The state Senate in Michigan just finished voting on accepting Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, and things got pretty weird.
Quick backstory: the Medicaid expansion has already passed the state House and Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has said he will sign the bill once it passes the Senate. So put Snyder and some of the state’s other elected Republicans in the “We’ll hold our noses and accept Obamacare because it’s a great deal for our state” camp.
Today’s Senate vote was expected to be close. Indeed it was. The final vote a short time ago was 19-18, with one senator abstaining. That means the bill fails. It needed 20 to pass. The reason for the abstention, by a GOP senator strongly opposed to the bill, was because a 19-19 tie would give the state’s lieutenant governor the chance to cast the tie-breaking vote — and he would have voted to pass it. So a tactical abstention to kill the bill by preventing the lieutenant governor from casting the decisive 20th vote.
It’s not over yet, however. The Senate is poised to take the bill back up. Right now, the GOP majority is caucusing on what to do next. More here. Stay tuned.
