruled in favor of Governor Jan Brewer’s  Medicaid (AHCCCS) expansion plan, and the bipartisan coalition of Democrats and a handful of Republicans who came together to pass the legislation by a simple majority.

As I have previously warned you, this case is no longer about Governor Jan Brewer’s  Medicaid (AHCCCS) expansion plan per se, it is about the “Kochtopus” Death Star, the Goldwater Institute, trying to preserve the GOP’s “weapon of mass destruction,” Prop. 108 (1992), the “two-thirds for taxes” amendment. The Goldwater Institute, representing the 36 Tea-Publican legislators/plaintiffs in this case, will appeal. This case is far from over.

The Arizona Republic reports, Judge: Medicaid expansion was constitutional:

The Arizona Legislature needed only a simple-majority vote to expand the state’s Medicaid program in 2013, a Superior Court judged ruled on Wednesday.

The case hinges on whether a hospital assessment lawmakers approved to fund the expansion, which extended health-care coverage to more than 250,000 low-income Arizonans, is a fee, as its proponents argued, or a tax.

Judge Douglas Gerlach, in his ruling, said the fee “does not qualify as a tax,” as the 36 Republican legislators who opposed it have argued. As a result, there was no need for a two-thirds super-majority to enact the legislation.

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AZ Star Perpetuates ‘Ethan Orr Is a Moderate’ Myth

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by Pamela Powers Hannley

In today's Arizona Daily Star, columnist Tim Steller chides the Pima County Democratic Party for trying to take down "moderate" Republican LD9 Legislator Ethan Orr. 

First of all, a quick look at Orr's voting record and political endorsements reveal that the "Ethan Orr is a moderate" meme is a myth. For example:

Orr voted FOR voter suppression on multiple occasions. Most recently, Orr cast the deciding vote in committee and sided Republicans who want to do an "end run" around voters by repealing last year's Omnibus Voter Suppression Bill (HB2305), in order to pass several other voter suppression bills this session. The bill to repeal HB2305– if passed by the Legislature– will eliminate the citizens' right to vote for or against voter suppression in the 2014 election. Orr voted for voter suppression last week,  and he was part of the Republican block that originally passed HB2305 in the dead of night in the waning hours of the 2013 Legislative session.

Orr signed an anti-abortion pledge to defend the rights of the unborn. Orr– along with Governor Jan Brewer, Republican legislators, and three weak-kneed Democrats– signed the Christian conservative Center for Arizona Policy's pledge to fight for the rights of unborn fetuses, while ignoring the legal rights of adult women to make choices about their bodies, their children, and their lives. Steller soft-sells Orr's pro-fetus stance by saying that Orr "tends toward a pro-life viewpoint on abortion." Orr signed a pledge to fight for fetal personhood; this is an extreme viewpoint that confers rights upon fetuses– while taking away the rights of American women. This goes far beyond tending "toward pro-life". [Pledge text and more after the jump.]