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Nixon Ignores His Defense of Democrat Health Care Cuts
February 18, 2008
JEFFERSON CITY – For the next nine months, Jay Nixon is going to continue to do his best to talk tough on health care despite his public record of defending Democrat-induced health care cuts a few short years ago that he refused to discuss then and refuses to discuss now.
Let’s begin with 2002, when Nixon defended Bob Holden’s attempt to cut dental care for 100,000 Medicaid recipients. Nixon lost when a judge blocked the attempted cuts. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported at the time that Nixon “declined to comment.”
That action seems at odds with Nixon’s non-stop campaign rhetoric on health care including this statement reported by the St. Joseph News-Press on August 18, 2006: “I don’t think slashing health care is good for Missouri.”
Later in 2002, Nixon defended in court a Medicaid spend-down provision backed by Holden that would have impacted 20,000 Missourians by reducing the services they received. And guess what? The Associated Press reported that Nixon “had no comment.”
Again, it seems at odds with Nixon’s non-stop campaign rhetoric on health care that includes this gem from a Nixon media release last month in which he is hypocritically committed to “expanding health care opportunities.”
In January, 2003, Nixon defended a state decision to cut $600,000 in eyeglass coverage for Medicaid recipients. Nixon’s office, according to the Post-Dispatch, again had “no-comment.” Later that year, Nixon still had nothing to say about a judge’s decision ordering the state to provide free dental care and eyeglasses to hundreds of thousands of Medicaid recipients. The AP reported that “Nixon’s staff is reviewing the decision to determine whether the state would appeal.” In June, 2004, an appeals court upheld the decision to restore the services despite Nixon’s continued attempt to defend Holden’s cuts.
“Jay Nixon’s hypocrisy on health care is much like the famous John Kerry position on the war – he was for the cuts before he was against them,” said Paul Sloca, communications director for the Missouri Republican Party. “It’s a black and white case of political opportunism on the part of Jay Nixon, who hopes desperately that his defense of Bob Holden’s health care cuts doesn’t come home to roost and that the media won’t call him on it.”
