Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who was recently presented with over 1 million signatures to recall him from office, which is almost as many votes as he received in the 2012 election, announced this week that he plans to reject money set aside under the Affordable Care Act to aide states in implementing healthcare exchanges.
Wisconsin will turn down $37 million from the federal government that had been awarded to help implement health care exchanges under President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, Gov. Scott Walker said Wednesday.
Walker announced in December that Wisconsin would not pursue implementing the exchange until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of the law.
But he did not say whether the state would take the money. On Wednesday Walker said he was notifying the federal government that Wisconsin was turning down the Early Innovator Grant, saying it didn’t make sense to commit to reforms that could have a devastating economic impact.
The real devastating economic impact will come when the Affordable Care Act is ruled constitutional and buffoons like Scott Walker are left scrambling at the last minute to abide by the law. Because rejecting a federal grant to create an exchange, money for which has already been set aside, means Scott Walker will leave the cost of implementing the exchange up to Wisconsin taxpayers.
In the end, the result will be similar to when Walker rejected money set aside for high-speed rail. The state lost jobs and prior commitments ended up costing the state more money than it would have had he not rejected the funds. And the reality is that he didn’t achieve some great ideological victory by his actions, because the money afforded to Wisconsin will simply be granted to another state instead.
But, what does he care? He’ll probably be recalled from office before he is forced to explain that to his constituents.
