Blue state lawmakers' response to Medicaid cuts: Keep calm and bash Republicans
Part of the problem for Democratic lawmakers is that no matter what they do, an insurmountable gulf remains between what their states can contribute versus what they will lose in federal dollars.
'We're going to do everything we can to preserve health care, but there's no way we can get … billions of dollars that they're taking away,' Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker told reporters Wednesday. The governors of Washington, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Arizona echoed Pritzker's sentiment in recent days.
In New York and California, leaders are already hedging their bets. Democratic Govs. Kathy Hochul of New York and Gavin Newsom of California could face pressure from supporters hoping they'll be compelled to make up at least some of the gap left by Congress and President Donald Trump. Hochul was already putting blame squarely on the state's Republican House members as the GOP megabill neared the finish line.
'They're in the majority, they have the power,' Hochul said of the delegation . 'You have the power, and if you don't use that power, then you are complicit in this attack on the American people.'
Some states — including New Mexico, Massachusetts and Oregon — have already made preparations for the anticipated cuts by preemptively increasing state health care program dollars or leaving an unallocated surplus in budgets passed this spring.
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Cardinal Raymond Burke, a figurehead of the conservative and traditionalist camp, told a recent conference on the Latin Mass that he had spoken to Leo about the need to 'put an end to the present persecution of the faithful' who want to worship according to the old rite. 'It it is my hope that he will as soon as it is possible take up the study of this question and try to restore the situation as it was' under Benedict's reform, Burke said. Leo has also identified artificial intelligence as a pressing issue facing humanity, suggesting a document of some sort might be in the works. Also under study is when he will start traveling, and where. Leo has a standing invitation to undertake Francis' last, unfulfilled foreign commitment: Marking the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea, Christianity's first ecumenical council, with a visit to Turkey. Leo has already said a visit is in the works, possibly in late November. Beyond that, Leo has received plenty of invitations: Vice President JD Vance extended a Trump invitation to visit the U.S., but Leo demurred and offered a noncommittal 'at some point.' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited him to visit Kyiv, but the Vatican under Francis had refused a papal visit there unless one could also be arranged to Moscow. Leo's old diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, meanwhile, is waiting for their bishop to come home, and then there's Argentina, which never got a papal visit from the first-ever Argentine pope. The residents of Castel Gandolfo, meanwhile, are aching for a pope to return. Francis had decided not to use the retreat and instead spent his 12 papal summers at home, in the Vatican. The town has recovered from the economic hit of pope-free summers, after Francis instead opened the papal palace and gardens to the public as a museum year-round. But townsfolks cannot wait for Leo to take up residence and enjoy the town's gorgeous lake views and quiet starry nights. It's the perfect place for a pope to rest, read, write and think in private, they say. 'Remember, many encyclicals were written here,' noted the Rev. Tadeusz Rozmus, the town's parish priest.
