HB 1033: A Letter to The Georgia Republican Party State Committee
by PV
[PV Note: The below letter was emailed from Bill Evelyn to the Georgia GOP State Committee over the weekend. It is being published here with his permission because it seems as though everyone else in the GOP world decided to air their dirty laundry to the public last Friday, and this is a message in rebuttal to what State GOP Chairman John Padgett thinks is his role as chair of the state party]
To the Georgia Republican State Committee:
Happy 2014!
Now that Chairman Padgett has interjected the state Republican Party into advocating against or in favor of specific pieces of legislation, we should take this opportunity to assess all the legislation going through the House. (See this email from Chairman Padgett)
HB 744 sponsored by Speaker Ralston, Jan Jones, Larry O’Neal, and Terry England fully funds Obamacare in Georgia.
If one searches the budget bill for Patient Protection ACA (the link to the .pdf is below) you will find 12 line items funding Obamacare.
http://www.house.ga.gov/budget/Documents/2015_FiscalYear/FY_2015_Tracking_House.pdf
17.1.5 – Increase funds for Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) contractual services for new members enrolled due to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009 (PPACA).
17.8.10 – Increase funds for the increased percentage of Medicaid-eligible children enrolling due to the PPACA (also known as the “Woodwork Effect”)
17.8.11 – Increase funds for additional state insurance premium tax liability of the care management organizations (CMOs) caused by the PPACA’s primary care reimbursement rate increase.
17.8.12 – Increase funds to account for transition to 12-month eligibility reviews as required by the PPACA.
17.8.13 – Provide funds for new federal premium tax imposed on the care management organizations (CMOs) by the PPACA
17.9.6 – Provide funds for the increased percentage of PeachCare-eligible children enrolling due to the PPACA (also known as the “Woodwork Effect”).
17.9.7 – Provide funds for new federal premium tax imposed on the CMOs by the PPACA.
17.10.5 – Increase funds due to the Comparative Effectiveness Research fee required by the PPACA.
17.10.6 – Increase funds for additional preventive health benefits required by the PPACA.
17.10.7 – Increase funds to account for limits imposed on cost sharing by the PPACA beginning in Calendar Year 2015.
17.10.8 – Increase funds to account for the projected increased enrollment due to the individual mandate and auto-enrollment of new employees as required by the PPACA.
17.10.9 – Increase funds due to the Transitional Reinsurance Fee imposed by the PPACA
This is a very egregious piece of legislation that our Republican Party Chairman needs to condemn. It goes against everything we stand for in our party. Why aren’t we sending Emails to the entire party Email list condemning the Republican funding of Obamacare?
The truth about the HB 1033 circus was that is was an enormous failure in Republican House leadership.
Contrast this to Feb 2009 when State Reps. Wendell Willard and Edward Lindsey filed a Bill that was said to unintentionally legalize child-prostitution. HB 582 qualified that “prostitution” could only have occurred if someone exchanged money for sex with someone aged 18 years old or older. Republican House leadership, in 2010, sent this Bill to Committee where it was scuttled quietly in order to protect the Republican Brand.
In 2014 HB 1033 never went to committee to be quietly scuttled. In fact, Republican House leadership requested media involvement to create the circus thereby damaging our Brand across the State of Georgia.
The entire event was a failure in Republican House leadership. Our Brand was intentionally soiled by Republican House leadership and it didn’t help that Chairman Padgett sent this Email to our entire GOP mailing list. Chairman Padgett did not have your consent to insert the state party into this circus and he should not have sent this Email to the entire GOP mailing list without State Committee approval.
As a member of the Republican State Committee you should discuss this at your next meeting and all of us should chastise our Republican House leadership for failing “OUR” Republican Party. Those elected to represent us are stewards of our Brand.
They failed all of us.
Bill Evelyn
Member
Executive Committee
7th District Republican Party
(770) 744-0162
