VA Lawmakers like Gifts, especially State-Sponsored Health Care

Someone, you say, may have the gift of gab. Others may have a gift of beauty or wisdom.

Politicians have neither beauty nor wisdom. But they do have the gift of gab.

Politicians subscribe to the adage that it's better to give than to receive but only if you give and they receive.

Former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were vilified, indicted and convicted in the court of political and public opinion. They took gifts. Others might say they received gifts.

The McDonnells say they gave; the public and the courts say they took, and that it was against The Law. The McDonnells repaid the loans and the other “gifts.”

When they realized the jury wasn't buying it – that Gov. Bob's job to pitch snake oil (Anatabloc) was part of his job and doing business in Virginia – Bob and Maureen had a reality moment as they blamed each other for their own defects. 

Humbled by McDonnell's humbling, Virginia's lawmakers vow to reform “gift-giving” (legalized bribery) laws in Virginia, though the same vocal penitence was heard in Congress, and you see how far that's progressed.

Virginia's lawmakers should reform themselves, for they are the biggest gift takers in this state. It isn't the number of gifts but the size of the gift that really matters.

In their case, size is everything.

I refer to their state-sponsored health coverage. 

That is a gift, especially for someone who works part-time. Not many PT workers can say they have health coverage. But our politicians can, and they are PT workers. Yet they say they work hard. So does the guy who washes toilets for a living or the “maid” who changes the bed sheets of sexually effluent guests or the guy who writes this mean and cynical blog. 

But they don't get health coverage. Nor will they if many of Virginia's lawmakers insist on stalling Medicaid expansion in Virginia.

I've heard the arguments against expanding Medicaid and I have heard the arguments for the state embracing the expansion of Medicaid.

Hospitals, tired of writing off millions in charity for individuals without insurance, stand behind the expansion of Medicaid. Doctors don't really care since many don't opt into hospital charity care, though they have the option to do so, and then send debt collectors after you to collect their inflated fees.

The majority of Democrats, predictably, voted to expand Medicaid. The majority of Republicans, predictably, voted against the expansion Medicaid. (See who's on the tax payer paid health care dole in this analysis by TheVirginian-Pilot here. Find your legislator and see if it has been gifted.)

So, on one hand, Democrats in the General Assembly are willing to give a little to get a little. Republicans, on the other hand, get a lot and give nothing. Even wealthy Democrats, intentionally populist, don't look a gift-horse in the mouth.

Both sides are catering to their narrow constituency and their own self-interest. But they aren't doing the right thing, although they think they are doing the right thing though for all the wrong reasons.

State-sponsored health coverage, while many Virginians don't have health coverage or are still paying dearly for health coverage, isn't a gift.

It is earned.

Virginia's lawmakers haven't earned anything.

Coming soon: The Say What? Show. Sponsored by News to Die For LLC, Adrift LLC and Paine in the Ass Institute, an anarcho-minimalist think tank, Libertarian in thought and body.

Note: If you don't know the identities of the above individuals, I refer you to VAGA101.