Thread Below the Gardening Thread: John Kasich Edition [Y-not]

Here's a thread for political chat while we wait for the Gardening Thread to go up.

Many moons ago we reviewed a number of the GOPers running - or thought to be considering a run - for the nomination, including one John Kasich. We found very few fans amongst the morons (and moronettes) and I doubt that has changed much since then. To be fair, I have finally met a John Kasich voter, a self-described Rand Paul "fan girl" who, by her own admission, voted for Kasich purely based on "feelings." Governor Kasich is benefitting from his low profile, sliding through the debates without drawing much attention and now, seemingly, running to block Cruz and help Trump.

If your goal is to help Donald Trump win the nomination by strategically voting for Kasich, there's little to be said. However, I suspect many Kasich supporters are sincerely drawn to his low-key, "adult in the room" candidacy. That's fine, but do you know his record?

Here are a few links and resources for your to consider before casting your votes:

Ohio Medicaid expansion costs top $7.5 billion

Pull quote: "The governor predicted that adding working-age adults with no kids and no disabilities to the Medicaid rolls under the 2010 federal health law would cost $14 billion from 2014-20. Actual spending puts Kasich's Obamacare expansion on track to cost $28.5 billion by 2020."

This article is part of a long series on Ohio's Obamacare expansion that Jason has been publishing.

Kasich carries Obamacare dichotomy to Maryland

Pull quote: "The Ohio governor, a Republican, says he opposes the law despite embracing its optional expansion of Medicaid to working-age adults with no kids and no disabilities. His message went largely unchallenged by oppontents and the campaign press corps early on, but as other candidates have dropped out Kasich has faced more questions about how he would repeal Obamacare after putting 670,000 Ohioans on welfare under the law's Medicaid expansion."

Fact check: Kasich's Medicaid expansion exceeded projected costs

Pull quote: "Before Kasich used the state Controlling Board to approve $2.56 billion in federal money over GOP lawmaker's objections, his Office of Health Transformation projected 366,000 newly eligible Ohioans would enroll in Medicaid by July 2015. Ohio Medicaid estimated 275,000 would be eligible based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures. Using those numbers, Ohio's Medicaid enrollment has gone well beyond what anyone had expected. By the end of June, more than 600,000 newly eligible individuals had enrolled, according to Ohio Medicaid figures."

Related background article: Flashback: Gov. Kasich's Medicaid expansion end-run

Obamacare's Medicaid Enrollment Explosion: A Looming Fiscal Nightmare For States

(The article above is from last year, but it's still worth reading.)

John Kasich wishes more Republicans liked Democrats' ideas

Pull quote: "'See, I am a fundamental believer in ideas,' Kasich said. 'If you don't have ideas, you got nothing. And frankly, my Republican Party doesn't like ideas. They want to be negative against things.' Every word of this is trademark John Weaver, the sometime Democrat consultant running Kasich's campaign. Within a few hours, lefty opinion columnists were using Kasich's words against other Republicans."

You should also follow Jason Hart and Josh Archambault on Twitter as both provide tremendous information about Obamacare and its effects on our economy and health-care costs and services.

To me one of the oddest aspects of Kasich's candidacy is how incredibly incompetent his campaign has been run, particularly given his very long political career. As we've seen from the fundraising reports linked in the sidebar, his campaign is not financially viable. Most reports I see from him on the trail suggest that his campaign events are poorly thought out and not well-attended.

Then there are things like this:

Please do not waste your vote on this man.

posted by Open Blogger at 11:43 AM

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