“We’re blowing up a system that is working in the middle of a pandemic…or we could EXPAND MEDICAID and start realizing BILLIONS without reinventing the wheel.” – Rep. John Ray Clemmons on the TNGOP’s rushed, probably illegal not-a-block-grant program. The bill passed the State House. #ExpandMedicaid
“Gov. Bill Lee’s own budget says we get 36% of our budget from the federal gov. It doesn’t seem like TN House GOP majority leader William Lamberth knows what’s going on.” Kanew and Cassie blast Lamberth on #HollerHour for not seeming to understand Tennessee’s budget, as noted by Representative Jason Hodges.
Watch the full Lamberth/Hodges clip here.
Williamson County Senator Jack Johnson was unenthusiastic about discussing the role a letter from Tennssee state legislators encouraging Tennessee reps to challenge Biden’s win played in the deadly attack on our Capitol by Trump supporters.
Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver ducks questions about her presence in DC during the deadly Trump insurrection (which she posted fondly of afterward) as her husband INITIATES PHYSICAL CONTACT with our reporter.
On WZTV FOX 17 News, the Holler’s Justin Kanew skewers Tennessee Republican Party EC member Michelle Foreman for deflecting blame from Trump (onto city mayors…) and denying systemic racism.
AUDIO: “It’s certainly very concerning.” – Governor Bill Lee on this morning’s FBI RAIDS at disgraced former speaker Glen Casada and his sidekick Cade Cothren’s houses, plus Rep. Robin Smith and others.
Read more about the raids in The Tennessean here.
TN’S MEDICAID BLOCK GRANT: A CAP IS A CUT
by Kristen Grimm
In the waning days of the Trump administration they have just now approved Tennessee’s request to turn our Medicaid funding into a Block Grant, putting the health care of our neediest citizens into the hands of Governor Lee and the TN GOP. Lee and the GOP in our state have shown us in recent years they are comfortable with human suffering by refusing to expand Medicaid, rejecting $1 Billion yearly in health care funding, and we’ve seen them sit on over $700 million in TANF funds, so putting this giant sum of money into their hands with fewer strings attached is entirely unjustified and unwise.
A block grant would be a cap in federal funding to Medicaid. And let me be clear: A cap is a cut. The idea that the block grant approval will expand coverage is politically deceitful and sinister.
During the Trump administration’s attempt to cut Medicaid and repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017, they also tried to pass block grants to drastically cut funding to Medicaid.
Healthcare advocacy organizations and people like myself fought hard to protect this nation’s Children’s Hospitals and Medicaid recipients from suffering the potentially catastrophic consequences of capping the federal funding structures to Medicaid.
Block grants were so dangerous to children’s hospitals, the Children’s Hospital Association publicly came out against block granting our federal Medicaid program.
At the time of the cuts, 54% of impatient revenues for all our nation’s children’s hospitals were paid for by Medicaid and 63% of all our nation’s emergency department revenues were paid for by Medicaid.
What we see here was a measure that is so dangerous that the Children’s Hospital Association had to fight against it because every children’s hospital in this nation was at risk of being catastrophically harmed. When there is a capped concrete ceiling for federal Medicaid funding there’s absolutely no way you can expand services in a boxed measure of fiscal containment.
Block grants being proposed by the Trump administration were one of the cruelest measures that they have tried to invoke upon our nation’s federal departments.
This shows us the nature of Governor Lee and the Trump administration’s immorality that they would mess with children’s hospitals. But this is what the Republican leaders are doing. They are not only putting our children’s hospitals at risk, but they are also harming the elderly and vulnerable people all across this state. Thankfully it looks like the Biden administration will be able to reverse this measure before TN has time to do any harm to the most vulnerable in our state.
“I have to admit It was pretty scary…the police seemed overwhelmed, outnumbered, and sometimes complicit.” Representative Jim Cooper on the attack on the Capitol, how easily it was breached, and how “out of control” it got.
PODCAST available on Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you like to listen.
“It calls into question Senators Bill Hagerty & Marsha Blackburn’s ability to serve.” State Rep Mike Stewart calls their attempt to overthrow the Will of the People “un-American.” They changed their minds, but far too late.
PODCAST available on Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you like to listen.