Part III - A Tea Party Primer: Lessons in Hypocrisy

http://www.plunderbund.com/2011/04/20/a-tea-party-primer-lessons-in-hypocrisy-part-3/

A Tea Party Primer: Lessons in Hypocrisy Part 3

By Greg on April 20, 2011

Tea Party Discovery #3: Healthcare

The stated belief of the Tea Party is “that government should not gain more control over healthcare.”

Americans for Prosperity, known Billionaire David Koch funded astroturfer, hosted a Town Hall meeting in Marietta, Ohio, to discuss Senate Bill 5. “At one point during the meeting, Sen. Jimmy Stewart, R-Athens, talked about aspects of Senate Bill 5 and the state budget that will help local school districts cope with the cuts at the state level. He pointed out that part of SB 5 requires that all government employees pay a minimum of 15 percent of their health care premiums. Additionally, he said health care pooling is one part of the state budget, and it would require that all 600 school districts in the state have the same health care policy, resulting in $150 million savings per year across all 600 districts.”

If the state passes a law that requires all public workers to contribute a uniform percentage and also requires that they all participate in a health care pool, regardless of the desires of the local government and it’s citizens, that sounds like a government gaining “more control over healthcare.” I guess Americans for Prosperity didn’t get the memo. Tea Partiers likewise failed yet again to take up pitchfork and lantern and beat a trail to The Statehouse.

Amazing, I know.

Consider these excepts from Governor Kasich’s Budget Books:

• “The Executive Budget ‘elevates’ to the state the financial responsibility for community behavioral health.”
• “The combined impact . . . gives DODD (Department of Developmental Disabilities) more authority and control to design programs”

Those both sound to me like a government gaining “more control over healthcare.” So where are the Tea Party activists?