By Steve Brawner
© 2016 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

If you think conflict and high stakes are more interesting than smoothly functioning day-to-day government, and you probably do, then this next month at the State Capitol is for you.

At issue is whether 267,590 Arkansans will remain eligible for government-provided health insurance. That’s the number that had been approved for coverage under the private option as of the end of January.

Here’s the background. The private option was created in 2013 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled states could choose, rather than be required, to expand Medicaid under Obamacare. (Medicaid is the government health care program that serves the poor, the aged and the disabled.) If states so chose, benefits would go to adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, which is an $11,880 salary in a household of one and is higher for larger families.

Many Republican-led states then refused the Medicaid money. Arkansas instead used it to purchase private insurance for that population. It’s the reason the state has reduced its uninsured population by one of the highest percentages in the nation, and it’s projected to save Arkansas hospitals a billion dollars’ worth of unreimbursed care over the next five years. But opponents say it’s an unaffordable expansion of Obamacare that creates more government dependency and increases the national debt.

Last week, legislators were called into special session by Gov. Asa Hutchinson to vote on his version of the private option, which he is calling Arkansas Works. He’s pushing it hard. It passed in the House, 70-30, and in the Senate, 25-10. Majorities of Republicans and Democrats in both chambers supported it.

But even those comfortable margins were not big enough to assure the program will continue. The Legislature now moves into a fiscal session, where funding for state agencies requires a three-fourths majority in both Houses – 75 in the House and 27 in the Senate.

Traditionally, legislators have not used the funding process to overturn what was decided in the lawmaking process. If they lose the battle over the policy, they don’t try to block funding.

But opponents are promising to fight this thing to the death in the fiscal session, even if it means, as a tactic, voting against funding the entire Department of Human Services’ Medical Services Division. That division administers not only the private option, but many other medical services, such as nursing home care and health services for foster kids.

The House of Representatives seems more likely to avoid such a fight. Rep. Laurie Rushing, R-Hot Springs, who was one of the 30 who voted no, the next day voted only “present” in a largely procedural vote and then attended the bill signing. She told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette she and six other House members won’t fight the funding. That’s enough to assure passage.

But the Senate – that’s where it’s going to be interesting. It takes only nine senators out of 35 to block funding, and nine of the 10 opponents have made it clear they will not budge. The 10th, Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, is declining to comment about the issue at the moment.

Meanwhile, many Arkansas Works supporters in the Senate are also resolute. If nine opponents can block any DHS funding bill with Arkansas Works, then nine supporters can block any funding bill without it.

All 11 Senate Democrats voted for Arkansas Works. They typically don’t play hardball, but this time? Here’s what Sen. Bruce Maloch, D-Magnolia, said Tuesday: “I don’t think we’re going to pick out a specific agency or entity or college in any of the 10 districts of the senators that voted against it and try to kill their appropriation. … But we will not vote for a DHS Medical Services appropriation without Arkansas Works.”

Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, one of the most outspoken opponents, was quoted by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette observing that both sides are playing chicken, both have a foot on the accelerator, and a “crash” appears inevitable.

In signing the unfunded bill into law, Hutchinson said he hopes that’s not the case. He said he won’t horse trade but that he has “a lot of tools in my pocket.”

Hopefully, one of those tools won’t have to be the jaws of life.

Related: The debt, the private option and the painter.

By Steve Brawner
© 2016 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Here’s my takeaway after covering Sen. Marco Rubio’s speech in Little Rock Sunday: I like him more than I did before, and I like the debates even less.

Rubio offered a hopeful vision – well, as long as he’s elected – that was in sharp contrast to those awful debates. There, Republicans have competed with each other to see who could offer the most doom and gloom while insulting President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and, increasingly, each other.

During his 40-minute speech, Rubio was at his best when he talked about his family’s American experience. His parents came to America from Cuba in 1956 speaking almost no English. His father became a bartender and his mother a maid. At times they wondered if they had made a mistake and even considered going back, but they persevered. Ten years after coming to America, they owned a home in a safe neighborhood and were able to raise their children to enjoy freedom’s benefits. His father has passed away, but Rubio, who has had an interesting spiritual journey, said he hopes he is aware of what his son has become.

“My parents loved America because they understood what life was like outside of America,” he said.

Campaigns are about stories, and that’s a good one.

Rubio promised to be a uniter of both his party and his country. Encouragingly, the son of immigrants promised, “If you elect me president of the United States, I will be president for all Americans. I will never ask you to be angry at one group of Americans so that I can win an election.”

Democrats, of course are a “group of Americans,” so I wish Rubio would tone down the rhetoric when it comes to them. He flatly declared that Clinton is “disqualified” from being president because of the email controversy and Benghazi. He should leave that to the legal system. Our political leaders should stop questioning the other side’s legitimacy, because sometimes that side wins, and it’s not healthy when half the country hates the president. He also said, “We will lose the American dream if Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders is elected.” Really? We’ll lose it entirely in four years?

Also disappointing was this: While the campaign stage was adorned with signs saying, “End the debt,” he didn’t mention it, nor his own party’s role in increasing it to $19 trillion, nor offer a rebuttal to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget’s declaration that his tax plan would add $6.1 trillion to the deficit.

Now I’m becoming a downer. It was a good speech, at times an uplifting one, and Rubio seemed to genuinely enjoy interacting with the Arkansans who mobbed him afterwards. He’s not my candidate – Ohio Gov. John Kasich is – but I like him, and his story, much better than before.