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April 28, 2005

Fool me once

Oregon's token Republican of higher office, Senator Gordon Smith, is apparently standing his ground against Bush Administration efforts to slash the Medicaid program.

That's sure how it looked to me on the face of things having read that particular piece.

Then I started digging a little deeper:

Aides for Senator Gordon Smith (R-Ore) said that Bush administration officials have accepted the senator's request to create a commission to study Medicaid "in hopes of securing support from him and other moderate Republicans for $10 billion worth of cutbacks" to the program, the... New York Times reports. Demetrios Karoutsos, a spokesperson for Smith, said, "It's our understanding that the administration has agreed, in principle, to a Medicaid commission."

A commission. Presumably to study the effects of cutting back Medicaid?

Not so fast.

According to Smith, it would be "roughly right" that the Medicaid commission would be charged with issuing recommendations by August on how to reduce Medicaid spending by $10 billion over five years (CQ HealthBeat [1], 4/26).

It's the job of the commission to find a way to justify the cutbacks.

Foolish me. Here I thought Smith's stand in March against Medicaid cuts was an act of courage for the citizens of Oregon. Silly Carla. It's a way to buy time until he can find an excuse for the cuts.

The initial news story that I read this morning on this issue infers that Smith is objecting to the cuts. Given Oregon's substantial budget gap, that would make sense. Oregon can't afford to expand Medicaid.

Smith is just trying to cover his ass for the next election. He wants to be able to say that he fought the cuts...and the press is merrily playing along. But in reality, he's once again screwing the taxpayers of Oregon by pushing the burden to the state level.

So much for courage from Smith.

Posted by Carla at April 28, 2005 09:07 AM