All The Candidates’ Federal Spending | Swampland

All The Candidates’ Federal Spending | Swampland: All of the governors, however, also have records of looking for federal funds to help balance their budgets, and in the case of Romney that includes the more than $300 million he lobbied for to pay for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Like most governors in office, he did what he could to use the federal government to balance his books. The biggest accomplishment in this regard was his success in convincing the Bush Administration to allow Massachusetts to keep getting nearly $400 million a year in special Medicaid reimbursements that were slated for elimination in 2003. His pitch: I will use the money to help fund a grand new experiment in state-based universal healthcare. (Don’t forget: Even the Bush Administration was excited by experiments with individual mandates back then.)