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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums3 oligarchs-turned-governors who are laying ruin to their states
3 oligarchs-turned-governors who are laying ruin to their states
Rick Scott, Matt Bevin and Bruce Rauner have gutted social services for the poor. The results speak for themselves
Alex Henderson, AlterNet
If any state was justified in describing itself as a major Obamacare success story, it was Kentucky; that is, before Republican Matt Bevin was sworn in as governor. Kentucky, under Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear, was the home of Kynect, a state-operated Obamacare exchange that resulted in 500,000 Kentucky residents gaining health insurance, including many poor people with preexisting conditions. But Bevin, a rabid Tea Party ideologue who defeated Democrat Jack Conway in Kentuckys gubernatorial race in 2015, campaigned on dismantling Kynect, and he has been making good on his promise, causing considerable misery to people like Louisville mother Emily Pickett (who, on February 29, found out Medicaid coverage for her two small children had been cut off).
Bevin, according to Cara Stewart, a legal aid attorney with the Kentucky Equal Justice Center, has brought about a dramatic reduction in accessibility to health care in his state. But the suffering of Americas poor is not a concern to Bevin any more than it is to Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner or Florida Gov. Rick Scott.
Bevin, Rauner and Scott epitomize a toxic breed of far-right Republican ideologues: greedy, enamored of corporate power and only too happy to attack the poor at every turn while their considerable fortunes continue to grow. Scott, Rauner and Bevin were all worth millions when they took office. But being ultra-rich was not enough for them; like true oligarchs, they craved more money and more power. And while Rauner and Scotts states have suffered, their own bottom lines certainly havent.
1. Florida Gov. Rick Scott
Scotts net worth, according to the Tampa Bay Times, went from $84 million in 2012 to $132 million in 2013 to $147 million by the summer of 2015. Despite being reelected by a narrow margin in 2014, Scott remains unpopular in Florida; in most polls, his approval ratings have generally been in the low 40s.
Scott, a persistent opponent of health care reform, has a long history of profiting from the U.S. troubled health care system. Back in 1987, Scott co-founded the Columbia Hospital Corporation, which merged with the Hospital Corporation of America a few years later. In 1997, during a major fraud investigation and scandal over the companys billing practices, Columbia/HCAs board of directors forced Scott to resign from his position as chairman and CEO. He walked away with a settlement of almost $10 million and over $300 million worth of stock.
While Scott was making a fortune at Columbia/HCA, countless Americans were suffering medical bankruptcies. But the fact that medical bankruptcies have been so common in the U.S. hasnt stopped him from opposing any type of health insurance reform, even the Affordable Care Act of 2010, aka Obamacare. The elements of the ACA were greatly influenced by the Heritage Foundation, President Richard Nixon, Sen. Bob Dole, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and other Republicans who, in the past, advocated universal health care via the private sector. In fact, one of the people President Barack Obama consulted in 2009 was Stuart Altman, who had advised Nixon on health care reform in the early 1970s. What Nixon had in mind was similar to the ACA, only with more generous provisions. But you wont hear that from Scott, who continues to claim that Obamacare is socialized medicine.
In 2009, the year before Scott was elected governor, he feared health insurance reform would endanger corporate profits and formed the anti-Obamacare pressure group Conservatives for Patients Rights. When two British women, Katie Brickell and Kate Spall, were featured in a CPR ad attacking the U.K.s National Health Service, the women were outraged and asserted that the ad misrepresented their views and took their statements out of context. Linking the ACA to the U.K.s public single-payer health care system was totally disingenuous on Scotts part because a single-payer system was never even on the table for Democrats in Congress in 2009 or 2010.
more...
http://www.salon.com/2016/05/11/4_oligarchs_turned_governors_who_are_laying_ruin_to_their_states_partner/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)who already laid ruin to his.
Roy Rolling
(6,947 posts)Bob J gets no respect for destroying Louisiana more thoroughly in an ideological quest for power. Those other guys are amateurs compared to Jindal.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Faux pas
(14,717 posts)BASTARDS.
Hotler
(11,494 posts)the French had a revolution. A La Lanterne!
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,776 posts)I don't know, freedumb?!
babylonsister
(171,113 posts)Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,776 posts)the MSM, and uninformed friends and family, and just don't know who these candidates really are? I don't know...
Jitter65
(3,089 posts)turbinetree
(24,745 posts)and the public needs to see and hear this every day---------------
And lets include Scott Walker, Sam Brownback, and the dudes, in Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, Mississippi, North and South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Nebraska, Arizona, New Mexico ----------- for just good measure
Feeling the Bern
(3,839 posts)I have no sympathy at all. Scott was elected and re-elected.
Illinois is a Blue State that elected a tea baggers (same as ME, WI, NJ, MD).
Kentucky is a red state. . .they get what they always vote for.
Don't want Republicans, don't vote them in and don't fucking re-elect them! Problem solved!
Thespian2
(2,741 posts)Lived in NC when the Dems controlled the gov'ment...bad...then Repukes got control...much worse...
Too bad more states are unwilling to solve their problems...
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)Scalded Nun
(1,245 posts)1. you keep the electorate dumbed down.
2. you find the key hot-button topics to keep them wound up.
3. you keep them afraid.
4. you count on Dems never showing up unless it is a presidential election with an inspiring candidate.
5. if 4 exists, you make them all even more afraid.
election/reelection accomplished...easy peasy
All that is left is to fuck over the 99% until the next cycle.
certainot
(9,090 posts)here are the 268 limbaugh stations by state that depend heavily on 90 universities
all these universities would be good places to protest anything republican. any debate over whether a school should honor its mission statement and stop helping the republicans defund public education, deny global warming, excuse racism, etc. whatever the outcome, would scare the crap out of the gop and scare advertisers away.
the threat of not having those logos to attract advertisers and sell the republican agenda and support those governors would raise major howls from republicans and get media attention-and the media and politicians would start getting very nervous about repeating republican memes from rw radio.
at a cheap $1000/hr x 15hrs/day x 1200 stations, rw talk radio is worth 4.68 BIL$/ year or 390MIL$ /month FREE for coordinated global warming denial, pro republican wall st think tank propaganda, free market deregulation bullshit, swiftboating, and the hate and fear used to get people to vote republican.
at the same rate, each of these universities endorses that many stations x $3.9 MIL/YR or $325,000/MONTH! in pro republican governor SHIT!!!
For gov scott that's = $6.5mil/month endorsed by those 5 unis, helping 20 stations.
that one more station than michigan's snyder = about $6mil/month
in north carolina that's 16 stations, or $5.2mil/mo, for mcrory doing anti lgbt bathroom hate all day long
ALABAMA 8 Auburn 3, Alabama 2, Southern Alabama 2, Troy 1
ARIZONA 2 Arizona St. 1, Arizona 1?
ARKANSAS 3 Arkansas 3
CALIFORNIA 5 San Jose State 2, USC 2, Fresno St. 1
COLORADO 4 Air Force 2, Colorado 1, Colorado State 1
CONNECTICUT 1 Connecticut 1
FLORIDA 20 Florida 10, Florida St. 4 Miami 2, South Florida 2, Central Florida 2
GEORGIA 14 Georgia 7, Georgia Tech 5, Georgia Southern 2
IDAHO 7 Boise St. 4, Idaho 3
ILLINOIS 7 Illinois 7
INDIANA 11 Notre Dame 6, Purdue 4, Indiana 1
IOWA 5 Iowa 4, Iowa St. 1
KANSAS 4 Kansas St. 2, Kansas 1, Wichita St. 1
KENTUCKY 3 Louisville 2, Kentucky 1
LOUSIANA 3 LSU 2, La.-Monroe 1
MARYLAND 2 Maryland 2
MASSACHUSETTS 1 Boston College 1
MICHIGAN 19 Michigan St. 11, Michigan 7, Western Michigan 1
MINNESOTA 4 Minnesota 4
MISSISSIPPI 6 Mississippi St. 3, Mississippi 2, Southern Miss 1
MISSOURI 6 Missouri 6
NEBRASKA 6 Nebraska 6
NEVADA 1 Nevada 1
NEW JERSEY 2 Rutgers 1, Seton Hall 1
NEW MEXICO 3 New Mexico 2, New Mexico St. 1
NEW YORK 7 Syracuse 6, Army 1
NORTH CAROLINA 16 North Carolina 8, North Carolina State 3, Duke 3, East Carolina 2
OHIO 10 Ohio St. 6, Toledo 1, Dayton 1, Bowling Green 1, Xavier 1
OKLAHOMA 5 Oklahoma St. 3, Oklahoma 1, Oral Roberts 1
OREGON 12 Oregon St. 7, Oregon 5
PENNSYLVANIA 14 Penn St. 11, Pittsburgh 2, Temple 1
SOUTH CAROLINA 4 South Carolina 2, Clemson 2
TENNESSEE 7 Tennessee 4, Memphis 3
TEXAS 16 Texas A&M 9, Texas Tech 4, Texas 1, Texas Christian 1, Baylor 1
UTAH 1 Utah St. 1
VIRGINIA 6 Virginia Tech 5, Virginia 1
WASHINGTON 6 Washington 5, Washington St. 1
WEST VIRGINIA 2 West Virginia 1, Marshall 1
WISCONSIN 4 Wisconsin 4
rladdi
(581 posts)while head of a health care organization and never served one day in prison in TX. I keep wondering why, as I continue to read others that fraud medicare go to prison. Rick Scott was moved to FL and run as Governor under the Republican Party and won, in fact won 2 terms as a 14 time felon. I keep asking myself why this is kept a secret by the press. How did a prominent Republican stay out of Prison under Gov. Rick Perry of TX. Is his net worth obtained from fraud dealings? Is he getting huge payoffs for his backing of lobbyist? Where is his money coming from?
spanone
(135,958 posts)world wide wally
(21,762 posts)Redwoods Red
(137 posts)Oldtimeralso
(1,939 posts)refer to the Governor as Gov. Ruiner!