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" There&amp;#039;s always been a lot of talk about how Republican legislators are intimidated by the forces in their party engaged in a campaign of massive resistance to this president and what he was elected (twice) to do. Now, it seems that the strategy is working on people outside of government, too. But top officials for powerful trade organizations in three of the largest states not expanding Medicaid under Obamacare told TPM that they have effectively given up that fight until political conditions change, setting their sights on 2015 at the earliest. What I&amp;#039;m really struggling with is -- I don&amp;#039;t even know how to talk about expanding Medicaid without just pissing Republicans the hell off and making them think I&amp;#039;m part of the problem,&amp;quot; said a top official for one of the industry groups, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly about the political reality in their state and avoid upsetting the chances of expansion in the long term. &amp;quot;It just isn&amp;#039;t going to happen,&amp;quot; the official continued. &amp;quot;The more you talk about Medicaid expansion, the more you&amp;#039;re talking about Obamacare, the more you&amp;#039;re talking about Obama, the more you&amp;#039;re talking about a problem. Frankly, the more we talk about it, I think the more entrenched they get that it&amp;#039;s not something that they&amp;#039;re going to do.&amp;quot; This, it should be noted, is about supplying health-care to the poorest and most desperate of our fellow citizens. And the sociopathy is worse in the states than it is in Washington. Maybe it&amp;#039;s time for another lecture about the president&amp;#039;s failure to &amp;quot;lead&amp;quot; from Ron Fournier. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a20051/groups-give-up-on-medicaid-expansion-122013/>