NO "MAGIC WAND"? Despite Hickenhoover's Claims, Medicaid Waivers Given To Other States To Cut Costs

by: ColoradoPeakPolitics

Thu Jan 19, 2012 at 14:43 44 MST

We had high hopes for Tim Hoover. After helping lead the way on ending the mainstream media honeymoon for Governor Hickenlooper, with tough articles on his wasteful spending and inability to make decisions, Hoover has suddenly swallowed Hick's talking points on Medicaid reform.

In Hoover's coverage of the Medicaid debate, his pieces increasingly read more like Op-Eds than real reporting.

Well Hickenhoover, we have a few examples you might want to dig into to better inform your (normally solid) reporting. 

Governor Hickenlooper keeps using the phrase "there is no magic wand," and the press dutifully reports it without analysis, as if that alleviates the need to look into the option of a federal Mediaid waiver.

Despite Hick's protestations that a waiver is not possible, reality provides a stark contrast. 

A year ago Democrat Governor of Washington state, Christine Gregoire, had a Medicaid waiver approved by the federal government. 

PROP 103 POST-MORTEM: How A Rag-Tag Collection Of Conservatives Helped Kill The $3 Billion Tax Hike

by: ColoradoPeakPolitics

Tue Nov 08, 2011 at 07:14 00 MST

It's been a whole week since the voters of Colorado told state Senator Rollie Heath (D-Boulder) and his tax hike team of liberal legislators to "occupy this," so we figured it was a good time to take a look back at the forces that helped kill the proposed $3 Billion tax hike known as Prop 103. While opponents of the ballot measure were outspent 6:1 by proponents, they managed to help lead the initiative to a nearly 2:1 defeat.

How they did is a telling lesson for conservatives going forward.

Much like the Tea Party, the opposition to Prop 103 had no unified group, nor a big bank account to draw from, yet they managed to outfox supporters of hiking taxes at every turn, decisively winning the message war.

President of the Independence Institute, Jon Caldara, told the Peak he believes that the way the loose coalition opposing Prop 103 worked was a boon to its success:

"Prop 103 was a rare example of the center right coalition working together. Without turf warfare, big egos and bickering, different groups and individuals had the freedom to get the message out their own way. Everyone was focused on the goal instead of tearing down fellow conservatives. Maybe Republican candidates could learn something from us. 

As Colorado voters inherently understand raising taxes in a recession is a recipe for disaster, had there been no opposition to Prop 103, it probably still would have failed. The ultimate effect that opponents had was to increase the margin of loss, discouraging liberals from pushing a statewide tax hike in the near future, and keeping tax hike supporters on the back of their heels for most of the campaign.