Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe vetoed portions of the state budget Friday and vowed to defy the legislature by expanding Medicaid without its approval, setting up a legal showdown with Republicans even as he averted a government shutdown.
McAuliffe’s actions — cheered as bold leadership from the left, denounced as brazen overreach on the right — represent a bid to reassert his power as chief executive following the GOP’s recent takeover of the state Senate. They plunged a Capitol that puts a premium on gentility more deeply than ever into harsh, Washington-style enmity.
McAuliffe unveiled his plans while accusing Republicans of “demagoguery, lies, fear and cowardice.” The Democrat blasted them for the first seven minutes of his 20-minute news conference before getting to his main point: He would prevent a government shutdown by signing the budget, but he would also exercise his line-item veto seven times, in part to strike budget language that Republicans intended to block Medicaid expansion.
Legislators will act on McAuliffe’s vetoes Monday when they reconvene in Richmond, and the outcome is uncertain. The GOP’s majority is large enough in the House of Delegates to override a veto, but not in the Senate.
Yet House Republicans are considering parliamentary moves that could kill the vetoes before they ever get to the other chamber.
Things could be heating up in Richmond. The GOP will come roaring back with great snarling and gnashing of teeth at McAuliffe. Meanwhile, where is that scumbag Phillip Puckett? What has become of charges that he was offered his tobacco job by the GOP? Did his daughter get her coveted judgeship? I don’t blame the GOP. They did what anyone would have done. I blame Puckett for being a disloyal scumbag. Then there is Cantor.
It’s really difficult to say who is getting the worst end of the deal, politically, with so many surprises and unexpected events. The real losers, however, are the 400,000 Virginians who will not have health care. Men should be up in arms. Unemployed men simply aren’t given Medicaid benefits, as a rule, especially if they do not have children. What do they do? Die, I suppose.
Good for the governor. It’s high time everybody in our state gets good health care.
Totally agree, Starry.
Under what authority can McAuliffe a) spend a dime without legislative authority B) expand state medicaid without legislative authority?
Former Senator Phillip Puckett has hired defense attorney Thomas J. Bondurant Jr.
Maybe he is trying to escape the tarring and feathering he so richly deserves.
I guess that cushy, high paying job with the Virginia tobacco commission doesn’t looks so good. Kilgore, the dude offering him the job is a well known Republican.
I think he has hired an attorney also.
Right now I guess all we have to worry about is the fact that McAuliffe legally vetoed legislation that he felt was unacceptable.
What are you all going to do about charges of bribery (different issue)? That’s a pretty serious charge if it should come to pass.
The Puckett situation will play out however it happens.
I’m interested to see how an investigation will discover or prove wrongdoing.
I want Puckett tarred and feathered. I don’t care what the feds to do him. Let’s face it, this one reeks of impropriety.
@Cargosquid
Cargo, there is one little ole loophole in the Virginia Code where the Governor could, at the request of a local government, establish a “Pilot Program for Human Services” which is in Title 15.2 Chapter 28.1 That chapter also addresses how it is to be funded by both State and Locality.
There could be up to five pilot sites, and if he takes this route, is actually in line with his one proposal to do a two-year pilot project on Medicaid expansion.
Authority to do it is already there…as for the money, that most likely would be taken from within an approved State Agency budget to do it.
In the Roanoke Times of 10 June 2014 on the Puckett case (also in other media outlets):
Attorney-General Mark Herring’s spokesman Michael Kelly: “..we do not see an investigative role for our own office.”
No tarring and feathering from that direction, I would say.
I suppose Herring is taking the high road. Why pile on?
What about the money we spend on the uninsured already? If memory serves me correctly its in the billions in the state of Va. NOTHING is free, not even NOT providing Medicaid!
@Cargosquid
very funny – you do not smell any issue around Puckett? You do not see any quid pro quo?
Great decision by McAuliffe. McDonnell knew he could not reject the funds, and so he sent up the MIRC – which shirked its duties to investigate and determine if Virginia should expand Medicaid. We need to get away from this do nothing attitude on all levels of government – blocking all legislation and having no decisions is no way to run our government.
“Right now I guess all we have to worry about is the fact that McAuliffe legally vetoed legislation that he felt was unacceptable.”
Did he veto it legally? He used the line-item to veto a condition on the spending, but not the spending itself. He cannot do this legally, and there is court precedence that says he can’t. See this VA Supreme Court case: https://www.courtlistener.com/va/7eMR/brault-v-holleman/
I am sure the R’s will take it to court. I will wait to see what they say.
@Pat.Herve
I see politics as usual. As I said, an investigation could prove wrongdoing. THAT I’m interested in.