Burke Destroys Walker's Big Medicaid Expansion Lie, as Journal Sentinel reporters get schooled.

Scott Walker is protecting us from a broken federal government that keeps reneging on their Medicaid funding. Walker says it's worth giving up hundreds of millions of dollar now and billions long term so we're not left holding the bag. Walker based the rejection on a wildly ridiculous story that went unquestioned by the press. He says they've done it before and pointed to a few completely untrue examples.

Walker lied boldly, convincingly. The ultimate con man. First the debunking facts from way back in February:

There’s a major problem in Walker’s contention. The federal share -- known as the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, or FMAP, fluctuates annually and varies from state to state based on a formula dating to Medicaid’s inception in 1965 … "designed so that the federal government pays a larger portion of Medicaid costs in states with lower per-capita incomes relative to the national average.”

In other words, the standard federal share of Medicaid costs is not promised or guaranteed to hold steady; it must only stay between the statutory minimum of 50 percent and maximum of 83 percent. In fact, Wisconsin saw its federal rate rise from 2009 to 2010, and also got a big additional bump to more than 70 percent for almost three years under the federal stimulus law and a subsequent legislative action, both of which applied nationally.

So instead of the state spending just 10% after three three years at 0%, we're paying around 40%. Sounds career politician-ish, doesn't it? Even after PoltiFact's debunking, Walker still went on the following short irrational rant yesterday that even he seems to believe. I don't:



Today, Mary Burke was asked about Medicaid expansion too. She smartly brought up PoltiFact in a very convincing, bold way, making the reporter look deservedly stupid: