Kentucky's Republican governor starts shooting hostages in his Medicaid lawsuit tantrum

Matt Bevin and Donald Trump. A match made in Hades.

Republican Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky is making good on his promise to start shooting hostages if the courts ruled against him in his effort to take Medicaid benefits away from some enrollees. On Friday a federal court ruled in favor of 16 low-income Kentuckians who sued the state over Bevin's new work requirements in the program.

Bevin promised when the suit was brought that if the courts ruled against him, he'd start taking benefits away, and he's started doing it, cancelling dental and vision coverage for the nearly 500,000 participants in the Medicaid expansion program.

U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled Friday that the Trump administration "never adequately considered whether Kentucky HEALTH would in fact help the state furnish medical assistance to its citizens, a central objective of Medicaid," and that this "signal omission renders his [HHS Secretary Alex Azar's] determination arbitrary and capricious."

Arbitrary and capricious is what Bevin is doing right now by taking care away. This could lead to yet another lawsuit, which would probably make Bevin start slashing away at even more benefits—because he's a Republican and it's 2018.