CALLING BS: The HHS hustle

Medicaid expansion has become the hot topic as the North Carolina legislative session winds down and our esteemed representatives have yet to even agree on a budget. The House supports it — or, at least, some version of it — while the Senate seems to oppose it on principle. The governor has vetoed a budget without it already and has vowed to hold the line, which he’s able to do because the House doesn’t have enough votes to override him.

As our “leaders” wrangle new versions of the budget and variations on Medicaid expansion, Republican leadership has been seeking to convert just seven members of the House, which would negate Cooper’s veto power and make the whole Medicaid thing moot.

House Minority Leader Darren Jackson (D-Raleigh) told NC Health News last week that Republicans have been offering a new state DHHS facility — which would entail “hundreds of millions of dollars” from the budget and long-term jobs afterwards — to Democrats in five counties: Granville, Forsyth, Wayne, Cumberland and Harnett.

So far, no one has taken the bait.

Of note, though, is that the political discourse in North Carolina has now devolved into a naked exercise in quid pro quo. And that right there is some heavy BS.