The Virginia Chamber of Commerce is not my favorite organization, because basically it’s an arm of the Republican Party of Virginia. Which is exactly why it’s significant that the Chamber this morning, in a press conference, formally endorsed Medicaid expansion – whatever they want to call it (e.g, “private option”), and whatever conditions they want to place on it – in Virginia. It will be interesting to see what the reaction to the Chamber’s plan is, and specifically whether House Republicans continue their rigid, harmful (to Virginia) “just say no” attitude. If the latter, will we see a Virginia government shutdown because Republicans won’t compromise with the Senate on a budget? In the end, if the General Assembly gridlocks due to House Republican recalcitrance, to what extent can Gov. McAuliffe act on his own to expand Medicaid? Oh, and what ever happened to that supposed “promise” last year, in the context of the transportation bill, to move towards Medicaid expansion? Lots of questions, few answers, as we head into the final two weeks of the 2014 Virginia General Assembly session (pending overtime).
P.S. See the Virginia Chamber’s press release on the “flip.”
P.P.S. Good tweets from the press conference: “Gary McCollum of Cox Communications: ‘A healthy workforce is our greatest asset'” and “Kevin Reynolds of Cardinal Bank: ‘It is about our employees, our customers and our community.'”
Sign up for the Blue Virginia weekly newsletter
