Thursday, January 23, 2025

State Rep. Spencer Frye Tells Oconee County Democrats Of His Reaction To Gov. Brian Kemp’s State Of The State Address

***Calls Address Hypocritical***

Athens State Rep. Spencer Frye, visiting with Oconee County Democrats last week fresh from hearing Gov. Brian Kemp give his State of the State Address in Atlanta, did little to hide his disappointment.

“Massively hypocritical, in my book,” is how Frye, a Democrat, described what Republican Gov. Kemp had said in his address to the General Assembly late that morning.

Frye faulted Kemp for taking credit for creating an alternative centralized marketplace for health insurance that directed users to the federal web site of the Affordable Care Act.

Frye also criticized Kemp for saying in his address that the state had run up a large surplus resulting from tax collections, which, Frye argued, come from a healthy economy, while at the same time saying “our economy is at the worst it's ever been.”

Much of that surplus comes from the transfer of funds from the federal government to the state, Frye said, but Kemp also criticized federal spending.

Frye was particularly critical of Kemp’s refusal to expand Medicaid coverage and of his decision to focus attention on tort reform.

“So in these messages, our economy's horrible, but we got all this money,” he said. “We're the number one state to do business. But we have got to fix the legal hellhole that this state is through tort reform of some sort.”

“I don't know how we're number one, but we've been in this legal hellhole forever,” he continued. “I can't stand the hypocrisy that I see daily. I honestly hate it.”

“Okay, so there's my two cents on where we're at on at day four,” he said, referring to the fourth day of the current session of the General Assembly.

Frye’s Tenure

Frye, who represents the 122nd House District, has served in the legislature since 2013. He is executive director of Habitat for Humanity in Athens.

Frye 1/16/2025

The 122nd is the only House District that is entirely inside Athens-Clarke County, and Frye is the only Democrat in the General Assembly from heavily Democratic Athens-Clarke County or from any of the surrounding counties.

Oconee County is represented in the state House of Representatives by Republicans Houston Gaines (District 120) and Marcus Wiedower (District 121). Both the 120th and 121st Districts include parts of Clarke County.

Frye is serving as vice chair of the Democratic Caucus, having been elected to that position this year.

The featured speaker at the Jan. 16 meeting of Oconee Count Democrats, Frye began by saying “It's been an honor to serve both Athens, Oconee, and the surrounding area.”

Thirty-seven people attended the meeting at the Oconee County Library in Wire Park, with another two linked to the meeting remotely via Zoom.

Frye On Partisanship

Frye told the assembled Democrats that in the General Assembly “we do some bipartisan helping of each other.”

“Your state government is running better, with a little more collegiality, than your federal government appears to be running,” Frye said.

“You can't not like people because they're different,” he said. “You can't not like people because they're raised differently. And it's extremely important to treat everyone with respect.”

“This hate for each other. I don't want to abide, I don't abide by that,” he said.

Comments On Healthcare

“We've had this problem with uninsured people in Georgia and healthcare issues,” Frye said. “And I don't think that the state of Georgia is doing everything that it could be doing by not choosing to expand Medicaid.”

Frye 1/16/2025

Frye said that Kemp bragged about the surplus in state funds brought about by his conservative approach to governing.

“We're not even spending that money on things that we need to be spending that money on--expanding Medicaid–with a very large subsidy from the federal government.”

“Now if the state of Georgia doesn't want to take subsidies from the federal government, which is exactly the reason that has been stated for the past decade,” he said. “Then the state of Georgia ought to give back the $15 to $17 billion a year that the federal government gives us,” he added.

(The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute used the figure of $17.9 billion for 2024 as the amount of federal spending in Georgia for health care, K-12 education, transportation and other services.)

In response to a question from the audience, Frye said the “non-expansion of Medicaid (is) based on purely political reasons.”

He said the Republicans “have done a patchwork of tax credits, other legislation to put funding there. But it is not going to open up the nine to 11 hospitals that have closed in the rural areas.”

“There's counties without any OBGYNs, without a nurse, without a doctor,” he said. “In some places, if you got hurt on a tractor, you might as well just call the coroner. You're not going to make it to a hospital.”

Rather than address these healthcare issues, Frye said, the Republicans “are focusing instead on capping judgments of negligence” through tort reform.

“We could be forced to choose between big insurance--big billionaire insurance–and the lives of our citizens, or the recompense of our citizens,” he said.

What Kemp Said

According to the official text of Kemp’s remarks to the General Assembly on Jan. 16, he focused his initial comments on the effects of Hurricane Helene.

“With historic rainfall and mudslides in North Georgia, record flooding in Atlanta of over 11 inches in just two days, and a massive amount of damage across much of the Southeastern United States, hundreds of thousands of Georgians across the state were victims of that storm’s fury in some way,” he said.

“Our farmers needed relief, quickly and efficiently,” he said. “That’s why we repurposed $100 million dollars to the Georgia Development Authority last November to provide direct financial support for farmers and timber producers,” he said.

“It’s also why...I urged the U.S. Congress and Biden administration to fast-track block grants to our state,” he continued.

“I want to extend my deepest gratitude to every member of Georgia’s congressional delegation--both Republicans and Democrats--who voted to support that legislation,” Kemp continued, “and I want to thank both President Biden and President-elect Trump for their support of the disaster relief package as well.”

“And just as communities across our state need relief after Hurricane Helene, all Georgians need permanent relief from the historic storm of inflation,” Kemp continued. “The past three years have drained family bank accounts, sapped the strength of our small businesses, and left too many Georgians struggling to make ends meet.”

“This happened because the federal government decided to spend your money like it was somebody else’s, like a credit card with no limit that someone else would have to pay back, instead of reining in spending, cutting taxes, or even coming close to balancing a budget,” Kemp continued.

“We budget conservatively, fund our priorities, keep government efficient, cut taxes, and then return your money back to you,” Kemp said.

Tort Reform

“Our conservative budgeting and balanced approach to taxes and spending are just some of the reasons we’ve been named the ‘top state for business’ for 11 years in a row, which is absolutely unprecedented!” Kemp said.

Screen Shot Kemp 1/16/2025

“As we look ahead, I believe one of the biggest threats to Georgia’s future is our state’s legal environment,” he said.

“It’s abundantly clear that the status quo isn’t working and a failure to act on meaningful tort reform will continue to put Georgians and their livelihoods in serious jeopardy,” Kemp said.

“The tort reform legislation my office will introduce in the coming days will be comprehensive, but fair,” Kemp said. “Because in Georgia, we believe those who do wrong should be held accountable. And if you have been wronged, you deserve justice!”

“Whether it’s this legislative session, or a second one later this year, we will achieve meaningful, impactful tort reform,” he added.

Health Care

“Since I took office, the combined work of Georgia Access and Georgia Pathways is covering over 1.5 million people across our state,” Kemp continued.

Georgia Access is the state based exchange that is the alternative to the exchange run under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In 2024, as Frye said, traffic was directed to the ACA web site from Georgia Access, but in 2025, the state exchange will stand on its own.

Georgia Pathways is the alternative to full Medicaid expansion.

“And I’m going to keep repeating this until I’m blue in the face, even though many on the other side or in the media don’t want to hear it: we’re covering well over 200,000 more Georgians than traditional Medicaid expansion would cover,” Kemp claimed.

“And those Georgians are on better plans, that deliver better coverage, and lead to better healthcare outcomes for them and their families,” he said.

Kemp repeated his opposition to full expansion of Medicaid, saying “there are those who say the program only needs more money to succeed. Well, I respectfully disagree!”

Other Assessments

A Sept. 11, 2024, a study by the Commonwealth Fund, which says its mission is to promote a high-performing, equitable health care systems, found Georgia had an uninsured rate of 12 percent, one of the highest in the country.

On Jan. 14, 2025, the Fund wrote that the Pathways work requirement policy “is considered particularly restrictive because, unlike other state proposals to date, it does not systematically exempt populations that tend to struggle with employment, like adults with disabilities or those caring for a young child.”

The Georgia Budget And Policy Institute reported on Jan. 17 of this year that in the first full year since Pathways was launched in July of 2023, enrollment “fell far short of expectations and need. More than 40 percent of Georgia’s counties still had fewer than 10 enrollees despite the state having one of the highest percentages of uninsured populations in the nation.”

“Pathways to Coverage is a costly program for Georgia taxpayers,” according to the Institute, “and most spending through the end of the first year covered administrative expenses rather than health care benefits.”

“Since the program was approved through the end of the first year of implementation, a total of almost $58 million in combined state and federal funds was spent on the program,” according to the report.

Video

The video below is of the entire meeting of the Oconee County Democrats on Jan. 16.

Frye began his comments at 27:59 in the video below.

The Oconee County Republican Party is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. on Monday (Jan. 27) at the Piedmont Oconee Health Campus Lobby Meeting Room, 1305 Jennings Mill Road.

Featured speakers are media personality Phil Kent and Ryan Hammock, member of the Oconee County Board of Education.

Hammock is being asked to discuss the decision by the School Board to announce its intent to opt out of the statewide floating homestead exemption approved by voters in November.

The Oconee County Republican Party does not allow video or audio recording of its meetings.

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