God bless David Bronner.
Bronner has been in charge of the public employees' pension system for years and has been extremely successful at making a ton of money through very savvy investments, including financing the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.
Bronner has been so successful at making money it's a wonder he has stayed in Alabama all these years. But one of the benefits of being so good at making money is that he can pretty much say whatever he wants without worrying about people coming at you with knives.
And that's what Bronner did on Tuesday.
Bronner spoke Tuesday to the Rotary Club of Tuscaloosa -- not exactly a hotbed of progressive activism.
Speaking to about 100 members of the Rotary Club of Tuscaloosa, Bronner began his remarks by asking the mostly well-heeled audience to give him their undivided attention "because I wrote out a speech for you this morning about five o'clock because I think what I'm going to talk about is that important. I don't think I've ever given a more important speech ... and I want you to know the facts because facts are a little elusive in Alabama," said Bronner.
A little elusive is putting it mildly.
Bronner told the crowd that he was going to talk about a subject they probably didn't want to hear about -- Medicaid.
"But I don't care," Bronner told the crowd.
Bronner then proceeded to tell the Rotary Club that the 14 states that have turned down federal money to expand Medicaid -- including Alabama -- are "idiots."
Yes, that's right. Idiots.
"My guess, the guess of most experts, is that in Alabama the expansion would bring in between $15- to $17 billion in those first three years with the cost to the state of between $770 million to $1 billion," said Bronner. "After 2016 the cost to you and me would be 10 cents on the dollar. How dumb would it be not to take that trade? It's 15 to 1. You'd take that trade all day long."
And then he told them something they really didn't want to hear, something they will never hear when they go home and turn on Fox News.
Bronner said he has read the opinion polls and knows that so-called Obamacare is unpopular with 60 percent of Alabamians. And Bronner had some advice for those who don't like Obamacare.
"But get over it. It's the law of the country," Bronner told the crowd. "Back in the 1930's social security had its critics but today it is maybe the most popular federal program we have," said Bronner
How great would it be to hear President Obama tell the "idiots" to get over it?