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I'm shortly to board a plane for home, so I'm not readily able to investigate this question. But perhaps an informed reader is at hand.

Gov. Mike Beebe caterwauled yesterday that the cost of extending health care to millions of Americans and untold thousands in Arkansas through a bill before the House today could add $200 million to the state's Medicaid budget. A big number.

Has anybody addressed the actual cost to the state? Isn't Medicaid spending typically at a 3-1 federal match, so a $200 million increase would mean about $50 million in state spending? Not small change, to be sure, but against a general revenue budget 100 times that size, not quite so much, with some very real benefits to sick Arkansans along the way.