Texas, other states hard hit by Obamacare unfunded mandates

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann:

The "health-care reform" bills in Congress would hit 39 states hard with new expenses, by raising Medicaid eligibility above the cur rent income cutoffs.

The only states that won't have to raise eligibility because of the Senate bill are Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont and Wisconsin (plus the District of Columbia). And the House bill would force even Massachusetts and Vermont to pay more.

Hardest hit would be Texas ($2,750 million a year in extra state spending under the Senate bill), Pennsylvania ($1,450 million), California ($1,428 million) and Florida ($909 million). Who knows if Florida could avoid imposing an income tax if it has to meet so high an unfunded mandate?

The required increases in state spending are likely to be quite high in some states whose senators are swing votes on ObamaCare:

* In Arkansas, home to swing Sens. Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, the annual increased state spending would come to $402 million (not counting the federal share) -- about a 10 percent increase in the state budget, which is now $4 billion a year.

* In Louisiana, whose Sen. Marie Landrieu sold her vote on a key procedural motion in return for more Medicaid funding, the increase would come to $432 million (a 5 percent hike in state spending) -- more than wiping out the extra funds she got in return for her vote.

* In Sen. Evan Bayh's Indiana, spending would go up by $586 million a year, a rise of 4 percent.

* In Sen. Ben Nelson's Nebraska, the added state spending would be $81 million a year, a 2 percent increase.

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This is another example of Democrats imposing liberalism from on high in states where it would never pass and where voters do not want it. zit is a form of taxation without representation. The increased spending will require higher taxes which the states will be required to impose even if theri voters object. It also shows how misleading Obama's pledge of no additional taxes was.