Perry’s announcement is an especially harmful move because Texas will benefit more from the Affordable Care Act than any other state. Texas was recently ranked worst in the country for health care delivery by the federal Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, scoring “weak” or “very weak” in nine of 12 categories. Perry’s office discounted the study as overly broad, and has argued that Texans’ real problem is personal health choices, not lack of health insurance.

More than 25 percent of Texans – 6,234,900 people – are uninsured, the highest rate in the nation. After five years of the Affordable Care Act, Texas would be able to insure 1,798,314 more Americans under the Medicaid expansion alone – more than any state in the nation. Setting up a state health insurance exchange would enable the remaining millions of uninsured Texans to purchase affordable health insurance. Thus, despite Perry’s claims, implementing the Affordable Care Act results in better patient protection and in more affordable care.

I love how announcing you won’t implement the ACA is the new “we won’t raise taxes under any circumstances!” pissing contest for conservative politicians. No, guys, you have to implement it, that’s how the law works, and why the fuck would you want to have fewer insured people in your state? Because you’re afraid they’ll realize what a good idea ACA is and they’ll realize you lied to them and Obama is actually kind of looking out for them? OK, yeah, that’s probably it, actually.