Few battle cries rally Republicans more than the demand for "states' rights." But for today's Party of Lincoln, that ideological bludgeon once used to deny millions of Americans their freedom for the first century of the Republic and ignore their rights in the second has a new purpose. When it comes to helping Americans realize their pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, states' rights now often means the right of states to do nothing at all.
That abdication is on full display in the declarations of Republican governors who might refuse $258 billion in expanded federal Medicaid funding under the Affordable Care Act, money which could help bring health insurance to 9.2 million of their residents. More cruel still, recent history shows that those who would instead charge "states with responsibility" to "make sure that every American has access to good health care" are doomed to fail.
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