Everyone Wants It, Nobody Wants To Pay For It

Everyone wants universal health coverage. The problem is paying for it. Nobody actually wants to do it, not the rich who can afford it, not the poor who can't afford it, and certainly not state governments facing a $200 billion collective shortfall over the next two years (and that's *with* the stimulus bill.)

The nation’s governors, Democrats as well as Republicans, voiced deep concern Sunday about the shape of the health care plan emerging from Congress, fearing that Washington was about to hand them expensive new Medicaid obligations without money to pay for them.

The role of the states in a restructured health care system dominated the summer meeting of the National Governors Association here this weekend — with bipartisan animosity voiced against the plan during a closed-door luncheon on Saturday and in a private meeting on Sunday with the health and human services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius.

“I think the governors would all agree that what we don’t want from the federal government is unfunded mandates,” said Gov. Jim Douglas of Vermont, a Republican, the group’s incoming chairman. “We can’t have the Congress impose requirements that we are forced to absorb beyond our capacity to do so.”

The governors’ backlash creates yet another health care headache for the Obama administration, which has tried to recruit state leaders to pressure members of Congress to wrap up their fitful negotiations. Both Ms. Sebelius, who was Kansas’ governor before she joined the cabinet in April, and the federal Medicaid chief, Cindy Mann, made appearances at the meeting on Sunday. Meanwhile, other administration officials spent the day pushing President Obama’s proposal on television talk shows.

Mr. Obama also plans to address questions about his health plan at a news conference on Wednesday evening.

Ms. Sebelius emerged from her hour-long meeting with the governors saying that “there’s a recognition that states don’t have cash right now” and that “it’s difficult to send states the bill if they don’t have the money.”

Well no kidding there. If you haven't noticed, states are friggin' broke and will continue to be friggin broke until entitlements programs are slashed or taxes are raised, or a combination of both. Obama's not going to bail them out.

Here's the issue, and I know it's shocking, but...nobody likes paying taxes. Again, America, your choices at the state level (ans they are not allowed deficit spending) are A) annihilate the support programs you need and want most in a time like this, B) pay more taxes, C) both.

What's it going to be? And before you say "slash government!" keep an eye on California. They've chosen option A.

Schwarzenegger is ruling out tax increases, so lawmakers in both parties have been coming to terms with significant cuts in state government, including spending for schools and universities. Final issues on the table include borrowing from local governments, setting aside emergency funds, and whether to guarantee that schools later will be repaid money lost to the recession-driven crisis.

McLear said before Sunday's talks collapsed that negotiators were "certainly in a position where we could close this very quickly … but we still have some issues to work out."

State DMV offices were closed Friday, one of the most visible events for taxpayers in a series of government-wide furloughs and service cutbacks. Voters this year overwhelmingly rejected tax increases as part of a budget fix worked out in an earlier agreement.

The state is running short of cash and has no budget in place, so it has begun issuing IOUs as payment for bills from thousands of state vendors. Some banks are not honoring the IOUs.

Meanwhile, the largest state employee union is seeking authorization for a walkout or other job action by its members, who have been put on furloughs and face potential wage cuts. The Service Employees International Union represents 95,000 of more than 200,000 state workers.

The question at this point actually isn't which of the three options Americans will choose at the state level.

It's now a question of how close to California's disastrous "solution" will your state get. 30 years of being told taxes were the greatest evil in history without any real spending reforms has led to this. Something's got to give. It's just a question now of how badly it's going to go now.