Medicaid expands business

Gov. Pat McCrory and our Republican legislature claim to be “pro-business.” What a lie. Can you imagine our representatives denying any business a $2 billion per year expansion in our state? Can you imagine the potential jobs would be lost as a result? Not only would we lose the ability to hire 50,000 North Carolinians at $40,000 apiece, but all the additional construction workers, auto mechanics, cooks, cashiers and others that those 50,000 additional employees would help support.

And yet this is exactly what our Republican “pro-business” representatives are proposing. Accepting the federal government’s $2 billion annual Medicaid expansion is not just about bailing out the “undeserving poor” as some would have you believe. It’s about being pro-business, pro-jobs and pro-recovery.

Gov. McCrory and his colleagues need to take advantage of this opportunity while it still exists.

Tom Rhodes

Raleigh