1. The last time I read about TennCare, the failed Medicaid expansion in Tennessee, my memory was that Tennesee has no state income tax.

No wonder $1 billion over 5 years seems unaffordable! No wonder TennCare seemed extravagant!

Truthfully, if the southern boundary of America was the Mason Dixon line, we would have have had universal health years decades ago. Michael Lind has written eloquently on the fatal latitude we give to Southern states.

2. I feel certain about #1 above. Now let me try a new thought for item #2.

The president of Singapore a few years ago proposed a new tax on small employers (I forget the reason for the tax, but bear me out.)

An opposition party member complained that this tax might force some low-wage employers to go out of business.

President Kwan replied, if i may paraphrase, that he wanted the stingiest employers to go out of business, so that Singapore would create better jobs.

Honestly I do not know if this is right, or if it would cause starvation in America. But it is worth thinking about.

2. There

Which suggests that Sen Alexander knows the reality of what he’s saying but with the nutjobs in the Teaparty drumming Bennet and others out of Congress, what else can he say?

If you get sick with no health Insurance and visit the emergency room the Hospital must provide care .Who pays the medical cost?. We all do. Collecting a fee from every one who file a tax return and have no health Insurance makes perfect sense. Comparing Health Insurance to Broccli i think is awfully silly . Health Insurance Is about Life and Death .If we dont treat the sick then we will have people dead in the streets of this Great Country.America is better than that.The courts i think will up held the law for the Good of the Country.They will leave Politics to the politician.

Maybe Sen. Alexander can tell us the rates and terms for private student loans?

“Because of the health care law, we are going to add 25.9 million more Americans to Medicaid”

Do you mean the people now with no coverage? What would you have those people do for healthcare Senator?

“it has taken $8.7 billion in those so-called profits and spent it to pay for the health care bill.”

I never agree with government budgeting that robs from one program to pay for another, but both Repugs and Demos do it all the time to give the allusion that they don’t have to raise taxes or fees. Kick it on down the road.

“Many of those companies offer some health insurance to their employees.”

Care to tell us how many and what “some” means? Maybe we can get an idea of wages in the “chain” restaurant business to understand why those employees can’t afford health care.

“The CEO of Ruby Tuesday, headquartered in Tennessee, told me the cost of the health care law to his company would equal the profit of the company that year.”

Maybe we could get an idea of how much the meal cost would need to rise for patrons with full (or most) company paid good health care that would extend that benefit to restaurant employees? Why is it that restaurants depend on tips to cover their paltry wages?

“but it reduces employment in the United States”

Yea, employment that does not offer health insurance that maybe Medicaid has to pick up.

Maybe the Senator can come up with a plan to cut provider costs so that more people can afford health insurance.

Can we just implement a plan where states that hate the federal government so much can opt out of federal programs? The federal government bathes Tennessee in cash, and yet they do nothing but complain about it. Why is that?

Hearsay from obviously biased parties like the CEO of Ruby Tuesday isn’t convincing evidence either. Liberals would like nothing more than for employers to get out of the insurance business all together and go to single payer or go to exchanges with a public option or really anything else. It’s business owners who know that providing health insurance gives them power over their employees that want to keep that status quo.

I would just get rid of Medicaid.

By the way, I agree, if you are going to dump this kind of fiscal responsibility on the states, why not show by example how you are going to balance those MANDATED balance budgets that have to be passed with these medicaid expenses. Oh, details, they are so annoying.

By the way, where oh where is that Senate budget proposal from back in 2009 onwards? I didn’t know Harry R’s lower gastointestinal cavity could hold all that paper!