True fiscal conservatives are smart folk.  They know how to balance budgets and simultaneously show how the absence of fiscal prudence has consequences.  It is a rare skill that can grasp when to hold the line and when to let progressive ideologues taste the outcomes of their fiscal irresponsibility.
Scott Walker is just such a man.   And no state governor has been so bitterly attacked by progressives because they know and rightly feared him.
To set up the current example here you must go back to the Obamacare fight in 2010.  The federal government structured penalties in the Obamacare law to force States to expand their Medicaid roles.    Medicaid is a state run benefit.  This fight eventually was decided by the Supreme Court in favor of the states who opposed the heavy handed mandate with the court ruling the Feds could not *punish* states for not taking federal money.
Scott Walker was saying:  ‘be careful what you wish/vote for, you just might get it’.   But no-one was really paying attention to the intelligence behind the quiet argument. 
While Chris Christie openly said he was willing to take federal money to expand New Jersey’s Medicaid roles, Wisconsin Governor, Scott Walker, said no.   In essence Walker said if Obamacare is so brilliant for everyone, then everyone who qualifies, everyone who is above the poverty line, should participate.
Right now as Wisconsin is reducing it’s Medicaid  enrollment, by placing eligible participants into the Obamacare exchanges, the progressives in Wisconsin are pleading for him to stop.
Walker is making a smart and strategic decision.   Removal of 77,000 free riders who pay nothing for Medicaid services, and shifting them to Obamacare where they will either pay a portion themselves, or be subsidized by the Feds.   It is a prudent cost shift with multiple benefits.
Not only does this cost savings allow his state to improve (reinvest) the saved financial benefits into improving the State operated Medicaid program, but it provides the opportunity to balance Wisconsin’s budget, and decrease the burden on the state taxpayer.
Simultaneously he is showing the Obamacare worshippers, Wisconsin Progressives, the natural outcome of the law they advocate for, a diminished healthcare delivery program.
Because Obamacare is a botched and fundamentally flawed program, the Progressives are demanding he protect them from the “roll out“.    Walker can, and is, saying: ‘you wanted it, you voted for it,… So – deal’.   It’s simply not his issue.

WISCONSIN – Health care advocates are asking Gov. Scott Walker to explain what he will do  with 77,000 adults being shifted off Medicaid at the end of the year if those  people are not able to get coverage by then on the new health insurance  exchange.

Walker said in February that adults on Medicaid, or BadgerCare, who make more  than the poverty level will have to switch to insurance on the federal exchange  Jan. 1.

In late September, the state notified 77,000 people, most of them parents,  that they might be affected. But letters letting people know for sure won’t be  sent until Nov. 23, when the state expects to be ready to use new federal  criteria to determine eligibility.

People must enroll on the exchange, or online marketplace, by Dec. 15 to get  coverage by Jan. 1. Enrollment started Oct. 1 but has been greatly hampered by  glitches on healthcare.gov, the exchange’s website.

Federal officials have said the website is improving and will work smoothly  by Nov. 30. Enrollment continues through the end of March, but coverage doesn’t  begin until two weeks or longer after people sign up.

“We are concerned that this short window does not allow enough time for all  77,000 custodial parents who are losing BadgerCare eligibility to complete the  process of enrolling in qualified health plans via the marketplace,” advocacy  groups said in a letter to Walker on Thursday.

“These concerns are magnified by the healthcare.gov technical glitches that  have hindered enrollment thus far.”

The letter asks Walker to spell out his contingency plans if enrollment on  the exchange continues to be difficult or if the federal government creates  conditions under which Walker’s plan can’t be implemented.

Claire Smith, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health Services, said  Walker’s plan for Jan. 1 remains in effect. “We made fiscally responsible  decisions to leverage the solutions that the federal government made available  to states,” she said.  (continue reading)