Five days before an election, Gov. LePage delivered a hit-and-run video statement accusing the federal government of playing politics with the state’s Medicaid budget.

But maybe it’s the governor who is trying to make some political hay.

Last spring, the administration and its Republican allies in the Legislature passed a budget that eliminated health insurance for 33,000 Mainers, over the objections of Democratic lawmakers and despite the fact that the cuts were in violation of federal law.

The administration pushed ahead, promising to apply for a waiver to the law from the federal Department of Health and Human Services. This plan was pursued even though no such waiver has ever been granted and the state was warned that it was unlikely to be granted this time.

So, here we are, three months after the state filed its request for a waiver, and Maine is still waiting. Meanwhile, the shortfall in the current budget grows wider.

LePage can accuse the feds of playing politics, but that’s a charge that cuts both ways. Republican lawmakers are running on a record in which they claim they “reformed welfare” and cut taxes.

But in fact, they spent money that they did not have. Instead of finding out first whether they would get the waiver, they acted as if the check was in the mail and the savings were theirs to do with as they wished.

They can call that being conservative, but irresponsible sounds more like it.

LePage argues that his legal advisers tell him Maine doesn’t need a waiver at all, because the Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act gives the states more leeway on running their programs. He doesn’t say that other legal authorities say he’s wrong.

Which is not to say that Maine won’t eventually win its case or that it may be entitled to a waiver for its Medicaid program.

But LePage shouldn’t act as if that’s already happened. Someone is playing politics with this crisis, but it’s the governor, not the feds.

 

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