GOP Hatred For America's First Black President: Why It Is A Bad Thing Politically

It's a bad thing politically because it makes Republican politicians do stupid shit, like Florida Governor Rick Scott announcing yesterday that he is going to sue the Federal Government to force it to give Florida funds from a program that will soon be non-existent.

Why would he do such a dumb thing you ask?  Well, because of Obamacare of course:

The suit, which has yet to be filed, is only the latest round in an ongoing feud between Scott and CMS in connection with LIP.  The program is scheduled to expire in June under an agreement between Florida and the federal government. Federal health officials have said they are open to negotiating a successor program, but no deal has been reached.

The negotiations took a turn Tuesday, when CMS told Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration that any decision regarding LIP would be tied to whether the state accepts federal Medicaid expansion money — a politically charged policy option that Scott once supported, but now opposes.  Scott blasted CMS on Thursday, saying that linking the two issues violated a U.S. Supreme Court ruling "that the president cannot force Medicaid expansion on states."

"Not only does President Obama's end to LIP funding in Florida violate the law by crossing the line into a coercion tactic for Obamacare, it also threatens poor families' access to the safety net health care services they need," Scott said.

I've got a great idea, Governor: Instead of wasting your state's resources on a bullshit lawsuit based on a crisis that you manufactured, why not expand Medicaid under Obamacare, something you already promised to do? Then 800,000 Floridians -- including the poor families you claim to care so much about -- can get access to health coverage. I promise it won't be that hard. Just pretend that a black man didn't sign the Affordable Care Act into law and it'll all be good.

Needless to say, Gov. Scott is taking quite a bit of heat on this from all sides. In fact, Florida's Republican Senate President Andy Gardiner criticized the Governor over this, stating that the federal government "has no obligation to provide LIP funding," and that "it is difficult to understand how suing CMS on day 45 of a 60-day session regarding an issue the state has been aware of for the last 12 months will yield a timely resolution to the critical health care challenges facing our state."