Chris Christie...You're Damn Right I Expanded Medicaid!

Via @DraftRyan2016 we have another "Christie confronts voter at town hall" video that made him so famous in his first term.

The wrinkle in this one is that while he's debating a lefty he defends himself not by making the conservative case against government healthcare but praising how much he's expanded it already.

Sure he says he hates ObamaCare but he's pretty proud that he's taken the ObamaCare money to expand Medicaid (you know the system that is a total waste of money) and boasts that NJ's Medicaid system is the 2nd most generous in the country. So you know...Conservative! Maybe even severely.

Of course being so generous with Medicaid comes at a cost in taxes and the resulting flight from New Jersey to lower tax states (via NJ refugee @johnekdahl). Now, Chrisite has done some good on taxes in NJ but to brag that their welfare benefits are so generous and he's happily expanding them is a slap to the people who have to pay for them.

Republicans want to make some made up distinction between ObamaCare Medicaid expansion and the exchanges but conservatives shouldn't let them get away with it.

What I said in 2010 about Romney's inability to take on ObamaCare because of his entanglement with MittCare applies to Chrisite or any other GOP governor who has taken ObamaCare Medicaid money.

Even if Romney does say he opposes the individual mandate, he still has said he'd take credit for Obama's health care "accomplishment". Given his background with the issue and weird statements about the law since its passage, Romney is simply damaged goods when it comes to health care.

He might still be able to come up with a convincing narrative to explain the differences between MassCare and ObamaCare as well as his role in the former. But then the debate will be about Mitt and what he thought then vs. now and whether he can be reliable going forward. Meanwhile the focus will be off Obama and the damage done by this health care scheme.

Republicans need the issue to be a clean and clear choice...we have to nominate someone who was opposed to ObamaCare from the start. Only then will the focus stay on Obama and what he has wrought.

If ObamaCare is going to be a lead GOP issue in 2016 you can't have someone on the ticket who is compromised by it.

posted by DrewM. at 12:39 PM

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