i ve been in the senate, and i m sure i could pull up at least a couple of examples where an individual was appointed to the bench and it was a son-in-law of one of the members of the general assembly. but let me tell you the reason why this comes as so painful to us. because the gop now is going to do the power grab. they re going to take back all the chairmanship and then the senate will go from having what looks like virginia with african-american women and men and all of us being able to chair committees to now it will go back to all white males who are going to be the chair of our committees. but the reason i am particularly furious about this is because senator puckett was a targeted senator. and it took a lot of money for us to get him re-elected. and most of us took money out of our campaign war chest to put into the senate democratic caucus so sure. so senator lucas, let me ask you, why do you think he resigned? he resigned because he thought he was going to get this
day to get exported out of virginia? oh, no. this is more about power grabbing than it is about anything else. yes, it s obamacare. they re saying we don t want obamaca obamacare, which is the reason they don t want medicaid expansion. but i cannot believe and especially in the case with senator puckett, he has 20,000 people in his district without health care. let me go to ezra just briefly. how about the dollars and cents argument? it s huge. the medicaid expansion is an incredible deal for states. currently it s being funded by the federal government 100%. after the first three years it goes down to 90%. currently every state gets med sxaid they intend to get less than a 60% match. you re dealing with something here where any state that does not take it is just shoveling money to the federal government and getting nothing back. and that s why you ve seen in republican states like ohio, like in florida you ve seen republican governors in arizona working really hard to get to fi
a fair criticism in terms of the cost for the state and senator puckett s largely poor district? did that one decision do medicaid expansion for his state while his family got taken care of. peace of mind is important when you re running a successful business.
state senator phillip pucket was resigning his seat, a deal with republicans that was supposed to land him a six-figure job on a state tobacco position jump for his daughter. they released this statement, said i m dismayed that my republican friends offered senator puckett a shady back room deal that benefits himself financially and ensures the appointment of his daughter to the bench. late today, senator puckett announced there was a change in plans. he said he would not, after all, be seeking that six-figure job. and he said he will stay with his private sector job instead. everybody thinks his daughter will get the seat on the judgeship. the reason this political development in virginia became huge news is not just the back room dealing that reportedly
democrats largely support medicaid expansion or the virginia alternative to medicaid expansion through the affordable care act. republicans primarily and by and large are against the medicaid expansion. the hold up has been both partisans on both sides insisting, one saying medicaid expansion should not be in the budget and the other side democrats say it should be in the budget. with the departure of senator puckett the end result is there is movement forward with the budget out of the rubble of the fallout has been that there was movement today on the budget and it appears the budget deal po potentially would be one without medicaid expansion in it. the republicans are able, now they are in control, to call the senate in to session and move at any speed they want to in terms of getting that budget done. am i right about that? they are back in the driver s seat at this point? republicans have gotten together. the procedural rules in virginia allow nine senators to call the