In a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the Republicans argue that the Democrats’ plans to expand Medicaid, a program funded jointly by state and federal governments, would squeeze the state’s already strapped budget and threaten other vital programs.

Georgia has estimated that the cost of the House and Senate passed unfunded mandates, for just new enrollees, would cost a staggering $2.64 billion under the House version (not including the Stimulus extension or a Primary Care Reimbursement increase) and anywhere from $1.54 billion to $1.79 billion under the Senate version.

This raises many concerns since Georgia currently cannot afford the cost of expanding Medicaid under the House and Senate bills. Due to the crippled economy, Georgia is facing significant budget problems and has been forced to make cuts to current services including K-12 education, public assistance, corrections, transportation and others.

Signing the letter were Georgia GOP Reps. Tom Price, Phil Gingrey, Jack Kingston, Nathan Deal, Lynn Westmoreland, John Linder and Paul Broun.

They have a point. Democratic leaders have proposed a Medicaid expansion precisely because it’s one of the cheapest ways to extend coverage for the uninsured, who tend to be lower-income folks. But Medicaid also suffers periodic funding problems because, as a safety net program, enrollment tends to jump during economic crises when states are least able to afford the additional costs — a fundamental funding flaw that neither the House nor the Senate bill addresses. Indeed, this was exactly the concern that led Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) to insist that the federal government pick up the entire tab for the Medicaid expansion proposed in the Senate bill.

Recognizing that problem, Democrats included roughly $80 billion in federal Medicaid help in last year’s economic stimulus bill — a treatment of the symptoms, but not the root of the problem. If lawmakers want to avoid having to pass emergency Medicaid spending every time the economy turns south, they’d do well to tackle the underlying flaw in how the program is funded. The only other option, as the Georgia Republicans point out, is for states to slash other things.

Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care?

This, says a RedState blogger, is “pornographic” and “name-calling.” I think that’s a bit much. Is there some way to talk about people who wave around tea bags to make political points without mentioning the tea bags? Generally, I think there is, and I go to some lengths not to make crude jokes when I write about the Tea Party movement. But like many slurs devised by a movement’s opponents, I’ve heard this slur being co-opted by the people working the Tea Parties. I’ve actually talked to Tea Party activists who referred to themselves as “Teabaggers.” And at the 9/10 pre-March on Washington event at the D.C. Armory, I bought this button on sale from a vendor:

If the Tea Party activists and their allies are going to take offense at certain terms being applied to them, they should probably avoid self-identifying with those same terms.

President Obama is slated to address a joint session of Congress on Sept. 9 to lay out more detailed demands for health care reform, ABC News reported today. The move — which came on the heels of a written invitation from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) –  is intended to quell complaints from congressional lawmakers that the White House has been neither forceful nor specific enough to get the job done.  Ironically, the failure of the Clinton administration’s health reform effort 16 years ago is commonly attributed to this same approach of the White House presenting too many policy details to the legislative branch.

Despite reports that Obama won’t insist on a public option, conservatives are skeptical that the provision is dead. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) took to the airwaves Wednesday urging the White House to veto any proposal that contains a public option or “anything that smacks of a public option, like a co-op.” And Rick Scott, head of Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, issued a statement saying that he’ll believe the public option is dead when he can stick a fork in it. “We’ve heard this song and dance before,” Scott said, “and the White House was all too quick to backtrack.”

Meanwhile, some Democratic senators are also getting more specific about their health policy views. Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) voiced her strongest opposition yet to the idea of creating a public option; Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) reiterated his strong support for a public plan; and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) split the difference, saying she’s open to the public option but not if it utilizes a Medicare-like payment system.

MoveOn.org, the liberal policy advocate, is planning 350 vigils tonight to highlight the necessity of health reform this year, The Washington Post reported. The group says they expect 50,000 participants in an effort to counter the animated town hall forums — predominately featuring opponents of the Democrats reform plans — that have dominated headlines during the August recess.

Meanwhile, consumer advocates continue to support Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), the leading congressional voice behind the push for a single-payer health care system. On Tuesday, Weiner asked the Congressional Budget Office to estimate the cost of the single payer bill, a move Public Citizen is calling “a significant step in educating Congress and the public on how to truly fix our broken health care system.”

This wasn’t spontaneous generation at all these town halls because people are asking the same questions … and putting up the similar type of signs and talking about socialism, which is what people talked about in 1965, when Medicare and Medicaid came about and certainly that’s not socialism.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal supported Cohen’s assessment on Saturday, noting that “the nearly all-white audience was not a snapshot of the mostly African-American 9th District that Cohen represents.”

Adding further to the portrait of the day’s saga, Talking Points Memo yesterday pointed to local reports revealing that one attendee brought a gun to the gathering, though broke no laws in doing so.

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), interviewed along with Cohen Tuesday, said the town halls are just a sign of a healthy democracy.

“It is a great show of democracy and it should be occurring,” Gingrey said. “I mean, that is the American way.”

Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.): Global warming is “one of the greatest hoaxes perpetrated … it’s a hoax.”

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.): Compares Democratic leadership to “forces of darkness” trying to silence protesters in Iran.

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Those of you who are watching certain news channels on which I am not very popular, and you see folks waving tea bags around, let me just remind them that I am happy to have a serious conversation about how we are going to… [list of Obama priorities].

This struck me not as an attack on protesters (which would be a strange thing for a community organizer to do) but an attack on Fox News, its pundits, and its Republican guests. When I think of “folks waving tea bags” I think of Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) literally waving tea bags and saying “I’ve got my tea bags here! Pick your brand!”

This seems like classic presidential media-bashing more than mockery of the protests themselves. But it doesn’t really matter, because the protesters are taking offense (and relishing the attention) anyway.