Like passing gas after a session of abdominal cramps…

Let’s jump right on in, shall we?

The Missouri legislature passed a budget…much like a person passes gas after enduring stomach cramps for weeks. They used some federal stimulus money…after wasting weeks of the people’s time posturing about not using any of it. And the finished product, such as it is, will now go to Governor Nixon.

The biggest sticking point has been Medicaid, which too many Missouri conservatives allow themselves to think exclusively serves black people who live in cities. The Republican dominated legislature didn’t want to expand Medicaid coverage because they didn’t want able-bodied folks to take advantage of tax paying folks.

Translation – they’re still drinking that Reagan Kool-Aid.

This is where the Spock test comes into play.

As reported on StlToday.com, the House majority likes a plan that would help people with chronic medical conditions buy private insurance through the state's high-risk pool.
A certain Rep. Doug Ervin (R-Kearney) said the GOP plan was geared toward "helping people who need real help due to their health status."

Okay…a bitch gets it…that makes sense, until you fucking think.

What we know and no one with an ounce of sense can deny is that it costs a hell of a lot more to treat a chronic illness that to prevent chronic illness.

What we know and no one with an ounce of sense can deny is that people without coverage wait to seek medical attention and, when they do seek care, end up in emergency rooms and costing those tax paying folks Republicans like to pretend they are defending a whit-load of money.

And what we know and no one with an ounce of sense can deny is that the working poor…the masses…are the folks we need to government to start working for, who are forced to make unimaginable choices when the economy tanks and who are crucial to any economic recovery for Missouri and this nation.

Yet this budget…this passage of legislative gas…fails to pass the Spock test and instead is an illogical pander-riddled multi-page Fuck It dressed up to look like fiscal responsibility.

And after all that shit…after not extending SCHIP to cover thousands of children who have parents that lost coverage due to recent unemployment, after tying up the schedule with anti-choice bullshit resolutions and dangerous restrictions to family planning options and after avoiding any substantive discussion of job creation or economic growth like the plague…after all that, these illogical lawmakers have still yet to resolve whether they will extend a miserly tax cut to the masses or sit on additional funds just in case the economic drama their work has nurtured rather than worked to prevent comes to pass (like another bubble of painful gas).

But hey, the session isn’t over until the 15th…and that’s plenty enough time for a dedicated fool to do some more damage.

Yay.

One more thing…umm, what ever happened to that autism insurance bill?

***cue crickets***