Will Weatherford Still Against Medicaid Expansion

Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford wrote an error-filled op-ed against the expansion of Medicaid. I was struck by this paragraph.

According to the chairman of the U.S. House Budget Committee, “The fastest thing that’s going to go when we’re cutting spending in Washington is a 100-or 90-percent match rate for Medicaid. There’s no way.”

That would never pass in the Senate. President Barack Obama would never sign cuts that deep into law. The Medicaid expansion is part of the Affordable Care Act. Obama is not letting Republicans touch his signature piece of legislation. Obama wants to make cuts into Medicare but that is a separate issue. Paul Ryan threatened to cut the matching funds. Nothing happened. The matching funds are part of the ACA. The matching funds are laws.

Ryan's threat to cut matching funds didn't carry much weight. Republican governors are slowly coming around to accepting Medicaid expansion. These governors don't want to explain to voters why they denied health care when they run for election.