I know it's all Rick Scott's fault. Tallahassee media tell us that all the time.
The broken, the underserved, the polluted springs, the dead kids, the rotten prisons. You name it. If it's bad in Florida -- blame the blaggard Rick Scott.
But wait! That's not all this son-of-a-seabiscuit governor has done to us.
Now we find out something that happened in Washington is Rick Scott's fault.
Yes, the Herald/Times has a spin on the Low Income Pool (LIP) program funding story -- the feds' decision to yank money for the program that helps hospitals treat poor and uninsured patients.
You see, Scott didn't prepare for that. It's his fault -- he had no Plan B. Not only that, he didn't use his clout to get the Legislature on board with accepting Medicaid money. Read "Scott's budget $1.3 billion in red after Medicaid chief pulls LIP funding."
And here I thought the LIP funding failure was the fault of the Obama administration. I thought it was the president who was using low-income poor people as a wedge against Florida and other states giving his Affordable Care Act program grief. Silly me.
Can you imagine, if this happened 10 years ago under Republican President George W. Bush? The liberal media would have ripped into Bush like wild dogs on a chicken wrapped in bacon.
I close my eyes and can picture the headline: "Bush admin cuts over $1 billion in health care funding for Florida's poor and needy."
It would be the cold, calculating Bush administration bullies robbing from the poor to give to the rich.
But, no. Under a Democratic president the media like and a Republican governor they gnaw on like a beef jerky strip, the big news here is "Scott's budget $1.3 billion in red."
Without LIP, says nonprofit Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida,the state's six statutory teaching hospitalswould losenearly $600 million a year in funds after June 30.
The administration threatened to shut LIP down early last year, too, but reneged in April. President Obama doesn't want to create chaos in a health system he's trying to rebuild. Will he have another change of heart this year?
Scott has time to develop a Plan B and probably already has -- in his head anyway.
The left press can spin all it likes. But one thing seems sure, at least to me: The harder President Obama tries to twist Scott's and the Legislature's arms, the more determined the Republicans not to cry uncle.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
