Gee, it almost sounds like he wants the Medicaid expansion to fail, so he can use it to attack Obamacare in a presidential campaign! Is Christie shameless enough to do it? Hell, yeah!

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie's administration has pulled the plug on a seven-year-old $118.3 million contract for what had been billed as a “comprehensive and cutting-edge” computer system to make Medicaid, food stamps and other social welfare programs easier to manage, including some that have been hobbled by backlogs, NJ Advance Media has learned.

The state Department of Human Services’ contract with Hewlett Packard to produce the Consolidated Assistance Support System, better known as CASS, “has been terminated, and an analysis is in progress to determine next steps,” department spokeswoman Nicole Brossoie confirmed. “The state and the vendor are still in talks regarding the contract termination, so it’s premature to discuss any other aspects at this time.”

[...] Raymond Castro, a senior analyst for the liberal-leaning think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective, said the lack of a modern automated system “certainly has contributed to this enormous backlog in the Medicaid expansion” associated with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, in New Jersey.

As of Oct. 22, about 11,000 applications were pending from people who wanted to enroll in Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor that was expanded to handle Obamacare applicants, a department official said.Castro called the contract’s termination on top of the numerous delays in setting up the computer system “enormously frustrating.”“They may well be making the right decision,” Castro said. "But it’s very late in the game. They have to come up with an alternative soon.”