As noted previously, the Florida legislature adjourned without voting to expand Medicaid.  Which means that a whole lot of poor people here will go without health insurance next year.

It seemed like a watershed moment for the Affordable Care Act when Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), a staunch Obamacare opponent, embraced the Medicaid expansion in February.

“While the federal government is committed to paying 100 percent of the costs, I cannot deny Floridians who need access to health care,” Scott told reporters at a press conference.

Scott wouldn’t be the one to “deny Floridians” a part of the health care law—but the Florida legislature had other plans. Lawmakers adjourned Friday after passing a budget that does not include funding for a Medicaid expansion. Unless the Republican-controlled legislature comes back for a special session later this year—which some Democrats are calling for—Florida will not expand Medicaid in 2014.

In Florida, where one in five non-elderly residents lack insurance coverage, the consequences are especially large: An estimated 1.3 million Floridians were expected to gain coverage through the the Medicaid expansion.

But we did get a bunch of new specialty license plates, so we’re good.

I have friends and colleagues who are conservative Republicans who work with the elected representatives of the state of Florida who shake their head in mystified sorrow over the stupidity and just plain ignorance that passes for what goes on when the legislature is in session.  It isn’t just the conservative mindset or the lingering effects of the shock of finding out that the country has elected a ni-CLANG! twice as president.  It’s a blend of fundamental ignorance and blatant anti-everything that has happened since the Roosevelt (Theodore, not Franklin) administration.  Government-subsidized healthcare?  Augh!  Socialism!

Gov. Scott, to his credit as a politician if not as a craven cynic who believes he can get re-elected by suddenly coming across as a pragmatist, is now trying to get the genie that he yanked out of the bottle back into it before the Teabaggers at The Villages find out he’s gone squishy and they come after him on their Medicare-supplied scooters.  The only thing that will save him is the fact that the Florida Democrats are so weak that the best hope they have is a warmed-over Charlie Crist.

Meanwhile, 1.3 million Floridians will be turning to the emergency rooms for medical care and the rest of us will be paying for it at a much higher cost because… FREEDOM!

TPM points to an article in the Palm Beach Post about backers of legalizing medical marijuana in Florida and the connection to Charlie Crist.

Trial lawyer John Morgan, one of President Barack Obama’s top Florida fundraisers, has thrown his clout behind a medical marijuana initiative whose proponents have struggled for more than three years to get the question before Florida voters.

Morgan recently pledged to raise money — and plug in his own, if necessary — to get a measure on the 2014 ballot that would make Florida the 19th state to legalize the growing and purchase of marijuana for medical purposes.

Morgan also happens to be the boss of Charlie Crist, whose name might be alongside the pot measure as the Democratic nominee for governor. Crist served as the Republican governor of Florida from 2009 until he became an independent to finish his losing campaign for the U.S. Senate. He registered as a Democrat in December and has said he’s mulling another run for governor.

Morgan, head of the Orlando-based Morgan & Morgan law firm, says he hasn’t spoken about the measure with Crist, who works as a lawyer in the firm’s Tampa office.

“That has not factored into my decision here,” Morgan said recently. “I plan to talk to Charlie and see what he thinks about all this. But what I do is not governed by what I think Charlie Crist might do.”

But others say the medical marijuana initiative could help draw voters to the polls who would more likely support Crist or another Democratic candidate than Gov. Rick Scott, the Republican incumbent who is seeking re-election.

Pop Tarts and Pringles go great with orange juice.  Or so I’ve heard.

Medical marijuana legalization, like marriage equality, is one of those issues where the dire predictions of doom and debauchery, fire and brimstone, has been thoroughly debunked.  Pot for healthcare has been working in 19 states, and were it not for federal drug laws, chances are that it would be legalized — and regulated — in a lot more places the same way liquor is.  And it would be taxed like crazy, thus insuring the states with a steady stream of revenue.

It’s also a safe issue for politicians to take a stand on.  There’s enough anecdotal evidence to show that medical marijuana is used by people of all different political stripes, and even the Tea Party folk must see that there’s freedom in being able to get baked when the chemo starts to get to you or Glenn Beck is just too much to handle without being stoned.

As for Charlie Crist, he’ll run on anything that will offer a glimmer of getting back to Tallahassee.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s attempt to turn left on Obamacare and expand Medicaid in the state ran smack dab into a wall known as the state legislature.

On the eve of convening of the 2013 session, the House Select Committee on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act rejected the expansion. A Senate counterpart committee postponed consideration of the issue, which is sure to be one of the biggest controversies of the session.

Scott, a Republican who bitterly fought President Barack Obama’s national healthcare plan as a candidate and in his first two years as governor, stunned conservative supporters on February 20 when he endorsed a three-year expansion of Medicaid, provided the federal government picks up the full cost for the first three years as promised.

“There’s definitely a fight between the governor and the (state) legislature over this. The Republicans in the legislature are much more fiscally conservative than his actions have shown him to be,” said Susan MacManus, a Tampa-based political scientist at the University of South Florida.

Republican legislative leaders have been openly hostile toward the plan, emphasizing that state lawmakers will make the final decision in drawing up a budget for next fiscal year.

While Democrats have pushed for full implementation of so-called “Obamacare,” the controlling Republican leadership has warned that the federal government might not keep its end of the bargain, leaving the state with a million more Medicaid recipients and reduced federal funding to cover them.

Whamo.  And the only reason that the federal government might not keep its end of the bargain is because the Republicans in Congress won’t let it.

Now a complete cynic would say that Gov. Scott knew all along that expanding Medicare would be a non-starter with the gang in Tallahassee but he went through the motions to sound all moderate and stuff just so he could campaign for re-election next year by saying that he tried to help out the poor people of Florida, but gosh darn it, those folks in the state capital wouldn’t budge.  But if you re-elect me, why, I’ll do my best to try, try again.  C’mon, gimme another chance.

That, or he just plain got blindsided by the wingnuts up there in Lower Alabama.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) pulls a switch.

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday he supports expanding Medicaid and funneling billions of federal dollars to Florida, a significant policy reversal that could bring health care coverage to 1 million additional Floridians.

“While the federal government is committed to pay 100 percent of the cost, I cannot, in good conscience, deny Floridians the needed access to health care,” Scott said at a hastily called news conference at the Governor’s Mansion.

Scott, a former hospital executive, spoke with unusual directness about helping the “poorest and weakest” Floridians — a stunning about-face for a small-government Republican who was one of the loudest voices in an aggressive, and ultimately unsuccessful, legal strategy to kill a law he derided as “Obamacare.”

Gee, I wonder why he did that (cough 2014 cough).

Not surprisingly, the tea cups are rattled.

“This is just another example of Republicans lying to Floridians,” said Everett Wilkinson of Palm Beach Gardens, calling Scott “the Benedict Arnold to the patriot and tea party movement in Florida.”

But when it comes down to it, Gov. Scott, who made a huge fortune in the healthcare industry — and nearly ended up in the joint — before he became governor, knows that a big chunk of those federal dollars will end up in the hands of private hospitals.  When it comes to making a choice between sticking to the principles he’s adopted to win an election and making a buck, he’ll go for the buck, especially when he thinks he can turn it into a win at the voting booth, too.

PS: Mother Jones has a look at what has happened to Florida since Rick Scott came to Tallahassee.