The Arkansas Project - Westerman: Fund Highways, Cut Obamacare

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As you might have heard by now, the United States Highway Trust Fund is scheduled to run out of money in less than two weeks.

This is bad news -- because typically when politicians say they need more money for transportation, that means you can expect them to try to raise your taxes.

Here's the current lay of the land from Arkansas News:

The Highway Trust Fund expires May 31. Nearly 1 million jobs will be affected in the highway materials industry and "time is running out for Congress to act," the Highway Materials Group states."If they keep kicking the can down the road it's going to fall in a pot hole," said Danny Straessle, spokesman for the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department. At least 70 AHTD projects have been cancelled because of the May 31 expiration, and 131 are at risk of being cancelled, Straessle said Friday. The Federal Highway Administration could be closing shop on June 1, he added.

Anyone who has driven on Arkansas roads after last winter knows some of them need repair. However, raising the gas tax even higher for road repairs is an outmoded, regressive tax that hits the poorest hardest.

That's why I like Congressman Bruce Westerman's idea that he announced today on the House floor: he wants to help fund the Highway Trust Fund by cutting uber-generous Obamacare Medicaid expansion state reimbursement rates down to traditional Medicaid reimbursement levels.

Westerman said:

Mr. Speaker, I rise today because I realize like my friends across the aisle that we find ourselves in a crisis situation of our own making. The Federal Highway Trust Fund is set to run out of money and with our current infrastructure needs, those [allocated] monies [for the next fiscal year] are simply not enough. But instead of addressing the issue during the last several Congresses, short-term fixes have been passed and Congress has kicked the can down the road. We need more than rhetoric on the importance of infrastructure, we need solutions. On Thursday, I will introduce the Prioritizing American Roads and Jobs Act. This bill will roll back 100 percent Medicaid expansion reimbursement rates to be equal to traditional Medicaid reimbursement rates with the savings transferring to the Highway Trust Fund. This bill will add $15 billion a year to the trust fund and put it back on the path to financial stability for the long term while freeing up an additional $150 billion for deficit reduction over the next 10 years.

This plan would allow for necessary infrastructure projects to be completed: it might also discourage other states from expanding Medicaid. One of the central talking points for expanding Medicaid to new frontiers is that the federal government picks up 100 percent of the costs early on.

This bill, if passed into law, would take that talking point away, because Obamacare Medicaid expansion reimbursement rates from the feds would be lowered to traditional Medicaid reimbursement rate levels.

For example, the state of Arkansas would be responsible for 30 percent of the total costs of the "private option" Medicaid Expansion program -- as compared to the status quo, in which federal taxpayers (where free money comes from!) pay 100 percent of the costs.

If the feds no longer picked up the entire tab for Medicaid expansion, this would provide a significant incentive for Arkansas legislators to figure out if they still think the "private option" Medicaid expansion is a fiscally sustainable plan for Arkansans. It would also help get Arkansas potholes repaired.

After all, roads are within the proper scope of government's responsibilities. Giving Medicaid to able-bodied, childless adults through Medicaid expansion traditionally hasn't been government's responsibility. Until, I suppose, very recently.

Continue reading >> Westerman: Fund Highways, Cut Obamacare | The Arkansas Project

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