Gov. Chris Christie loves to puff himself up, but here's one thing he's not bragging about:
saving his state millions by accepting Obamacare's Medicaid expansion.
[I]n a budget address last week devoted almost entirely to the costs of public employees' pensions, Christie notably did not mention how much the Affordable Care Act has helped New Jersey residents and the state's tight finances.
Two days after his budget address in Trenton, the Republican governor traveled to Maryland for a conference of conservative activists, where attendance was all but mandatory for 2016 GOP presidential hopefuls. The vociferous opposition to the health-care law there might explain why Christie isn't trumpeting his partial acceptance of Obamacare at home.
That partial acceptance—Medicaid expansion—is doing wonders for the state budget, with $150 million saved so far, and an additional $417 million is projected in fiscal 2016 and probably $2 billion more by 2020. But that doesn't feature into any of his rhetoric, at home or with the CPAC crowd he's delusional enough to think he can win over.
He might have a bigger problem than the CPAC crowd though, because of his veto of the state legislature's attempt to set up a state-run health insurance exchange. About 250,000 people in New Jersey signed up for Obamacare on the federal exchange, the large majority of whom get subsidies for their insurance. They're not likely to be too happy with their governor for that veto, if the Supreme Court strikes down subsidies.