Kelley: Why I voted against taking money from feds for Obamacare

In his weekly column, Rep. Mike Kelley, R-Lamar, explains his vote against accepting money from the federal government to implement Obamacare.

This week the Missouri House of Representatives cleared a large amount of work off its plate when it sent its version of the state budget to the Senate.  Most of the debate centered around whether or not Missouri would take money from the Federal Government to implement its version of Obamacare.  On mostly party line votes, every proposal to implement this program was voted down.

 I voted against the proposals for a couple reasons.  For one, no matter if the money comes from the federal or state government, it still comes from the pockets of the taxpayer.  Also, as I mentioned last week when I met with United States Senator Claire McCaskill, forty cents of every dollar the federal government spends is borrowed, most likely from China.  This is not a sustainable business model.  Finally, once a program is begun, it is very difficult to end. 

 Because of term limits, there are very few legislators still around that were here when the legislature removed quite a few people from the welfare rolls.  Representative Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) was in office at that time.  During the debate, he stood up and asked how many legislators would be willing to end benefits in three years when the state will be asked to pick up more of the tab.  He said he had made the tough decisions several years ago and did not want to go through that process again.

 I realize we cannot stand by and do nothing.  The system is broken and needs some reform.  We have a piece of legislation authored by Representative Jay Barnes (R-Jefferson City) that would bring significant improvements to the program.  It would not be as expensive and would maintain a level of control for the state.  Even though this issue was not incorporated into the state budget, I don’t think we are finished dealing with it this session.

In the Senate a bill was heard in committee that would place restrictions on where Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards could be used.  It also would specify they could only be used to purchase healthy food items.  EBT cards have taken the place of food stamps.  Recently it was discovered that Missouri EBT cards have been used in every state, including Alaska and Hawaii. 

 While most members embraced the concept of taxpayer dollars not being used to purchase unhealthy items, there was concern over who would decide what would qualify and what would be prohibited.  There were also questions of how grocers would program their systems to adapt to the new requirements.

 The portion of the bill limiting where EBT cards could be used met with more favor.  Restricting their use to Missouri and surrounding states appeared to gain consensus with the committee members.  Most agreed there was little reason that benefits paid for by Missouri taxpayers should be accessed and spent in states like Florida, California, and New York.

 The Legislature is now in its final seven weeks of the legislative session.  Bills passed by the House have been sent to the Senate and Senate bill are appearing here in the House.  Conference committees will begin meeting and compromises will be forged.  After that it will be up to Governor Nixon whether the work of the Session will become law or fall to the veto pen.