Once again, Chairman Stewart is using his fellow colleagues to promote his need for media coverage. I imagine they are getting pretty fed up with his antics. On April 13, Corey travels to Stafford to unveil his plan of anarchy, the plan where he is going to pass a resolution directing PWC staff NOT to implement the new Medicaid guidelines that will include accessibility to health care for a family of four making less than 29,000 dollars a year. You know, those pesky working poor that would otherwise not be eligible for coverage. Then on April 15, TEA party rally day in PWC, Corey hands out his flyers, hocking for support of his “resolution to opt out of Medicaid” on the May 4th BOCS meeting.
I am hopeful his fellow Board members are finally going to tell Corey that his mis-use of his office has simply gone far enough. Moonhowlings.net has a copy of the actual resolution Corey will be proposing, and let me tell you, the supposed “lion” is simply a declawed domestic cat. Corey is lying to his base if they believe he has actually gone through with his threat to disobey the “rule of law”. All the resolution does is misdirect money to determine the impacts of the new recipients of Medicaid. We will be posting the resolution in pieces with our own refutations from plenty of credible sources.
Apparently, the folks at the News & Messenger agree, based on their editorial today:
(posted in its entirety)
EDITORIAL: Keep your eye on the county, Stewart
Our ViewPublished: April 21, 2010When will Corey Stewart stop giving the impression that he is running for the next office and focus on the business of the county?Recently Stewart, the head of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, announced that he will put forward a resolution to prevent county employees from implementing new Medicaid regulations when they take effect in 2014.While this may score him political points with the Republicans whose support he might need next time he tries to step to higher office, it doesn’t do much for county residents—the people Stewart is actually supposed to be serving.Stewart said the new regulations—which are part of the national health care reform legislation—will be costly and won’t survive any real legal challenge.Stewart also said, “I don’t think the county should be responsible for administering a federal program.”It is one thing for Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to challenge health care reform—he is, after all, the state’s lawyer—but Stewart’s realm of power is Prince William County and his duty is governing. That’s where his attention should stay.
Perhaps the new Medicaid regulations aren’t legal, but that is not something for the Prince William Board of County Supervisors to decide.
And they could be costly. Of course, the legal battles that could result from the county’s refusal to follow federal law would probably also drain the taxpayer’s wallet.
As for whether the county should be responsible for administering a federal program, it is interesting Stewart did not hold to this line of thought when he decided the county should take charge of enforcing federal law on illegal immigration. Sounds less like a principled stance and more like political opportunism to us.
We are all for Stewart being a strong county leader. We just wish that his strength could be focused more narrowly on local matters and less on attention-grabbing issues.
It does the county no good to constantly be in the headlines for the radical actions of some of its supervisors. The only people that benefit are people like Stewart, who garner press while the county’s reputation suffers.
The county can address the local impact of things like illegal immigration and the new Medicaid regulations, but it can do so in ways that do not damage our home or end up in court. The problem with Stewart has never been that he doesn’t fight for the county, it’s been that he serves the county second and his ego first.
Posted by Elena
You failed to note Corey’s Flip-flopping, Big-Footing and Grand-Standing during yesterday’s budget session. Just another day in his ego-centric world.
We can only cover one sin at a time, Mom. We have barely scratched the surface of this one.
The next post will be the Opt Out Resolution of 2010.
Oh come on, you can do better than that. I’m waiting for the “Residential Developer/Lost Proffer Bailout Tax” that he would impose the day after election day.
Snicker. One sin at a time. That’s all a person gets at howlings.
Too funny. Would that be like a sur-tax on top of residential or car tax?
I want the first person denied Medicaid application to sue as soon as s/he gets sick enough to visit a hospital.
Shouldn’t take long. Just hope it’s not a life threatening illness.
It would be levied on a sliding scale depending on one’s years of residence in PWC. For every year one has had to put up with Corey and the results of poor planning and decision making by County Government, one is forced to pay a higher rate (established on a logrithmic scale) on the total value of 1.) one’s lost time stuck in traffic exiting soccer games at park locations with two lane roads and no signalization; 2.) total number of gallons of fuel (charged at the national average price) used to drive to the store and get a copy of Corey’s lastest comments in print (because you can’t actually believe he said); 3.) Mass mailings sent out by the County Chair; and 4.) the value of Broadband capacity consumed responding either directly or through blogs to any/all of the BOCS antics.
Stewart also said, “I don’t think the county should be responsible for administering a federal program.”
But he wanted to take on immigration, right?
Pinko, you might be on to something.
Is this county just filled to the brim with chameleons?
The article has me re-thinking my position on that one isolated issue. It’s a very interesting article – I enjoyed it.
Thanks MH for posting it.
Pinko, you can’t sue govt for not providing services or taking them away. Rather, you can sue but it’ll get tossed.
@Moon-howler
I thought we already talked about the term “prevert”……….
@marinm
What if the county is breaking federal law?
Then you would be suing them for breaking the law.
Actually you can sue the government if you are legally entitled to something and aren’t getting it. The ACLU loves cases like that.
@cargo…which pervert?
To everyone, this is Elena’s post. I just did the technical part. I couldn’t get my name off.
Not that I think that the resolution is a good idea from a legal or political standpoint, but to be fair Stewart said on hundreds of occasions that “the county should not be responsible for enforcing federal immigration laws” as well. Only difference is, on that occassion he was advocating taking action and on this one he is advocating inaction.
So I guess you are opposed to the County waiting until the State determines that Obamcare is legal before we start incurring costs. That makes sense – in a Disney World sort of way – as several here have expressed opposition to the 18 states and Virginia that are challenging that legality. Are there really that many dumb Attorney Generals in the United States that they do not have a case to be made? This could go on for years to the Supreme Court.
Correct Tom. It does seem that way.
I am opposed to the county jumping into the fire over something that we need to do a wait and see on. And I promise not to use the term teabagger if you promise to stop saying obamacare. (see Jon Stewart interview)
One might ask one’s self how much it could possibly cost to hire people to process applications, check elibibility, and approve or disapprove before moving to the next person. PWC has less than half the number of poor than the state. And if I am not mistaken, we are talking about a family of 4 making less than 29k a year.
I will gladly pay my fair share to hire a few extra bodies to process the paperwork. The state and feds will be paying the rest.
I’m not opposed to the premise of the resolution, I just wanted to point out that any statements regarding the illegal immigration subject needed to be fair as his position on that vis a vis county responsibility was the same. I fear that in 2014 (supposedly nobody without insurance will get sick before then according to the plan) we will look back and wonder how the hell we got into such a fiscal mess.
MH,
Or, we could fire two professional firefighters to pay for the medicare clerks. Why hire when we can just use existing resources or just play a zero sum game?
Moon,
I think you’re last statement is what concerns me the most about this whole thing. The state and the feds wont be paying the rest. The state and the federal government inherently have no money. It’s your money and my money. Once we kick in our “fair share” at the local level, we will then have kick in our “fair share” on the state ;evel and then the federal level. The government doesnt fund anything on any level. It all gets passed on to the taxpayer, much like businesses where all increased costs get passed onto the consumer. Hence the statement Ive heard which is very true, “no business in this country has ever paid a dime in tax”. It’s all included in the pricing structure and accounted for. Everyone who depends on the government to pay for things needs to realize that Jefferson was correct 200 years ago when he said ” the government inherently has no money. For it to give one man a dollar, it must take it from another”
Interesting that some of the words in this editorial are nearly verbatim from just a few threads ago right here on Moonhowlings.
Emma,
What are you implying? We copied them or they copied us?
They copied you. They hit on all the major talking points from a previous Corey thread.
Should we be flattered? Just kidding 😉
Off topic…but breaking news.
The school board has withdrawn their appeal to the BoS for the new school site at SMS. I’m glad the School Board finally did the right thing. I hope the SB will listen to our concerns regarding future school sites and public notice.
I’m very pleased, and thankful to the many that helped in stopping this fiasco of a plan.
Good to hear about the school board. 🙂
@cargosquid
Have we talked about the term “prevert”? What is it? Just curious.
Cargo hasn’t gotten back to us on pervs, Punchak. I don’t recall discussing them with him but I could gave.
Tom, you know what I meant. Of course it someone’s money. Maybe even yours. That is another argument for another day.
I don’t want to spend more money to help corey get elected someplace. Let him not use the county for his own personal fund raiser.