In a foolhardy indulgence of partisan ideology, Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas is returning a $31.5 million federal grant that would have made his state a leader in technology development for the new federal health care law.

The Republican governor’s unilateral rejection was presented as a matter of his grave concern over federal deficit problems. More transparently, it was announced amid the state Republican Party’s growing drumbeat of opposition to the federal law.

Instead of letting Kansas design its own model program for an online computer exchange to help people choose among health insurance providers, Mr. Brownback’s rebuff increases the likelihood that the state must design one at its own expense or see federal officials create an exchange, as required under the new law. Surely such an outcome would be self-defeating for conservative zealots criticizing the health care law and President Obama in the name of states’ rights and resistance to big-government diktat.

In opting out, Kansas joined Oklahoma, whose Republican governor, Mary Fallin, turned back a $54 million grant in April under fierce pressure from Republican and Tea Party activists. The states were among seven originally awarded grants to design exchange programs as models for the other states.