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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
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In a bizarre twist in ideology, Gov. Haley Barbour told Neshoba County Fair go-ers Thursday that the federal government should pick up the tab for the health-care costs of poor and disabled Mississippians. โ€œMississippi taxpayers shouldnโ€™t pay for health care coverage that the federal government will pay for,โ€ Barbour said, as reported by the Associated Press (and not by The Clarion-Ledger in its report today, which focuses more on Barbourโ€™s sophomoric bashing of John Kerry, calling him the โ€œideological twinโ€ of Teddy Kennedy. Na na na na, boo boo.)

On the vital subject of Medicare, though, read the blog posting right below this one, which indicates that the expensive federal Medicare program is probably in big trouble. This couldnโ€™t mean that after the election, should Bush win and not need elderly voters any longer, that Medicare suddenly comes on the block, and all those Mississippians that Barbour moved to the federal system are suddenly without health care, would it? Could that explain the weird push by supposedly small-government Republicans into a new era of big federal government?

Previous Comments

Anybody read this article out of the Sun Herald? Apparently tax revenue has been better than expected, and we have a surplus of over $28M. Barbour says we are saving $30M by cutting all these folks off Medicaid. Hmmmm. Remember that we are spending $13M on renovations to rest stops and Welcome Centers, and I wish I knew how much we’re spending to improve the roads to casinos. This state needs a sensible set of priorities. http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040801/NEWS01/408010357/1002/NEWS01


i bought phat farm shoes about 2 months ago. i dont wear them every day and not they sqeek. i would like my money back or another pair of the sparkly blue ones thank you jennifer bobchak

Founding Editor Donna Ladd is a writer, journalist and editor from Philadelphia, Miss., a graduate of Mississippi State University and later the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she was an alumni award recipient in 2021. She writes about racism/whiteness, poverty, gender, violence, journalism and the criminal justice system. She contributes long-form features and essays to The Guardian when she has time, and was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Jackson Free Press. She co-founded the statewide nonprofit Mississippi Free Press with Kimberly Griffin in March 2020, and the Mississippi Business Journal named her one of the state's top CEOs in 2024. Read more at donnaladd.com, follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @donnerkay and email her at donna@mississippifreepress.org.