The non-existent argument

Sen. Judson Hill is angling to be a front-line player in the growing fight against mandated participation in a government-run health care plan ... which would be fine if such a thing was up for discussion.

Of course, it's not, which makes all of the posturing kind of silly.

From CNS News ...

Georgia State Sen. Judson Hill, a Republican, said that the Obama plan would put a big strain on state budgets and told CNSNews.com that he would be interested in introducing similar legislation in the Georgia state house.

Medicaid and S-CHIP payments to states already make cutting costs untenable for states in lieu of a benefit cut or tax hike, Hill said.

He has introduced legislation to use state medical grants to go directly to patients as a sort of medical scholarship. (S-CHIP is the acronym for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, run by the federal Health and Human Services, which provides matching funds to states that provide expanded health insurance programs for families with children in low- to moderate-income brackets.)

“I call them federal crack dollars,” said Hill. “States get addicted to health dollars sent by the U.S. government.”

Leaving aside the colorful - and largely insulting - language employed by Hill, let's think about what he's arguing for.

Hill is talking about putting forward legislation that forbids Georgia citizens from being forcibly enrolled in a public health care program ... which, again, isn't what's up for discussion when folks talk about a 'public option' for health care reform. A public option would merely be an additional plan lumped into a proposed health exchange where individuals and small businesses could shop for coverage.

Of course, Hill's logic is absurdly flawed considering that SCHIP and Medicaid are programs provided by the federal government, partially funded by the states, that actually offer the benefits he would threaten to cut. Considering that the state has recklessly doled out tax breaks left and right to favored elements of the population, the evidence suggests the ongoing fiscal crisis in Georgia has been exacerbated by a series of tax cuts without any attempt to see if they're delivering a legitimate policy aim.