NEW YORK, N.Y.–Catfish and hushpuppies were being served Saturday in New York’s Central Park as a delegation from Mississippi was on hand to help promote what Gov. Bryant said is the state’s business-friendly environment.
The governor appeared on the Mike Huckabee Show, which originated from New York Friday, where he talked about the New York trip, among other subjects like Medicaid expansion and his Washington Post Live comments that drew national attention.
Bryant once again said Medicaid expansion would be too expensive, but this time offered another piece to the solution. He told Huckabee that Federally Qualified Health Care Centers would do a “marvelous job” providing preventative health care.
He said there is tremendous pressure coming from the hospital associations to expand Medicaid. He has also said that that he will not call a special session to reauthorize Medicaid until Democrats come up with a plan for the program which does not include expansion. The state legislature voted not to reauthorize the program for the next fiscal year and cannot reverse that decision without a special session called by the governor.
Bryant also talked at length about the state’s economy, saying Medicaid expansion would cause huge tax increases if expansion happened, which could affect prospects.
“Yokohama Tire started out with 3,000 counties but we won that bid because of the workforce,” he said. “Very limited union involvement and that’s of big interest to companies.”
Bryant said Mississippi decided that “big industry” was the way to go and the state is now attracting automotive and other industries.
Here is a link to the segment: http://www.mikehuckabee.com/_cache/files/c0a09b84-aeff-4a9c-8d11-f7d24fdff85c/Phil%20Bryant.mp3
