Gov. Scott Walker, possibly attempting to burnish his "moderate" cred, said that the GOP should not "spike the ball" by relishing the fact that "Obamacare is not working."
Now usually, caution against "spiking the ball" refers to premature celebration of a metaphorical touchdown -- that it's too early to judge whether you have "won." But the guy who was "hired by Koch Industries to manage its midwest subsidary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin" (h/t Charles Pierce) doesn't have that kind of doubt. It is a foregone conclusion for him that the ACA has already "failed." No, Walker is just worried about how gloating over this will be perceived:
"I think Republicans need to be careful so that in no way do we look like we’re piling on,” he continued. “Because if you do, my guess is the next move on the left will be to try and seize on it if that were to happen, look, somehow we sabotaged this, that we’re the ones to blame. It’s a ridiculous intellectual argument, but from an emotional standpoint, you can see how it could happen."
This is coming from a Governor who has rejected the Medicaid expansion, depriving hundreds of thousands of people from getting health care. He also rejected a state exchange, further burdening the federal site and depriving his citizens of the smooth rollout of the ACA that has happened in states with their own exchanges.
And yet somehow, it's a "ridiculous intellectual argument" that Republicans like him have sabotaged health care reform.
Walker writes that it gives him "no comfort that there are people in my state who will fall through the cracks because of the failure of the federal government kind of puts them in no-mans land.” [sic] (Fall through the cracks meaning not being able to keep crappy insurance, except because of President Obama's new policy, now they can.)
Meanwhile, there are hundreds of thousands plunging through the "cracks" that Walker caused himself by rejecting Medicaid expansion. Walker's comfort is not disturbed by his own actions causing this obscenity.
Scott might consider the governors of KY, CT and WA, whose states are smoothly implementing the ACA:
The Affordable Care Act has been successful in our states because our political and community leaders grasped the importance of expanding health-care coverage and have avoided the temptation to use health-care reform as a political football.