Republican Voters Silent on Walker throwing their hard earned Money Away by Refusing Medicaid Expansion. Hospitals open pockets for taxpayer cash.

Do conservative voters think their elected politicians are making sound fiscal decisions, when its obvious they're not, and they're digging us deeper in the hole? There's a stunning disconnect.

jsonline: Republicans on the Legislature's budget committee on Tuesday voted to pay hospitals up to $73.5 million over two years to care for uninsured patients, but otherwise stuck with Gov. Scott Walker's response to the Affordable Care Act that rejects $119 million in federal aid.

Medicaid expansion solves the uninsured patients problem. State conservative tightwads are willing to spend and waste an additional $73.5 million over two years as a show of opposition to Obamacare. This is looking out for "the taxpayers?"

Accepting the federal Medicaid expansion would save the state an additional $340 million through 2021, the fiscal bureau has found. A RAND Corp. study released Monday found that Wisconsin and 13 other states will spend $1 billion more on uncompensated care in settings such as emergency rooms if those states choose not to expand Medicaid under the federal health-care law. The report found 3.6 million more people will be left uninsured in Wisconsin and the other states.

And what about saving lives, surely that would that change a few minds...never mind.

Based on research showing previous Medicaid expansions led to fewer deaths, the study estimates an additional 19,000 deaths could occur annually if the 14 states don't expand Medicaid.

It’s an open admission their plan won’t lower the cost curve for health care at all, increasing it instead for purely ideological reasons.

Democrats said the inclusion of the hospital payments were a tacit acknowledgment that a significant number of poor people would not buy insurance through the exchanges. (Republicans) agree to pay hospitals up to $73.5 million over the next two years in anticipation they could see an increase in uninsured patients visiting emergency rooms. State taxpayers would fund $30 million of that, with the rest coming from the federal government.

Can government function when you have lawmakers with this much hatred for it?

Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) said the GOP plan would provide people with "certainty." Obamacare "is like quicksand," she said. "We don't know where it's going to go. We didn't choose to make Obamacare the law of the land. We didn't choose that, but we have to deal with it. And it's going to get more complicated."

Rep. Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee) said passing up the $119 million in federal money was "mind blowing." "I feel like this committee is about to commit fiscal malpractice when it comes to health care," said Sen. Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse).

Republicans are just admitting that any promise made, can be just as easily broken...by them. That’s not what would happen under Democratic control.

But Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) said lawmakers need to be skeptical of the promises written into federal law … "To think that there's this sack of money out there that's going to treat us so nicely — it's not," she said. "We have no guarantees that this will be sustainable."

This is something we should talking more about:

Before the vote, two opponents of the plan were led out of the packed committee room by police after they briefly disrupted the proceedings. "Who pays for your health care?" one of the protesters asked lawmakers. "We do. We pay for your health care."