"In December, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, got the deal he wanted from the Obama administration: Tennessee would accept more than $1 billion in federal funding to expand Medicaid, as allowed for in the Affordable Care Act, but Obama aides would allow Haslam to essentially write staunchly conservative ideas into the program's rules for the state. He dubbed the reformed Medicaid program "Insure Tennessee."
But the state's chapter of Americans for Prosperity, the national conservative group whose foundation is chaired by controversial billionaire David Koch, argued Haslam was just trying to trick conservatives into implementing Obamacare in their state by giving it a new name. AFP campaigned aggressively Haslam's plans for the next six weeks, even running radio ads blasting GOP state legislators who said they might vote for it.
On Wednesday, Haslam's bill died in a committee of the Tennessee state senate. The vote was one of the clearest illustrations of the increasing power of AFP and other conservative groups funded in part by the Koch brothers.
When the coalition of conservative groups allied with Charles and David Koch announced recently they would spend $889 million over the next two years, much of the discussion was about how that money could shape the upcoming presidential election. But AFP and other Koch-backed conservative organizations may be having their biggest impact on state politics, where targeted advertising and a strong organization can make a huge difference.
"We're the third-worst state in the country for accepting federal dollars," said Andrew Ogles, AFP's state director said in an interview here. "It's time for us to stop. Anytime we have a problem, instead of coming up with a Tennessee solution, we run to the federal government with our hands out. No more."
The aggressive action in Tennessee by AFP was not unusual. The group, started in 2004, now has chapters in 34 states. The state operations' general goals, like AFP and other Koch-allied groups nationally, are to oppose taxhikes, increases in government spending and what they view as excessive regulation.
But AFP is playing a unique role in effectively serving as a conservative watchdog against fellow Republicans at the state level. In many states in the West and South, like Tennessee, both houses of the state legislature are controlled by the GOP and the governor is also a Republican. The policy debates are between more moderate Republicans and the party's conservative wing.
I think the author of this MedHelp.org article has a clear bias that is not grass-roots conservatism, given his / her seizing of every opportunity to point out that AFP is partly funded by the KOOOOOCHS!
Still, even if the author's inent is to stir up concern, he/she presents the facts - which, of course, we here at LITD find encouraging.
The Tennessee legislature and its pointy-headed administrative / managerial class has its share of those afflicted with Reasonable Gentleman Syndrome:
The AFP effort made some Republican legislators wary and others angry.
"We can't have a politics of intimidation," said Glen Casada, one of the Republican leaders of the Tennessee House. Casada was an early opponent of the Medicaid expansion, but he publicly criticized AFP for launching ads attacking fellow conservatives.
Some of the Tennessee legislators, like Casada, had announced their opposition to Haslam's plan weeks ago. But many of them, on the eve of the vote this week, simply wouldn't say how they would vote, including House Speaker Beth Harwell, a Republican who is usually a Haslam ally. The undecided kept arguing they needed more information, which both Haslam allies and opponents said privately was really an indication that undecided Republicans were weighing the politics of the vote.
"The problem is not many in the public understand the program," said Craig Becker, president of the Tennessee Hospital Association. "They just hear from Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers, saying 'this is Obamacare' and they say,'we don't like that."
The committee's rejection of Haslam's bill saved many of the legislators from a choice they did not want to make: either rebuking the well-liked governor or conservative activists they fear.
Fear. I like that. I want every Pub squish in the land to fear us to the depths of their beings.
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