Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

How Jim Jordan tried to connect the dots on Biden’s $8 million book deal

‘Never Trump?’ ‘Never Biden’ voters might loom larger.

Ukraine gamble pays off: Republicans face little backlash in primaries

Biden’s false claim that inflation was 9 percent when he took office

Did Obamacare ‘massively’ increase the cost of health care?

Blue Origin to fly again as space tourism struggles to get off the ground

Why this company’s biggest fans turned against it

Boeing delays spaceflight again as it continues to struggle with leak

She finished chemo then got a medical degree: ‘The dream is real now’

Puppy abandoned with heart-rending note is adopted, named Minerva

Man, 91, shocks tiny firehouse with $500K gift: ‘Nobody knew how much I’d saved’

Joey Gallo returns, but Nats endure another quiet offensive night

Walter Johnson’s jersey from 1920 showdown with Babe Ruth sold at auction

Bryce Harper, Joey Gallo and a bond forged by baseball since they were kids

Carolyn Hax: Is it weird to ask other people to care about you?

Ask Amy: Can’t a single woman eat alone without interruption?

Miss Manners: Miss Manners: Gag gift falls flat

The world’s coolest hotels want to tell you a story

Cruise ships to return to Baltimore two months after bridge collapse 

Some cruise prices are about to get a little more clear

Book Tour: At home with Amor Towles

In photos: The scene in Houston after severe storms killed at least 7 people

Deadly storm blasts Houston

Russia shows resilience. There is more to do for Ukraine.

Trump promises tax cuts and fewer rules. CEOs shouldn’t fall for it.

Tariffs against China hamstring the transition to a clean energy future

At campus protests, ‘DO NOT TALK TO THE MEDIA’!

CNN gets a presidential debate — and a much-needed win

Netflix will air NFL’s Christmas games, a major step for streaming service

Zelensky’s chief aide flexes power, irks critics — and makes no apologies

IDF recovers bodies of 3 Israelis killed on Oct. 7

With its energy network nearly destroyed, Ukraine already fears the winter

Trump

See more coverage in your recommendations

Get the weekly Campaign Moment newsletter

Set alerts for major election developments

Election 2024

The Campaign Moment newsletter

Politics alerts

Less than two months after Republicans' latest effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act imploded, Maine voters overwhelmingly decided to expand Medicaid to tens of thousands of people.

But the state's Republican governor, Paul LePage, seems determined to stop the measure from going into effect, setting the stage for a legal battle that could reverberate across the nation.

LePage issued a statement Wednesday saying he will open Medicaid to new people only if the state legislature fully funds it without raising taxes, without pulling from the state's rainy day fund or without taking money from the elderly or disabled. That's despite the fact Maine residents voted on the initiative knowing it would likely raise taxes.

"Credit agencies are predicting that this fiscally irresponsible Medicaid expansion will be ruinous to Maine’s budget," LePage said.

Supporters of the ballot measure say that LePage has no choice but to implement it.  He can't veto it.And even if he could, top officials in the state legislature say they're willing to figure out a way to fund it.

By mid-August, a new group of qualifying Mainers should be able to enroll in Medicaid. If they can't, LePage could open himself up to a lawsuit. Once a state elects to participate in the Medicaid program, as Maine has, that state is legally bound to comply with federal law.

LePage's office did not respond for comment on the potential for a lawsuit. LePage has vetoed a bipartisan legislative deal to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act at least five times during his six years in office, and he's supported congressional Republicans' various plans to roll back Obamacare and significantly cut funding for Medicaid. Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R) was one of the defining “no” votes that ultimately ended the GOP efforts, saying the plans would pull the rug out from too many in her state.

LePage's refusal to expand the program except under very specific conditions throws down a significant roadblock in what was supposed to be an unmitigated success for progressives. Maine was the first state Tuesday to expand Medicaid by ballot box, and it won by nearly 20 percentage points.

Progressives were hoping their victory in Maine could give them a shot of momentum to expand the program in other states. In Alaska and Idaho, groups have already started similar Medicaid expansion ballot initiatives for next year.

"The initiative passed by at least 59 percent," said Jonathan Schleifer, executive director of the Fairness Project, which helped put together the ballot initiative. "LePage won his most recent reelection by 48 percent. It's clear what and who the people support." He said his organization will support legal action to try to get the Medicaid expansion implemented.

The Fairness Project has spent the past year in Maine —  and a sizeable chunk of the $2 million spent on the expansion — laying the groundwork to expand Medicaid. After Trump won the election and Republicans held on to Congress, they went to their tried-and-true method of ballot initiatives to push back.

The left has had spectacular success over the past four years going around Republican legislatures to change state policy on everything from guns and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/05/03/are-minimum-wage-advocates-becoming-victims-of-their-own-success/">minimum wage</a> with ballot initiatives. In fact, when put to the voters over the past 20 years, minimum wage increases have rarely lost.

Last November was no different. Voters in four out of four states resoundingly approved minimum wage hikes in 2016 (including Maine, where voters approved one of the highest minimum wages in the nation).

In Arizona, the vote for a high minimum wage outperformed Trump by 10 percentage points. Voters in eight of nine states also voted to ease restrictions on marijuana, and three of four states voted to put in place gun restrictions.


<i>
    [Winners and losers of the biggest state political battles of the year]
  </i>


Ballot initiatives are an important tool for progressives in the Trump era, much like how conservatives used them in the '90s when Democrats dominated government. Other national groups descended on Maine to help this pass. Planned Parenthood's Maine political group said they knocked on over 8,600 doors in Portland over the last week of the election.

Not all progressive ballot advocates are as bullish on Maine's ability to change the health-care landscape.

Kellie Dupree with the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which helps progressive groups strategize ballot initiatives, said expanding Medicaid can be a tough sell as it requires taxpayer money.

“We'll wait to see how these policies shape up,” she said before the vote took place.

Advocates will also have to see if, in Maine, they can actually get the expansion implemented.

<em>Correction: This post originally suggested the Fairness Project gave $2 million to the Medicaid expansion campaign. $2 million was the total spent on the campaign; Fairness Project gave about $375,000. </em>

The Fix was an official honoree for best political blog in the 2017 Webby Awards

Texas Christian University, bachelor's degree in international relations and Spanish

Amber Phillips explains and analyzes politics and authors The 5-Minute Fix newsletter, a quick analysis of the day's biggest political news. 

Amber Phillips

The Washington Post

Biden administration

The Fix

The Briefs

Polling

Democracy in America

Politics

prism://prism.query/site,/politics/the-fix?limit=20

The Washington Post's political analysis blog.

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/politics&limit=20

Post Politics from The Washington Post is the source for political news headlines, in-depth politics coverage and political opinion, plus breaking news on the biden administration and White House, Congress, the Supreme Court, elections and more.

prism://prism.query/site,/politics/the-fix&limit=6