Fox News' Laura Ingraham likes to paint some weird visual images:
http://www.cleveland.com/...
President Barack Obama's kind words last week for Ohio Gov. John Kasich have not gone unnoticed by conservatives. And while we've described the dynamic as blowing kisses in the name of political gamesmanship, Laura Ingraham sees it more as snuggling.
"Governor," Ingraham said Friday night while interviewing Kasich on Fox News, "you guys are tight now. You guys are practically spooning, you and President Obama. I mean, gosh, that’s amazing. Are you BFF’s [best friends forever] for real?"
Obama's shoutout is aimed at Kasich's embrace of Medicaid expansion. Ingraham noted in the interview that expansion is one part of Obama's Affordable Care Act not inviting scrutiny as questions and criticism persist over the program's messy debut. - Northeast Ohio Media Group, 11/18/13
Of course Kasich cleared up that he's not that close with the President:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
"[I had] the chance to bring Ohio money back to Ohio to do some things that frankly needed to be done," Kasich said, citing treatment of the mentally ill and drug addicted, as well as providing insurance outlets for the working poor.
"That being said, I have never been a supporter of Obamacare," Kasich added, citing his refusal to run a state exchange.
Ingraham pressed back on that, saying that Medicaid expansion has been touted by Obama as a key success story within the government-run health care program. But she claimed that Obamacare is using money that the government doesn't have to spend, prompting the question of whether that was tricky to support as a conservative.
“Conservatism means that you help people so they can help themselves, and that they can enter into the economic strength of our country," Kasich said. "Now you have to separate that from the fact that the government was designing a program to take over our whole health care system in the back rooms on Capitol Hill." - Huffington Post, 11/18/13
So Kasich is saying that he's always been against Obamacare except for one of it's biggest aspects. I wonder if the Tea Party is buying any of that:
http://www.dispatch.com/...
Coziness with an unpopular president from the other party is not exactly an image that Kasich wants dancing in the heads of voters heading into his re-election year.
But the governor’s embrace of Medicaid expansion alongside his frequent harangues of Obamacare has required Kasich to justify an aspect of a law that overall he decries as unjustifiable. Without Obamacare, Medicaid expansion is not possible.
“He jams through Medicaid expansion at the same time he’s saying, ‘Join me in repealing the Affordable Care Act,’” said Tom Zawistowski, an Ohio tea party leader. “It’s schizophrenic. They’re one and the same.”
The debate exposes the eccentricity of Ohio politics: Seething that Kasich bypassed a recalcitrant GOP-controlled legislature and used the State Controlling Board to get Medicaid expansion, the tea party has vowed to withhold its support from him. Democrats, who support Medicaid expansion, criticize Kasich for opposing Obamacare. Meanwhile, the Ohio Republican Party, which hates Obamacare, lauds Kasich for expanding Medicaid.
Although Kasich consistently opposes the Affordable Care Act as harmful to businesses and Ohioans in general, he has said the Medicaid expansion makes sense for Ohio, and it would be foolish not to use a federal law already in place to help citizens. Under Obamacare, Ohio is to get $13 billion over seven years to expand Medicaid, with the federal government paying 100 percent for three years and 90 percent for four years. - Columbus Dispatch, 11/19/13
And Kasich's fellow Republicans aren't happy with him either:
http://www.dispatch.com/...
Some Republicans are miffed because following their wrongheaded refusal to authorize a federally funded expansion of Medicaid coverage, Kasich asked for and received the Controlling Board’s approval to spend the federal money, made available through the Affordable Care Act.
Senate Bill 228, sponsored by Republican Chris Widener of Springfield, and House Bill 328, sponsored by Republicans Ron Young of Leroy and Christina Hagan of Alliance, would limit the size of spending requests that the board could approve. The Senate bill would cap approvals at 1 percent of general revenue fund monies for the current year, or about $300 million this year. The House version has a stricter cap — no more than 3.5 percent of whatever the General Assembly has appropriated for excess funds.
Both bills amount to little more than a tantrum. The problem they purport to address is nonexistent: The Controlling Board has authorized countless large expenditures before, including allowing the Department of Education to spend $100 million in federal Race to the Top funds in 2010 and authorizing the spending of stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Moreover, tying the board’s hands with an arbitrary dollar-amount limit, requiring more spending authorizations to be approved by the full legislature, would clog up the public agenda and unnecessarily delay important state programs. - The Columbus Dispatch, 11/17/13
No good deed goes unpunished, that's for sure. Kasich may have gotten the Medicaid Expansion aspect right but will voters also remember his union-busting agenda filled with alleged ethics scandals and tax breaks for the wealthy and big business? They better. But Republican and Tea Party voters won't forget about the Medicaid Expansion. We'll have to see how this plays out. In the mean time, if you would like to donate or get involved with Ed FitzGerald's (D. OH) campaign, you can do so here:
http://www.edfitzgeraldforohio.com/