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Deal that reportedly inshurz the appointment of his daughter to the bench. senator puckett announced he would not after all be seeking the six figure job on the state s tobacco commission and says 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 is such huge deal is not just because of the alleged back room dealing but also because of the material consequences of that decision. the big fight in virginia right now is about the fate of 400,000 people in virginia and whether they are going to get access to health insurance under obamacare because of expanded medicaid. democratic governor terry mcauliffe want to expand medicaid to cover the hundreds of thousands of people in the state. republicans most of whom don t want to do that. ....
The reason this political development is such huge deal is not just because of the alleged back room dealing but also because of the material consequences of that decision. the big fight in virginia right now is about the fate of 400,000 people in virginia and whether they are going to get access to health insurance under obamacare because of expanded medicaid. democratic governor terry mcauliffe want to expand medicaid to cover the hundreds of thousands of people in the state. republicans most of whom don t want to do that. that is the big fight in virginia. that is why there isn t a budget. by handing republicans control of the state senate now critics of senator puckett argue that basically he took what he needed for himself and his daughter but his decision arguably cost the democrats any chance of securing health insurance for 400,000 people in the state. ....
Over adopting a new spending plan. the holdup has been democrats largely support medicaid expansion or the virginia alternative to medicaid expansion through the affordable care act whereas republicans primarily and by and large are against the medicaid expansion. so the holdup has been both sides insisting one saying medicaid expansion should not be in the budget and the other side saying it should be in the budget. with the departure of senator puckett the end result appears to be there is movement forward on the budget and appears that the budget deal potentially going forward would be one without medicaid expansion. the republicans are able to call the senate back into session and move at whatever speed they want to to get the budget done. am i right about that? they are basically in the driver s seat at this point? republicans have gotten together. ....
Bailing out of the state senate and effectively handing control of that body over to the republicans? it certainly appears to dim the prospects at least in the short term through the budget legislatively. right now virginia is just a few weeks away from the expiration of the current budget which runs through june 30. the pressure has been mounting for legislateers to get together over adopting a new spending plan. the holdup has been democrats largely support medicaid expansion or the virginia alternative to medicaid expansion through the affordable care act whereas republicans primarily and by and large are against the medicaid expansion. so the holdup has been both sides insisting one saying medicaid expansion should not be in the budget and the other side saying it should be in the budget. with the departure of senator puckett the end result appears to be there is movement forward ....
The procedural rules in virginia allow nine senators to call the chamber back into session. today 20 republicans and one democrat joined together to bring themselves back into session on thursday and the house of delegates which is about two-thirds republican out of 100 members. they are also coming back on thursday to try to hammer out a budget compromise. let me ask you about the deal that was apparently hatched although it may have been partially abandoned now to get senator puckett to do this. it seemed like the initial terms of the deal were that he would get a tobacco commission job that could be appointed by the new republican majority in the senate and that he would also have the way cleared for his daughter to have a judicial seat in virginia. i think that is part of why this received national attention because it felt like that was the price he was selling out everything that goes with his ....