Agreement needed on Medicaid bills
The back and forth over Medicaid reauthorization is getting old, and both sides share some of the blame.
At this point, it is hard to say exactly which side should be chastised the most. On one hand, you have House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, refusing to allow debate on one of the top issues facing the state — Medicaid expansion. He killed a Senate bill that could have been amended to expand the program. In doing so, Gunn freely admitted that he killed the bill because the votes did not exist to expand Medicaid.
So he killed what could have been meaningful public legislative debate on an important issue for Mississippi.
Our republic is built on ensuring that the minority has a voice in government, and one way that voice is exercised is in the free debate of ideas within our legislative bodies.
Clarion Ledger
2/20/13
Magnolia Tribune
