Philip Klein @ The Washington Examiner:
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who campaigned as a limited government Republican, on Monday announced that he would implement one of the costliest provisions of President Obama’s health care law byexpanding the state’s Medicaid program. His decision, a huge victory for the White House that will provide cover for more Republican governors to do the same, serves as a great case study on how difficult it is to impede the growth of government.
When Obamacare was making its way through Congress in 2009 and 2010, the proposed expansion of Medicaid was one of its most controversial elements. As things stood, the program was crushing state budgets, so governors in both parties feared that expanding it to 15 million to 18 million beneficial would be unsustainable. Then Sen. Ben Nelson was infamously given the “Cornhusker Kickback” — expanded federal funding for Medicaid to Nebraska — to win help secure the 60th vote to get Obamacare through the Senate.
The backlash against the “Cornhusker Kickback” cemented the idea in the public consciousness that the process used to pass Obamacare was corrupt, helped elect Scott Brown to the Senate in Massachusetts and added fuel to the Tea Party. Ultimately, lawmakers substituted the special Medicaid treatment for Nebraska in favor of increased federal funding for all states instead. Under the law, the federal government will pay 100 percent of the cost of the Medicaid expansion at first, and then 90 percent after 2020. This comes at a cost to federal taxpayers — $932 billion over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. To be clear, that’s if all states participate. But last year, 26 states led by Florida won a suit challenging the federal government for coercing states into the Medicaid expansion and the Supreme Court left states with the option of rejecting it. This brings us back to Kasich and his decision.
Kasich was the Republican House Budget Committee Chairman during the Clinton-Gingrich government shutdown fights of the 1990s and a former guest host for Bill O’Reilly. He rode the backlash against big government into the Ohio governor’s mansion in 2010. A regular speaker at Tea Party rallies, Kasich boasted, “I think I was in the Tea Party before there was a Tea Party.” Days before his election in 2010, he argued, “Obamacare must be blocked.”
This morning, Kasich announced he was joining four other Republican governors in agreeing to expand Medicaid under Obamacare and pass the bill on to federal taxpayers. “It makes great sense for the state of Ohio because it will allow us to provide greater care with our own dollars,” he said at a news conference, as reported by the Huffington Post’s Jeffrey Young.
Whatever justifications Kasich may give, the actual explanation for his embrace of the Medicaid expansion is political cowardice.
Yep its pretty clear at this point,money from the tit of Government rules the day….”The Takers Have out voted the Makers” Kasich knows more than anyone what the consequences are for Obama care on a National level and he still caved just like the rest.
Death by a thousand cuts,for anyone to say there is a dimes difference between the two parties is clueless.
Well we still got Texas right.
I once thought that Kasich had a spine, but no more. Typical of the new republicans, rollover and play dead. And the party has the guts to ask me for money. Gag.
Recently, Kasich’s name has been bantied about as a prospective runner for the Oval Office in 2016. And while he may garner the vote from Ohio, he can kiss the rest of the large red states good-by.
No, it will not be paid for by his own dollars. It will be drained from every taxpayer in the rest of the nation to cover the costs of Medicaid in those four states. Sorry, why am I responsible for some low wage earner in Ohio when I live in Texas?
It seems the attitude is rapidly becoming “Well, if that state is going to get X, we want our share.” and gives little thought to actually taking care of their own state with their own money, not money stolen by the IRS from other states.
Conservatives don’t play golf with Barry Soetero.
I’m on tv and what is on is A DOCUMENTARY OF SILICONE VALLEY BEGINNING,
SUPER TO FOLLOW, FAIRCHILD , TO NOW THE COMPUTER,
IT’S EXTRAORDINARY INTERESTING
HOW IT BEGUN SEMI CONDUCTOR A REVOLUTION OF A CITIZENRY.
FOR ME THE COMPUTER IS SO MARVELOUS AND NOW I read of those AMERICANS
HIGHLY CHARGE BRAINS STARTING SILICONE VALLEY,
AND INNOVATE CONSTANTLY, LIKE THE 12 STEPS OF SPACE BY MAN,
AND THE GIANT STEP TO HUMAN KIND, IT’S REALLY IS EXACTLY.
A WORLD OF WONDER THEY WHERE ON TOP OF THE WORLD,
NOW THEY ARE IN ANY VENTURE CAPITAL, WALL STREET AND THOSE,
THEY ARE OLDER AND THEY HAVE MADE SURE TO GET THE ONE WHO TAKE OVER
WITH THE MINDS ALIKE, SUPERIOR, WHICH IS TO BE ADMIRE SO MUCH,
BECAUSE WE ALL BENEFIT FROM THEM THE ENGENEERS OF NON STOP CREATION
OF A BETTER FUTURE FOR AMERICA,
AND OBAMA WHO IS TRYING TO GET WHAT THEY GOT AND TALK OF THEM AS IF
THEY ARE CHEAP AND MISER, HE IS THE ONE WHO IS ENVIOUS BECAUSE HE WILL NEVER GET THAT SUPERIOR MIND WHICH WE THE PEOPLE DEPEND MORE OBN THEM THAN OBAMA,
SO OBAMA GET OF THEIR BACK AND LEAVE THEM ALONE THEY HAVE NO TIME TO WASTE ON YOU.
JUST CUT YOUR SPENDING THE MONEY WHICH BELONG TO THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA,
AND BE WHAT YOU WHERE VOTED FOR , THAT IS
THE SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE. OBEY THE CONSTITUTION, AND STOP TRYING TO TEACH THE PEOPLE
YOUR AGENDA SOCIALIST, THEY KNOW HOW TO BEHAVE WITH THE POOR LONG BEFORE YOU CAME,
THE POOR WHERE BETTER TAKING CARE OF, AND THE CRIMES WHERE NOT AS NUMEROUS,
IT ONLY INCREASED WHEN YOU SET FOOT IN THE WHITE HOUSE,
CHANGE YOU WAY , BECAUSE THE PEOPLE DON’T WANT IT.
If you know Kasich’s history you would have seen this coming.
Note the big clue he gives you about himself:
Kasich is and always has been a money-cruncher.
He understood the budget back when few others did.
But that’s how he looks at things: money is the bottom line.
He saw it benefited Ohio and didn’t give a damn what it did elsewhere.
I wonder how far it will ”make great sense for Ohioans?”
I mean, rationing is coming under ObamaCare.
Old Ohioans will be told they are not worth the cost of a knee replacement, back surgery, mammography, etc.
Will Kasich look at the bottom line there and declare it good for Ohio, too?