Brewer under fire from Wall Street Journal

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has made her name as one of President Obama's most outspoken critics, particularly on immigration enforcement and "Obamacare."

She's a darling on the right. Some of her charm has faded, however, with the Wall Street Journal. The editorial board writes today, in response to Brewer's recent support for the Medicaid expansion that comes with the implementation of Obamacare:

Arizona argued before the Supreme Court that the Medicaid mandate was unconstitutional, anti-federalist commandeering—and seven Justices agreed it was "a gun to the head" and allowed states to opt out without penalty.

But so much for that. In her State of the State address last month, Ms. Brewer pulled a political 180°—or maybe 540°—and said expanding Medicaid would "inject $2 billion into our economy and "save and create thousands of jobs." (Is Larry Summers moonlighting as a Brewer speechwriter?) ...

The state supposedly no longer needs to spend "billions" but merely an extra $154 million in 2014—then bank $1.6 billion from Washington, which her budget documents call "a return on investment of more than 10-to-1."

How can the state conjure such money from nothing? The answer is that Ms. Brewer and Arizona hospitals have cooked up a spending scheme to rip off national taxpayers to avoid even the $154 million the state would at first pay.