× Expand David Michael Miller

Imagine him standing alone in the middle of a windswept field on the shores of Lake Michigan. Buffeted but unbowed, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) is a man for all seasons.

Confronted with recent poll results that show seven out of 10 Wisconsinites want our state to take federal money to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, Vos said,

“Sometimes you have to lead by what you believe in.”

John Kennedy wrote Profiles in Courage six decades too early. If only he had been able to capture this kind of fortitude. It takes your breath away.

Vos is steadfast and will not be swayed by polls or even numbers and facts, for that matter. Never mind that the state estimates that 40,000 currently uninsured Wisconsinites would get insurance under the Medicaid expansion. Never mind that the Department of Health Services estimates that while actually insuring more people Wisconsin taxpayers would save $324 million over two years under the expansion. And never mind that DHS says that if those savings were reinvested in health care to attract even more federal dollars we’d have about $1.6 billion to invest in things like better nursing homes, care for mothers and children and dental care.

No. Never mind public opinion, fiscal sanity or the chance to insure the uninsured and probably improve health outcomes for tens of thousands of Wisconsinites. Robin Vos is a man who stands up for what he believes in even when what he believes in makes absolutely no sense.

And what does he believe in, exactly? The courageous speaker says he wants to protect Wisconsin taxpayers from getting stuck with the cost of 10 percent or less of the Medicaid expansion. (The Feds would pick up 90 percent or more of the cost.) Never mind that the Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates that taxpayers have lost $1.1 billion by refusing to take the Federal Medicaid money since it became available in 2014.

Robin Vos is protecting Wisconsin taxpayers by making sure that they didn’t get over a billion dollars of their own money back from the federal government. Okay, so technically Vos may have been protecting California or Illinois taxpayers or taxpayers in any of the three dozen states that took the cowardly way out and went ahead and expanded Medicaid for their citizens. Wisconsinites may be paying through the nose for Vos’ principled stance, but how can you not admire it?

Cynics (and I am not a cynic!) will claim that what Vos really doesn’t want is Obama or Democrats to get credit for a popular program and he’s willing to punish taxpayers, people who can’t afford insurance and overall public health in order to advance his party’s political interests. But that’s the kind of charge that would be made by people who just don’t understand political courage.

Seven out of 10 silly Wisconsinites may think they understand that getting $324 million over two years to insure more people is a good thing. Thankfully, they have Robin Vos, courageous man of principle, to look out for them.