Tractors

Good: Missouri's hospitals and Gov. Nixon announced a plan to provide health care for almost 35,000 uninsured residents -- at no cost to the state.

• Hospitals agreed to increase their tax payments to qualify for more federal Medicaid money, allowing 34,800 currently uninsured Missourians to receive coverage.
• The plan would cost the state zero dollars.
• The hospitals are on board because it will save them money in the long run. The president of the Hospital Association says the proposal is "an opportunity we can't afford to miss."
• The Post-Dispatch says the plan is "good for poor, uninsured parents [and] it helps to create jobs."

Bad: Predictably, GOP leaders lined up against the health care plan.

• Why? Because, um, the hospitals don't like it, there are still other uninsured people, it costs the state money, it makes them look bad.
• GOP Budget Chair Allen Icet was really annoyed with Rep. Rachel Bringer for sponsoring an amendment to enact the plan. So like any mature adult, he decided that pettiness was the best response.