WI Republican legislative leaders are holding millions of dollars in federal Medicaid and unemployment benefits hostage, as legislators try to force Gov Evers to cede some of his powers to the Republican-controlled legislature.
Thread. 1/n, sigh.
Thread. 1/n, sigh.
Recognizing the high costs of fighting the virus, the feds have made additional Medicaid funding available to states. In WI, the lame duck law blocks Gov Evers from taking steps to accept this $ without getting approval from the legislature. More:
Also, feds are newly offering to pay 100% of the cost of the first week of unemployment benefits. Currently, WI doesn't allow people to get benefits for the first week of unemployment, so both the gov and the leg would have to sign off on this change to get the add'l funding.
Gov Evers released a package that would capture both the additional federal Medicaid dollars and the extra unemployment benefits. R legislative leaders ignored his proposal and released their own proposal that also included capturing both those sources of extra dollars BUT ALSO
included a provision that would give the legislature's budget committee (which is controlled by Rs) unilateral power to make budget cuts during this crisis, without the approval of other legislators or the Gov.
The bill proposed by the Rs does not appropriate money. That means the Gov must accept or reject the R bill in its entirety, as he has line-item veto power only for appropriation bills.
In other words, the Republican bill makes accepting the federal resources contingent on the Gov giving more power to the R-controlled legislature. This cynical ploy threatens to block desperately-needed resources for WI residents harmed by the pandemic.
WI should put those federal resources to use helping sick people and making sure that people who have lost their jobs can still hold body and soul together. Instead, R legislative leaders have turned those resources into a bargaining chip in their quest to expand their power.
