Amidst the arguments over the national health care debate, one possible presidential candidate, Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), is himself in the middle of a state health care debate. Indeed, Pawlenty could potentially have a veto overridden by the legislature, in his attempt to shut down and then restructure a state health care safety net program.
Last week, Pawlenty vetoed the extension of the General Assistance Medical Care program (GAMC), a state program first created in the late 1970s, which provides health care coverage for very poor adults who don’t qualify for other federal or state programs. Pawlenty has proposed shifting the program’s enrollees, which include the mentally ill and homeless, into the separate MinnesotaCare program for the uninsured working poor. Pawlenty has said that would save money.
“This is one of those issues that puts the governor’s philosophical principles and national political aspirations at odds with the constituent demands and expectations of individual Republican legislators,” said Lawrence Jacobs, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota.
Jacobs thinks the Democrats can probably override the veto — though it’s a not a done deal, in his opinion. He explained: “The people who are gonna be hurt by the GAMC veto are the poor, the severely mentally ill, all the kind of Minnesotans who rely on the program, that’s obvious. But what’s striking about this is how it undermines the hospitals and the doctors, and these are organizations and voters all around the state. And there are many Republicans districts in which the hospitals have made it clear, the hospitals in most districts have made it clear that their survival is at stake. There is a very intense, local element to this.”
Could the veto of this program, coming now, be tied to Pawlenty’s national ambitions? “I’m just speculating, it certainly seems consistent,” said Jacbos. “That is, Gov. Pawlenty’s main theme nationally is that he’s a fiscal conservative who has held the line on spending and taxation in Minnesota. Vetoing BAMC fits into that storyline. It also fits into the theme that the governor has been developing, that we need to hold down the cost of health care.”
Democratic state Rep. Tom Huntley, chair of the Health and Human Services division of the Finance Committee, told TPM that Democrats could potentially know by Friday whether they have the votes to override Pawlenty. When asked whether the veto could be tied to Pawlenty’s national goals, Huntley accused Pawlenty of undermining the state’s health care programs during his whole tenure as governor, and that this was not just a recent development. Nevertheless, he added: “All he cares about is what voters in Mississippi care about him, and he wants to tell them he didn’t raise taxes.”
Kevin Waters, a spokesman for the state House Republican caucus, predicted that the veto will be upheld. “They won’t be successful. We’ll uphold the veto,” said Waters, who said that House Republicans had voted for it on the expectation that there would be continued rounds of negotiations to reform the program, but that instead the Democrats sent it straight to the governor.
Waters also didn’t think the veto was tied to Pawlenty’s potential presidential campaign. “I can remember as far back as at least 2005, trying to get some kind of reform or structural change in this part of our social services program,” said Waters. “So it’s no secret that he’s been wanting to do this. And I guess you can make the case that he was plotting his run for national office back in 2005, but it’s not a new position for him, and it’s not a new position for us, either.”
Messages left with Pawlenty’s office regarding this matter were not returned.
