Where’d Jake go?

As Aaron writes in the earlier post, at the Medicaid opt-in signing, Governor Dayton – I am going to write that again, because it is pleasant to do so, Governor Dayton – allowed some detractors of the program to speak. My favorite was Jake McMillan (real name Jake MacAuley) who, according to Andy Birkey writing in the Minnesota Independent, managed to cram not only his foot in his mouth, but his entire body as well, leaving just pair of bilious lips flopping on the floor when he was finished:

And Jake McMillian, sidekick of Dean at You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, took to the podium to say that health care should be left up to churches.

“Where is the church to help these people? Because that’s the church’s job and duty: it’s social causes,” he said. “I don’t see where it is in the Constitution. It isn’t the government’s job is to do that, it’s for nonprofits organizations. It’s for the church to do what it rightfully does.”

Dayton’s executive order, he added, “has a ripple effect of destroying societies.”

“I feel that this is a usurpation of authority here, because that’s what it is. It’s uncalled for and it’s unnecessary. If somebody can show me where I’m wrong constitutionally… but you probably won’t find somebody doing that today.”

You may be unaware that Governor Dayton – there I go again! – had so unceremoniously deprived churches of a job they’ve done so well and comprehensively since the founding of the Republic. I know that I was.

I mean, I knew about the You Can Run But You Cannot Hide Hospice for patients dying of AIDS, and the Bradlee Dean and Jake McMillan Muslim Outreach Center – and let’s not forget the string of YCRBYCH soup kitchens located throughout the city – but I have to say that I was completely oblivious to how well the churches have taken care of all the “social causes” of the nation.

All right, let’s be a little more serious now. The fact is that most of the money contributed by the people in the pews is spent on the people in the pews, for the salaries of church staff, physical plant, and the like.

But wait! There’s more!

McAuley is not only a pious fraud; he’s a constitutional fraud, too. Conservatives have made much of the lack of constitutional authority for the individual mandates in the Affordable Care Act; neither I nor my pals at Balkinization buy that for a moment, but there is no even unserious claim that Medicaid is unconstitutional.