 Even a broken clock is right twice a day
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) did something that surprised me. She came out in favor of more and better oversight of HMOs administration of Medicaid in Minnesota. What's strange is that Bachmann has never before been in favor of oversight as far as I can remember.
As a member of Congress during the Iraq War, she never had any problems with the no-bid contracts that Halliburton received. She's against more oversight of Wall Street, insurance companies or, actually, anything at all. Yet, here she is demanding government oversight of companies where the executives (aka The Magical Job Creators) pull huge salaries.
She said she was concerned about the "massive reserves" that have been accumulated by the four HMOs that manage Minnesota's health Medicaid program.
The state's Medicaid books have never been audited, Bachmann said, and "this lack of oversight creates a climate of complacency."
She said she would be reaching out to congressional Republicans and Democrats alike to push legislation that would call for independent audits of the billions of dollars flowing to health care for millions of low-income Americans.
"It's not a partisan issue," said Bachmann, who nevertheless did not include any Democrats in her hastily-arranged press conference. She said she has no reason to believe the state or its HMOs are misusing the funds, but until there is an audit, there's no way to say for sure.
Why the change of heart? Why the flip flop on oversight? I'm guessing she's doing this for a few, cynical reasons.
- She has no legislative accomplishments ever.
- Low hanging fruit, many are clamoring for this anyway.
- This is proof, in her warped reality, that Obamacare is a failure.
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