Not something we didn't already know, but good illustration of the particular affliction dogging the GOP right now. Used to be that, as a governor, you claim credit for all the free gifts handed to your constituents by the federal government. Perry is rejecting this gift, even though "Texas, which, has the nation’s highest rate of uninsured residents — 24 percent, or more than six million people — is already a disaster."

What's the point of rejecting Medicaid expansion when your state has the highest rate of uninsured residents? No point really. Not saving your constituents any money - the Medicaid expansion is funded by national taxpayers, not Texas' specifically. You get an unquestionable benefit. So the point is just to be obstinate to demonstrate distaste, as Ezra Klein puts it, "It’s a classic example of cutting off your nose to spite Obama." The GOP is not just far right of the mainstream right now; that's a problem but not the main problem which makes the current GOP crop among the worst in U.S. history. The conspicuous problem responsible for its historic badness is that it doesn't want to do the hard work of molding government into something that benefits their constituents. Instead, GOP legislators and governors simply want to make statements.