Dancing To The Beat Of A Different Drum

Scorn by Bill Lussenheide

Ah, Montana. Big skies, big values, and apparently... big government healthcare?

At a time when President Donald J. Trump and actual conservatives—you know, the kind who remember that “limited government” doesn’t mean “expand Medicaid with a bear hug”—and who are trying to cut the rate of growth in Medicaid, what does our rugged, Big Sky Republican Legislature do?

They gallop straight into the arms of expansion like a bobcat in heat, chasing federal dollars.

Yes, folks, it took the Nasty Nine—a band of disloyal Republican Senators whose R next to their name must stand for “RIDICULOUS”—plus the dynamic duo of Cuffe and Yakawich (Montana’s newest performance art duo: "NASTY NINE PLUS TWO") to ride in and trample over the supposed mandate Montanans delivered in the last election.

Remember that? The one where voters painted the state redder than a ripe Flathead cherry and handed Trump a landslide? Apparently, that wasn’t a mandate for conservative policy—it was just a suggestion, like “maybe think about wearing a coat Jason, it’s kinda cold out.”

Medicaid expansion passed not because Democrats outwitted anyone, but because these nine Republican senators were apparently too busy rehearsing for their future roles as NY Times editorial contributors.

Let’s be clear: Montanans didn’t vote for “bipartisan betrayal.” They voted for a conservative majority with a backbone, not a mushy spine made of federally reimbursed Jell-O.

So congratulations, Nasty Nine, Cuffe, and Yakawich. You’ve succeeded in doing what Democrats dream about and what actual Republicans gag over their coffee at: growing Medicaid in the middle of a national conservative push to shrink it.Next time, when voters ask for steak, don’t serve tofu with a red label!