Mississippi Today
Gov. Tate Reeves’ lonely last stand against Medicaid expansion
One year ago, Gov. Tate Reeves continued his years of steadfast defiance against Medicaid expansion and delivered a plea to his fellow Republican legislative leaders.
“Don't simply cave under the pressure of Democrats and their allies in the media who are pushing for the expansion of Obamacare, welfare, and socialized medicine,” Reeves said in his January 2023 State of the State address. “You have my word that if you stand up to the left's push for endless government-run healthcare, I will stand with you.”
Later today, Reeves will again deliver his annual State of the State address. But this year, he will be standing mostly alone in that fight. It very well could be his final stand.
Much to the governor's chagrin, the very GOP legislative leaders he pleaded with last year are well underway this year in their push to pass Medicaid expansion — a policy that would have a profound effect on countless Mississippians, their families and their communities. Yes, there are a handful of anti-expansion Republicans in both the House and Senate, but whether Reeves can whip anywhere close to the number of votes needed to block it is in real question.
Medicaid expansion, which Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Republican House Speaker Jason White are ushering this session, would provide health coverage to between 200,000 and 250,000 poor, working Mississippians and bring in more than $1 billion in additional federal funds to the state each year.
Proponents say the policy would save the lives and livelihoods of countless Mississippians and provide hospitals with a cash boon that could help them keep their doors open. Opponents such as Reeves have decried the policy as “welfare expansion” and, despite dozens of economic studies that say otherwise, maintain the state cannot afford the state match.
Last week, the two legislative leaders — and the Medicaid committee chairs they appointed — remained unmoved by Reeves' criticism about their pursuit of the policy.
“My position's been pretty clear on the fact that we were going to explore and look at Medicaid as it affects hard-working, low-income Mississippians,” House Speaker Jason White told Mississippi Today. “My ideas and thoughts about that haven't changed. He's the duly elected governor and he's certainly entitled to his opinions on that matter. I don't hold any of those against him. We just maybe here in the House have a different view of it.”
No matter how hard Reeves fights back, the GOP legislative leaders pushing an expansion plan this year are not caving to Democrats or the media. They are seeking to help Mississippians of all backgrounds who have long struggled to keep their families healthy. They are responding to small town hospital leaders and business owners who are begging for a life-saving shot in the arm. They are trying to create solutions for our state's dismal labor participation rate. They are modeling the success of 40 others states — including many GOP-controlled — where Medicaid expansion has unequivocally saved lives.
And, without question, many of the lawmakers know Medicaid expansion is a wildly popular public policy.
The vast majority of Mississippians want it. Business leaders want it, mayors want it, and hospital leaders want it. Republican voters want it, and Democratic voters want it. Big-time Republican donors want it. Health care organizations like the Mississippi State Medical Association, Mississippi Hospital Association, American Cancer Society, and the American Heart Association want it. A majority of legislative Republicans want it, and all legislative Democrats want it. The Republican lieutenant governor wants it, and the Republican speaker wants it.
But Tate Reeves doesn't. And his last-stand defiance could define his legacy.
The governor has more policy staffers inside the Capitol this year than in his first term, and whether they can convince enough GOP lawmakers to stand with the governor could become the biggest question of the 2024 legislative session.
If legislative leaders do advance and pass an expansion proposal as expected, Reeves could veto the bill. To override his veto would require a two-thirds vote of both the House and the Senate chambers. The mad scramble to whip and wrangle votes during those few days would be unmatched by any legislative moment of Reeves' governorship.
Many Capitol observers will be listening intently to the governor's State of the State speech Monday evening. Hosemann and White will be sitting closely behind the governor's podium, and how they respond to any renewed pleas or perhaps even attacks on their work will be very telling about the days and weeks to come.
To be sure, Reeves doesn't seem to have much support right now where it matters most. Tonight, at least in his opposition to Medicaid expansion, he'll be standing mostly alone.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Podcast: The controversial day that Robert Kennedy came to the University of Mississippi
Retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Edward Ellington talks with Mississippi Today's Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender about former U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy's speech at the University of Mississippi less than four years after the riots that occurred after the integration of the school. Ellington, who at the time headed the Ole Miss Speaker's Bureau as a law school student, recalls the controversy leading up to the speech.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Mississippi Today
On this day in 1961
MAY 20, 1961
A white mob of more than 300, including Klansmen, attacked Freedom Riders at the Greyhound Bus Station in Montgomery, Alabama. Future Congressman John Lewis was among them.
“An angry mob came out of nowhere, hundreds of people, with bricks and balls, chains,” Lewis recalled.
After beating on the riders, the mob turned on reporters and then Justice Department official John Seigenthaler, who was beaten unconscious and left in the street after helping two riders.
“Then they turned on my colleagues and started beating us and beat us so severely, we were left bloodied and unconscious in the streets of Montgomery,” Lewis recalled.
As the mob headed his way, Freedom Rider James Zwerg said he asked for God to be with him, and “I felt absolutely surrounded by love. I knew that whether I lived or died, I was going to be OK.”
The mob beat him so badly that his suit was soaked in blood.
“There was nothing particularly heroic in what I did,” he said. “If you want to talk about heroism, consider the Black man who probably saved my life. This man in coveralls, just off of work, happened to walk by as my beating was going on and said ‘Stop beating that kid. If you want to beat someone, beat me.' And they did. He was still unconscious when I left the hospital.”
To quell the violence, Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent in 450 federal marshals.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
2024 Mississippi legislative session not good for private school voucher supporters
Despite a recent Mississippi Supreme Court ruling allowing $10 million in public money to be spent on private schools, 2024 has not been a good year for those supporting school vouchers.
School-choice supporters were hopeful during the 2024 legislative session, with new House Speaker Jason White at times indicating support for vouchers.
But the Legislature, which recently completed its session, did not pass any new voucher bills. In fact, it placed tighter restrictions on some of the limited laws the state has in place allowing public money to be spent on private schools.
Notably, the Legislature passed a bill that provides significantly more oversight of a program that provides a limited number of scholarships or vouchers for special-needs children to attend private schools.
Going forward, thanks to the new law, to receive the vouchers a parent must certify that their child will be attending a private school that offers the special needs educational services that will help the child. And the school must report information on the academic progress of the child receiving the funds.
Also, efforts to expand another state program that provides tax credits for the benefit of private schools was defeated. Legislation that would have expanded the tax credits offered by the Children's Promise Act from $8 million a year to $24 million to benefit private schools was defeated. Private schools are supposed to educate low income students and students with special needs to receive the benefit of the tax credits. The legislation expanding the Children's Promise Act was defeated after it was reported that no state agency knew how many students who fit into the categories of poverty and other specific needs were being educated in the schools receiving funds through the tax credits.
Interestingly, the Legislature did not expand the Children's Promise Act but also did not place more oversight on the private schools receiving the tax credit funds.
The bright spot for those supporting vouchers was the early May state Supreme Court ruling. But, in reality, the Supreme Court ruling was not as good for supporters of vouchers as it might appear on the surface.
The Supreme Court did not say in the ruling whether school vouchers are constitutional. Instead, the state's highest court ruled that the group that brought the lawsuit – Parents for Public Schools – did not have standing to pursue the legal action.
The Supreme Court justices did not give any indication that they were ready to say they were going to ignore the Mississippi Constitution's plain language that prohibits public funds from being provided “to any school that at the time of receiving such appropriation is not conducted as a free school.”
In addition to finding Parents for Public Schools did not have standing to bring the lawsuit, the court said another key reason for its ruling was the fact that the funds the private schools were receiving were federal, not state funds. The public funds at the center of the lawsuit were federal COVID-19 relief dollars.
Right or wrong, The court appeared to make a distinction between federal money and state general funds. And in reality, the circumstances are unique in that seldom does the state receive federal money with so few strings attached that it can be awarded to private schools.
The majority opinion written by Northern District Supreme Justice Robert Chamberlin and joined by six justices states, “These specific federal funds were never earmarked by either the federal government or the state for educational purposes, have not been commingled with state education funds, are not for educational purposes and therefore cannot be said to have harmed PPS (Parents for Public Schools) by taking finite government educational funding away from public schools.”
And Southern District Supreme Court Justice Dawn Beam, who joined the majority opinion, wrote separately “ to reiterate that we are not ruling on state funds but American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds … The ARPA funds were given to the state to be used in four possible ways, three of which were directly related to the COVID -19 health emergency and one of which was to make necessary investments in water, sewer or broadband infrastructure.”
Granted, many public school advocates lamented the decision, pointing out that federal funds are indeed public or taxpayer money and those federal funds could have been used to help struggling public schools.
Two justices – James Kitchens and Leslie King, both of the Central District, agreed with that argument.
But, importantly, a decidedly conservative-leaning Mississippi Supreme Court stopped far short – at least for the time being – of circumventing state constitutional language that plainly states that public funds are not to go to private schools.
And a decidedly conservative Mississippi Legislature chose not to expand voucher programs during the 2024 session.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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