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Conservative lawmaker rips 'one term Tom' Corbett

Republican state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe of Butler County, says that Gov. Corbett's reelection is doomed if he goes ahead with his Medicaid plans.

State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, the conservative Republican from Butler County, said Tuesday  morning on The Chris Stigall Show that Gov. Corbett was doomed to be "one term Tom" in the wake of his decision to accept federal Medicaid money to expand health-care coverage from the working poor.

Metcalfe said the governor had betrayed the conservative principals he stands for by enlarging an entitlement. "I think he's done," Metcalfe said on the show, broadcast on WPHT 1210 AM out of Philadelphia.

Find links to Metcalfe's discussion with Stigall here and here.

It's a further sign of the disappointment among movement conservatives with Corbett's decision to take the money but use it to subsidize private insurance premiums for the working poor instead of extending Medicaid itself. Metcalfe was scheduled at 10 a.m.  to join Arkansas legislators, where Corbett's plan was first proposed, and Jennifer Stefano of Americans for Prosperity in the Capitol Media Center in Harrisburg.

Corbett said in unveiling his plan that he will not need legislative approval for the move, but protests from the roughly 30 hard-liners in the House could be embarrassing.