Carolina Journal‘s Sara Burrows reported earlier this month on Gov. Beverly Perdue?s lack of spirited defense of North Carolina taxpayers during the ObamaCare debate:
… Congress is finalizing a bill that would do just that by expanding Medicaid ? the government health program for the poor. The federal government and the states share the costs of Medicaid, so any new obligation eventually would be borne, at least in part, by state taxpayers. And so far, Perdue has neither opposed the legislation nor stated any strong objections to the financial toll the bills being negotiated in Washington would take on North Carolina residents.
If Perdue needed a model for how to speak out against this unfunded mandate, she didn?t have to look any further than next-door neighbor Tennessee, where Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen stated the matter plainly during a state budget hearing:
?I wish every member of Congress would sit in this room and listen to the real world of what is going on in Medicaid today,? Bredesen said, shaking his head. ?How can you listen to this stuff and the stuff you are eliminating just to get through this, and then talk about adding a whole bunch of new expenses on to the state??
