Kasich fails to stand on principle

You know it's a bad month for Ohio's Republican governor when the liberals – who will never vote for him – are offering praise, while the conservatives – who might not vote for him a second time – are beginning to voice some well-deserved criticism.

In 2010, Kasich campaigned as a "small-government" alternative to incumbent Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland.

Riding the national wave of Tea Party campaign success stories, Kasich upset his liberal opponent.

Now, instead of listening to the Tea Party, Kasich appears to be reading the tea leaves.

That's what national radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said last week. “Kasich is up for re-election, and he wants to win,” Limbaugh said on his radio show. “He’s reading tea leaves. Other governors are doing the same thing.”

Limbaugh is by no means the only one to notice Kasich's drift into the shallow, liberal waters, as he accepts a significant expansion of Medicaid as part of the state's newfound love of ObamaCare.

Peter Weber, at www.the week.com, reports: "Kasich's opt-in is a bigger deal (than other GOP governors who support ObamaCare). As House Budget Committee chairman during the Newt Gingrich years, the 'fiercely conservative Kasich built his political identity arguing for smaller government,' says David Nather at Politico.

"And the expansion of Medicaid to every Ohio resident earning up to roughly 133 percent of the poverty level is inarguably a big expansion of government – and an embrace of a key mechanism of ObamaCare. That is not going over well with Kasich's conservative and Tea Party supporters, since he was one of their best hopes to stop ObamaCare at the state level.'"

Highland County Press columnist (and former Highland County Republican of the Year) Gary Lewis wrote in this weekend's column: "Governor Kasich, your latest budget proposal has shown you to be a sellout to the conservative movement and you are a big disappointment.

"You are trying to be too cute by half and (for you leftists out there that means he’s being too sneaky and in many big instances he’s simply proving to be a liberal). … The buy-in of Obamacare and the expansion of Medicaid are big disappointments." Lewis said.

Give Gary credit. He stands on principle and is not afraid to criticize those in his own party. (Something his liberal detractors rarely, if ever, do.)

Phillip Klein at The Washington Examiner writes: "Kasich's welcoming of more Medicaid is a huge victory for the White House that will provide cover for more Republican governors to do the same. But it's also a great demonstration of how difficult it is to defeat big government. On one level, this is a great deal for Ohio — the federal government will pay for 100 percent of the new coverage for three years, then 90 percent. But this comes at a cost to federal taxpayers — $932 billion over a decade," (if all states participated).

Oh, hell. What's another trillion dollars to American taxpayers? We're already in the hole for another $16 trillion, give or take.

As we've previously reported, states may extend Medicaid to 19- to 64-year-old individuals if their family's income was less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level, and the federal government will cover 100 percent of their costs through 2016. Beginning in 2017, the states will have to cover 5 percent, which will gradually increase to 10 percent in 2020.

However, the Supreme Court decided the government could not penalize states for not participating in the expansion by withholding Medicaid funds for existing programs.

Perhaps Kasich's harshest critics, to date, are the editors at the world's greatest fortnightly magazine, National Review.

National Review offers that: "Kasich has joined the dishonor roll of Republican leaders backing an expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Our earlier criticism of Arizona governor Jan Brewer applies equally to the case of Ohio: The governor has allowed himself to be bought off by the false promise of 'free money' from the federal government.

"Acceding to the Medicaid expansion, Kasich reasons, 'avoids leaving Ohioans’ federal tax dollars on the table and keeps the federal government from simply giving them away to other states.' … The critical difference between the Medicaid expansion and most other federal subsidies is that governors are in a position to resist the expansion of Medicaid if they so choose: The Supreme Court has made it abundantly clear that the federal government may not coerce the states into cooperating with the Medicaid expansion, and if enough states opt out, the expansion cannot work. Kasich is marching in the Obamacare parade by his own volition.

"Federal health-care spending in aggregate is the major driver of our national deficits going forward, and Medicaid is no small part of that problem. But the perverse structure of the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare makes spending attractive: Like a street-corner drug dealer, Washington offers the first taste of Medicaid expansion for free, picking up 100 cents on the dollar of the costs. Afterward, the states will be expected to pick up at most 10 percent of the cost, again creating the illusion of something for nothing. … Somebody, somewhere, has to say, 'No.' Saying 'no' to wasteful government spending is purportedly a very large part of what Republicans seek elected office to do. Kasich had the opportunity to do so, but instead decided to take the money and run. Because Kasich is the governor of a large and politically important state, his example is a particularly unhelpful one with other Republicans still on the fence."

Unlike the suddenly liberal, big-government Ohio governor, two other Midwest state executives have pledged to resist the street-corner temptations.

Last week, Gov. Mike Pence, R-Indiana, and Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wisconsin, said they would not support their respective states' Medicaid expansion as allowed under ObamaCare. In fact, Pence called Medicaid a "broken" system. (Which it is.)

"Whatever justifications Kasich may give, the actual explanation for his embrace of the Medicaid expansion is political cowardice," The Washington Examiner said.

"Chastened by his failed attempt at public-sector union reform (remember SB 5?) and Obama's victory in (Ohio), Kasich is up for re-election next year. And he's afraid to stand up to the inevitable onslaught of attacks from Democrats who would charge that he was refusing to accept free money to bring health care to poor Ohioans. The end result is that a politician who ran for office claiming to have been 'in the Tea Party before there was a Tea Party' is now actively embracing a policy that the Tea Party movement was born to oppose. This should serve as a sober reminder to conservatives that no matter how big of a disaster ObamaCare is when it's implemented in 2014, the nation is almost certainly stuck with it."

What Kasich fails to comprehend is similar to what the Grand Old Party often fails to comprehend: Just because you are elected as a conservative, then govern like a liberal does not, for an instant, mean that liberals will vote for you. They won't. Yes, many will champion your latest liberal causes and your new left-leaning agenda. But that's all political fun and games.

When it comes time to cast a ballot, your new liberal BFF today will still be voting for Richard Cordray or anyone else with a "D" after his or her name come November 2014.

Meanwhile, you've just told all Ohio conservatives to stay home on election day. Many of us just might.

When local Republicans gather at this year's Lincoln Day dinner, this question will certainly be on everyone's mind: What do those allegedly conservative Republicans in the Ohio General Assembly think about Kasich's embracement of ObamaCare and what will they do to oppose it?

Many of these lawmakers – intelligent voters might recall – ran for office on their own platforms of a smaller, more efficient government. What do they have to say now? Anyone?

Kat got your tongue?

Ah, the sound of silence.

The Republican governor also just proposed a new $63.3 billion, two-year state budget which calls for a slew of new applications to Ohio's tax code. All of these new taxes will be detrimental to Ohio's economic recovery, too, as private businesses will be forced to pass on these new taxes to Ohio consumers.

Wonder what Ohio's GOP state representatives and senators think about all those new taxes? (By the way, The Highland County Press has a longstanding guest column invitation to our state lawmakers. Which brings to mind the "good old days" when admirable southern Ohio lawmakers like Cooper Snyder and Doug White never missed their weekly newspaper column deadline. But I digress.)

While the governor has plotted Ohio's course in support of ObamaCare, the Republican majorities in the Ohio House and Senate can still have a positive impact by working against the governor's proposed spending increases and new taxes in the next biennial budget – which is all too typical of Big Government.

The bottom line is this: Are today's Ohio Republicans any less liberal than those so-called "tax-and-spend" Democrats that they like to chastise at every campaign stop?

We'll see. We'll also see if anyone in Columbus can stand on principle.

Rory Ryan is publisher of The Highland County Press.