The Lafayette Republican backtracks on comments many on both sides of the political aisle interpreted as an endorsement of Medicaid expansion in Louisiana. Lafayette Congressman Charles Boustany is trying to prove his bona fides as an Obamacare-hating Republican after comments he made to a civic group and reported by The Advertiser got him in a pot of hot water with his fellow conservatives. His comment last week to members of the Lafayette Rotary Club North that doing nothing about Medicaid could "put Louisiana in a very bad place" led the conservative website Red State to suggest he should lose his chairmanship of the House Ways & Means Oversight Subcommittee.
The Advocate followed up with the congressman, who now insists he supports Gov. Bobby Jindal's decision not to expand a "deeply flawed" Medicaid program or create a health insurance exchange, and that his heart belongs to repealing Obamacare, which the House of Representatives has attempted to do a staggeringly stubborn three dozen times (knowing the Democrat-controlled Senate wouldn't go along with it).
But the retired surgeon's protestations are falling on some deaf ears. The meat eaters over at The Hayride aren't buying it:
We're not going to accuse Boustany of lying here. But it's fair to say his "clarification" is anything but clear, and it's also fair to say that if he thinks more House votes to repeal Obamacare that won't be acted upon in the Senate is sufficient to prove up his opposition to a plan he on the other hand thinks Louisiana should help implement, he's got the issue all wrong.
People are tired of this political doublespeak. If Boustany is for the Medicaid expansion, given the state of Medicaid right now, he should say so without any caveats.