Wallace Collins, Democratic Party Chair, expressed disappointment today with the content of 31 documents released by Governor Fallin regarding the creation of a health care exchange and accepting Medicaid expansion, along with the lengthy process leading to their release.
“It shouldn’t take a year and a lawsuit to get information from the Governor,” said Collins. “Fallin has been named the country’s most secretive governor by a national organization of investigative reporters and editors because of her lack of transparency. She fought the release of these records in the courts and claimed ‘executive privilege’ — which does not exist in Oklahoma law, but is releasing them now to minimize their effect because she is in a tight governor’s race with an opponent who has the momentum.”
It appears the documents show Fallin and her staff were concerned much more about the political pressure from groups such as the Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs and Americans for Prosperity, which are entities funded by right-wing supporters like the Koch brothers, than how this would impact Oklahomans.
“She gave away $54 million that should have come into Oklahoma to assist our health care system. The money Fallin turned down could have been used to provide health insurance for 144,000 Oklahomans,” said Collins. “It is projected that Oklahoma will lose $8.6 Billion over the next ten years because Mary Fallin dragged her feet on working with the Affordable Care Act. Hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans who are suffering due to a lack of accessible health care are paying the price for Fallin’s poor leadership. This is especially hard for Oklahomans suffering from depression or any other mental health issues, which would include many of our veterans.”
The documents prove Oklahoma cannot afford another four years of Mary Fallin.
Collins remarked, “Her own Party should be disgusted with her antics, even former Congressman J.C. Watts said ‘Character is doing the right thing when nobody’s looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that’s right is to get by, and the only thing that’s wrong is to get caught.’ Fallin has proved she cannot even do what is right when everyone is watching. She continues to fail the character test time and again.”
