Nikki Haley

Rick Scott,Jan Brewer, John Kasich Accept ObamaCare Medicaid; Rick Perry And Nikki Haley Still Show No Concern For Those Without Health Care!

Ronald 9 Comments

A total of seven Republican Governors, including Rick Scott of Florida, Jan Brewer of Arizona, and John Kasich of Ohio, along with the Governors of New Mexico, Nevada, Michigan and North Dakota have dropped their opposition to ObamaCare in the form of federally backed funds for expanded Medicaid for their poor citizens, with Scott’s announcement the most stunning reversal of all, but with gubernatorial elections around the corner in 2014.

This has led to fury among Tea Party radicals who cannot believe that Scott has reneged on his Tea Party followers, and it might lead to a primary challenge to Scott, who has also reversed course on education funding. So this could make it harder for him and other Republican Governors to win another term in office, and give Democrats the chance to retake the Governor’s chair in many “Red” states, many of whom went that direction in 2010, giving the Tea Party prominence that it has used to try and take America back to the 19th century!

But two prominent holdouts remain–Governor Rick Perry of Texas and Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina— representing two states that are, overall, more degraded in their poverty statistics than most other states. These two Governors are making victims of millions of citizens, who are being condemned for being poor, an absolute disgrace!

And meanwhile, Tea Party Senators are becoming more outrageous in their rhetoric, including Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, with the latter being coined by some the “new Joseph McCarthy” , due to his wild and false accusations against former Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Barack Obama’s choice to be Secretary of Defense. These two men have no problem in being reckless in their behavior, as both are extremely ambitious, and think they will be President in 2017, a total delusion on their part!

It is people like Paul and Cruz, along with Perry and Haley, that demonstrate that the Republican Party is doomed in the future, until and when they purge these hateful, despicable figures out of the equation of the future of the GOP!

Age Vs Youth: Will The Republicans And Democrats Be Switching On Their Presidential Nominees In 2016?

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When one analyzes the two major political parties in the past forty years, it has been a general reality that the Republican Party has run Presidential candidates who tend to be much older than the Democratic Party nominees for President.

Witness Richard Nixon, nine years older than George McGovern in 1972; Gerald Ford eleven years older than Jimmy Carter in 1976; Ronald Reagan thirteen years older than Jimmy Carter in 1980; Reagan seventeen years older than Walter Mondale in 1984; George H. W. Bush eight years older than Michael Dukakis in 1988; Bush twenty two years older than Bill Clinton in 1992; Bob Dole twenty three years older than Clinton in 1996; John McCain twenty five years older than Barack Obama in 2008; and Mitt Romney fourteen years older than Obama in 2012. Only in 2000 and 2004 did we see George W. Bush older than Al Gore by only two years and in 2004 actually younger than John Kerry by three years.

This phenomenon is maybe just a coincidence, but it has often been said that the Democrats go for youth and the Republicans for experience in their Presidential nominees.

Well, if that is the case, it is about to be switched dramatically in 2016 if one assumes that either Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden are the likely front runners for the Democratic Presidential nomination, as Hillary will be 69 in 2016, and Joe will be 74 in 2016. Clinton would be the second oldest first time nominee, behind Ronald Reagan, and Biden would be the oldest first time nominee.

The Republicans are certain to nominate a candidate decades younger, such as Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Nikki Haley, Bobby Jindal, or Ted Cruz, all born in the early 1970s, being therefore mid 40s in 2016. If you consider Chris Christie, Scott Walker, or John Thune, they were born in the 1960s, so would be in the mid 50s. Jeb Bush, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann all were born in the 1950s, so would be in their late 50s or in the 60s. There is no candidate born in the 1940s seriously mentioned, unless one expects Newt Gingrich to try again for the Presidency, being just a year younger than Joe Biden and four years older than Hillary Clinton.

The Democrats have alternative possible candidates in Martin O’Malley and Amy Klobuchar born in the early 1960s, so either would be mid 50s in 2016, but Andrew Cuomo and Mark Warner, born in the mid 1950s would be nearing or at the age of 60 when running in 2016, and Elizabeth Warren, born in 1949, would be 67 in 2016, only about two years younger than Hillary Clinton.

So we are seeing a likely switch from an older to younger Republican nominee, and a younger to an older Democratic nominee, and the difference in years could be massive, as it was in the past forty years in most Presidential elections.

A final thought: In the nine elections between 1972 and 2012 when the GOP nominee was always older than the Democratic nominee, the Republicans won the election four times, and the Democrats five times, so basically, trying to determine whether age or youth are an advantage is clearly a pure guessing game!

Medicaid Expansion Under ObamaCare Only Agreed To By Two Republican Hispanic Governors: Interesting Development!

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Republican Governors are refusing to take up the offer of Medicaid expansion for their states under ObamaCare, despite the fact that the Obama Administration has arranged for total funding for the Medicaid expansion for those states for three full years, and 90 percent coverage of costs after that.

This is a means to insure that poor people will have medical care, and one would think that any Governor would wish to cover his or her poorer constituents, as a way to show concern about the welfare and health of the less fortunate in the states.

But NO, no way, is the reaction of all the Republican Governors who were elected in 2010, as part of the Tea Party Movement wave, with the major exception of the Governors of New Mexico (Susana Martinez) and Nevada (Brian Sandoval), both Hispanic governors of Mexican American ethnicity.

So Rick Scott of Florida, Nikki Haley of South Carolina, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Rick Perry of Texas, Paul LePage of Maine and other GOP Governors are refusing to participate, but the fact that the two Hispanic Republican Governors are doing so makes them stand out as cooperating, while the two Hispanic (Cuban American) Senators who are Republicans, Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, are totally against involvement in ObamaCare!

Is this due to politics, that Martinez and Sandoval are trying to distinguish themselves from Cruz and Rubio for future Republican Hispanic battles for national office–that is, for the Presidency?

Who can say, but it is certainly very curious, to say the least, that this situation has arisen. But kudos to Martinez and Sandoval for doing the right thing for their poorer citizens! And the fact that they are Governors, not Senators, could be a plus for them in the future in Republican politics!

The Loony Politics Of South Carolina

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South Carolina, the “Rebel” state which started the Civil War at Fort Sumter in 1861, has become one of the looniest states in American politics!

Not only is it the state of Congressman Joe Wilson, who yelled out that President Barack Obama was lying, during a State of the Union Address.

Not only is it the state of Governor Nikki Haley, hailed because she is the second Indian American Governor, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, but who has the most extremist views on many topics, similar to Jindal.

Not only is it the state of Jim DeMint, the leader of the Tea Party Senators, who now is leaving the Senate to join the Heritage Foundation, a right wing think thank.

Not only is it the state of newly appointed Senator Tim Scott, the first African American Republican Senator since Edward Brooke of Massachusetts in the 1960s and 1970s—a man nothing like Brooke, but rather closer in extremist views to fellow African American Republican Congressman Allen West of Florida, who lost his reelection to the House this November. Scott favors cuts in food stamps, HIV AIDS support; called for the impeachment of President Obama over the debt limit; and wants billions of dollars in aid to the oil industry, among other crazy, extremist ideas.

This is also the state of Senator Lindsey Graham, who has tied himself to Senator John McCain in going after Susan Rice, United Nations Ambassador, over the Benghazi, Libya incident, for which she had no blame, and therefore negating her chance to be Secretary of State in tne next term of Barack Obama.

But now to top it off, former Governor Mark Sanford, who resigned over his love affair with a woman in Argentina, and whose wife divorced him, has decided to run for Congressman Scott’s seat in the House of Representatives, a seat he once held before becoming Governor, as a way to revive his flagging political career.

Oh, and by the way, Scott’s House seat, once held by Sanford, and maybe again, is in Charleston, where the Civil War began at Fort Sumter!

So has anything changed in South Carolina since 1861? One has to wonder!

Senator Tim Scott Of South Carolina: Just What The Senate Does NOT Need!

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South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has just announced the appointment of Congressman Tim Scott, who is African American, to replace retiring Senator Jim DeMint, who resigned to become the head of the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation.

DeMint was the leader of the Tea Party Caucus in the US Senate, and his replacement by Scott, who is in the vein of defeated one term Florida Congressman Allen West, is in many ways, even worse than DeMint.

Scott is no Edward Brooke, African American Senator from Massachusetts from 1967-1979, who served credibly as a moderate Republican, the first popularly elected African American Senator, and received a Congressional Medal of Honor and a US Mint Medal struck in his honor a few years ago, a medal the author is proud to own. Brooke, now past 90, is a true credit to the US Senate and his race!

Scott is a right wing Tea Party activist, who has advocated the impeachment of President Obama; called for the cutting of food stamps to children; helped to push through cuts in services to HIV/AIDS patients in South Carolina; has backed large subsidies to Big Oil; and has promoted the idea of the Ten Commandments being on the walls of every government building in South Carolina.

This man is a right wing extremist, who will have no success in convincing African Americans to become Republicans, as he comes across as a firebrand, who will undermine any chance of compromise by House or Senate Republicans on any issue over the next two years.

He is the equivalent of Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, another African American who has turned against civil rights, and gone over to the white conservative establishment of the Republican Party, but can do a lot of damage, as Thomas has done repeatedly, including conflicts of interest on many cases brought before the Court.

Scott will not be a quiet freshman, and in many ways, will be a nightmare who will plague the Senate, and probably have a long career in a state which has gone so right wing and loony that its poverty stricken black and white population will suffer, but always with the thought that they are following the teachings of Jesus Christ, which they most certainly are NOT doing!

Republican “Beards”: Tim Scott, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, Nikki Haley

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The Republican Party is using its “beards” to try to convince voters of minority groups (African American, Hispanic and Latino, Asian American), which voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, that the party of heavily white, rural, and older voters is really concerned about equal opportunity and justice for them, a total lie!

So therefore, Tim Scott, the right wing African American Congressman from South Carolina, is being touted as a replacement for Senator Jim DeMint, who is leaving to head the Heritage Foundation. Scott is so extremist that he could be seen as the equivalent of Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, who is despised by a vast majority of the African American population, and even if Scott is appointed to the Senate to replace DeMint, the chance of him convincing the black community, which voted for Barack Obama by about 95 percent, that he is legitimately interested in their welfare and advancement, is miniscule!

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas may be Cuban American, but even their ethnic group voted about 52 percent for Obama, and 71 percent of all Hispanics and Latinos (with only 3 percent being Cuban, as compared to 65 percent being Mexican), voted for the President. So the odds that either Rubio or Cruz is going to be able to convince those of Spanish speaking descent to become Republican, after the anti immigrant campaign of Mitt Romney, and the Republican heritage of standing against immigration reform (with the exception of George W. Bush and John McCain), is really a stretch of one’s delusional thinking!

And the fact that two Asian (from India heritage) Republicans, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina, are nationally known figures, does not mean that those of any Asian heritage, including from the Far East, are going to vote Republican, when 73 percent of Asian Americans voted for Obama. This is another example of total hallucination by the Republican leadership!

All that Scott, Rubio, Cruz, Jindal, and Haley represent are politicians of specific ethnic backgrounds who have spent their adult lives resisting the needs, wants, and views of the vast majority of their own groups! They are “traitors” to the best interests of groups that have long been ignored and ridiculed by Republican power figures!

So they are acting as “beards”, spreading false propaganda that the Republican Party is the party that people of their heritage should support in the future, but as long as they promote the hateful, divisive rhetoric and philosophies of the extremist right wing, they might continue in office as oddities, but they will not succeed in transforming people of minority heritage to large percentages becoming loyal to the Republican heritage of nativism and exclusionary behavior!

The Tea Party Republican Influence In The US Senate Grows, Even With Jim DeMint Leaving For Heritage Foundation

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South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, the creator of the Tea Party Caucus in the US Senate, and one of the most right wing, reactionary members of the upper chamber, is resigning to head the ultra conservative Heritage Foundation for about ten times his Senate salary, and to continue to work to purge the Senate Republicans of anyone moderate, or willing to compromise with Democrats or President Barack Obama.

The members of the Senate Republican minority considered to be Tea Party oriented include:

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky
Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin
Senator Mike Lee of Utah
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida
Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania

Also, new Senators joining the group include:

Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona
Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas

The Tea Party Senate Republicans failed to elect the following to the Senate:

2010
Christine ODonnell of Delaware
Sharron Angle of Nevada
Ken Buck Of Colorado
Joe Miller of Alaska

2012
Todd Akin of Missouri
Richard Mourdock of Indiana
Josh Mandel of Ohio

One could say, therefore, that there are now EIGHT Senators in the group, with SEVEN others being successfully defeated in the past two Senate election periods.

One more is likely to be added, when South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley appoints someone to replace DeMint, until the next Senate elections in 2014, with a tremendous edge for that individual to keep the seat.

Potential candidates for the replacement include:

Nikki Haley herself, who has national ambitions to run for President
Congressman Tim Scott, the only black Republican, and similar to Allen West in his views and attitudes
Congressman Joe Wilson, who infamously said Barack Obama was lying in his first State of the Union address

Many might say that the Tea Party is in decline, but in reality, it is far from dead, and there are still a large number of Tea Party Republicans in the House of Representatives, making life difficult for House Speaker John Boehner.

And one can be sure that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will be having more sleepless nights, more so with DeMint able to work to make the Republican Party ever more right wing in his position as the head of the Heritage Foundation!

Any thought that the Republican Party might move toward the center of the political spectrum seems highly unlikely after this event of DeMint’s move out of the Senate!

Eight Poor, Backward States Reject Expansion Of Medicaid For Their Poor, Sick, Disabled And Elderly Citizens: Reprehensible!

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Eight states, among the poorest in the nation, and mostly in the South, have now seen their Governors and Republican legislatures reject an expansion of the Medicaid program, which is so desperately needed by their poor, sick, disabled, and elderly citizens, an absolutely reprehensible development!

The states are Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma and Maine.

2.8 million people will suffer, with half of them being in Texas. So this means that Governors ranging from Rick Perry, Nikki Haley, Paul LePage to Bobby Jindal, all except LePage having shown interest in running for President, have taken a hard stand against those less fortunate!

It is unbelievable that in 21st century America that we could have such backward leaders of states, who show contempt for their own citizens, and yet are likely to be reelected by an ignorant, uncaring population, and in states where, with the exception of Maine, the population claims to be “religious” and “good Christians”, but defy the message of their faith, to care for the poor and disadvantaged!

Speculation Seriously Begins On 2016 Presidential Competition

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Eight weeks away from the Presidential Election of 2012, but with the obvious trend toward Barack Obama emerging, political pundits are starting to speculate on who might compete for the Democratic and Republican Presidential nominations in 2016, when if Barack Obama is reelected in 2012, we will be certain to have a new President.

The field of potential nominees is long in both parties. Among those being discussed are the following:

Democrats

Vice President Joe Biden from Delaware
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from New York
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer
New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar
Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill
Virginia Senator Mark Warner
Newark New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker
Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren

Republicans

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush
Florida Senator Marco Rubio
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul
Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum
Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker
New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham
South Dakota Senator John Thune

So there are, theoretically, 12 Democrats and 14 Republicans who can be seen now as possible competitors for the Presidential nominations, but of course, some of these conceivable candidacies are based on election results yet to occur, including whether Senators Claire McCaskill, Scott Brown, and Lindsay Graham are reelected, the first two this year, and Graham in 2014; whether Cory Booker runs for New Jersey Governor and defeats Chris Christie, with the result eliminating one of those two candidacies; whether Elizabeth Warren can defeat Scott Brown, which would eliminate one or the other of those two candidacies; and whether the “old timers”—Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Jeb Bush—decide to run or stay out of the race, leaving the battle for the nominations to the “new generation” of leadership that is emerging in both political parties.

As of now, there is plenty of diversity in the potential race, with the following statistics:

7 women in the race–Hillary Clinton, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, Claire McCaskill, Elizabeth Warren for the Democrats, and Nikki Haley and Kelly Ayotte for the Republicans.
2 African Americans in the race—Deval Patrick and Cory Booker for the Democrats.
1 Hispanic-Latino in the race—Marco Rubio for the Republicans.
2 Asian Americans in the race (both of India heritage)—Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley for the Republicans.

On the Democratic side, there are three potential candidates from New York—Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo, Kirsten Gillibrand; one from New Jersey (Cory Booker); one from Delaware (Joe Biden); one from Maryland (Martin O’Malley); two from Massachusetts (Deval Patrick and Elizabeth Warren)–a total of eight of the 12 potential candidates from the Northeast, with one from the South (Mark Warner of Virginia); two from the Midwest (Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Claire McCaskill of Missouri); and one from the West (Brian Schweitzer of Montana).

On the Republican side, there are four potential candidates from the Northeast—Chris Christie of New Jersey, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, and Rick Santorum from Pennsylvania; seven from the South and border states—Bob McDonnell of Virginia, Nikki Haley and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio of Florida, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and Rand Paul of Kentucky; and three from the Midwest—Paul Ryan and Scott Walker of Wisconsin and John Thune of South Dakota.

Additionally, there are many Catholics running, startling when one considers that this nation has only had one Catholic President (John F. Kennedy), and one Catholic Vice President (Joe Biden).

Also, the Democrats have four Governors, one Mayor, and seven former or sitting or potential Senators on their list; while the Republicans have six Governors or former Governors, seven Senators, and one Congressman on their list.

Speculation starting already makes the 2016 Presidential race seem ever closer even though it will not begin in earnest until mid to late 2014, and particularly so after the midterm elections of 2014!

Medicaid Expansion And State Governors: Reaction Based On Party Affiliation!

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The federal government has offered to cover Medicaid expansion for the poor and uninsured in 2014 and after, because otherwise, millions of Americans will have no health care coverage, and that will increase the number of serious illnesses and deaths long term.

But predictably, and sadly, we find most Republican Governors refusing to expand their Medicaid system, including Bob McDonnell of Virginia, Nikki Haley of South Carolina, Rick Scott of Florida, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Rick Perry of Texas, Jan Brewer of Arizona, Paul LePage of Maine, and Scott Walker of Wisconsin, among others.

Meanwhile, most Democratic Governors, including Andrew Cuomo of New York, Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, Dan Malloy of Connecticut, Martin O’Malley of Maryland , Jack Markell of Delaware, Mark Dayton Of Minnesota, Pat Quinn Illinois, and Jerry Brown of California, among others, have made it clear they will expand the Medicaid coverage.

The contrast is startling, as GOP Governors, following in tune with the Republican House and Senate minority members, are in lockstep, making it clear they will not support expanded medical coverage, as part of their plan to wipe out ObamaCare, despite the Supreme Court decision last month!

The fact that the federal government would pay most of the costs, an estimated $931 billion through 2022, with the states only having to pay $73 billion, has had no effect on the Republican Governors!