Posted on 01/22/2016 8:08:33 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s Obamacare expansion passed another exciting milestone last month: $6 billion in new federal spending!
Can you believe how generous Kasich is with your money? He’s a regular Prince of Light and Hope.
Medicaid benefits for Ohio’s 650,000 Obamacare expansion enrollees cost $406 million in December. For context, that was more than the state’s higher education and criminal justice spending combined.
If you’re a fan of Obamacare, this represents a rip-roaring success. If you’re not, I should clarify that we are, in fact, talking about the John Kasich who is running for president as a Republican.
Since January 2014, Kasich’s expansion of Medicaid to working-age adults with no kids and no disabilities has added 5% of Ohio’s population to the welfare rolls and has cost federal taxpayers $6.4 billion.
In 2013, before Kasich vetoed the Ohio General Assembly’s ban on Obamacare expansion and expanded Medicaid unilaterally, critics said costs and enrollment would be higher than expected.
Who was right?
Kasich projected enrollment would reach 447,000 in 2020. He underestimated costs for the first 18 months by $1.5 billion.
In a speech this week to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, Kasich boasted about saving lives by spending $14 billion to put more Ohioans on Medicaid… and then, seconds later, he bragged about slowing Ohio Medicaid spending growth.
Kasich’s $14 billion figure -- the amount of “Ohio money” he says he’s “bringing back” -- is an old estimate of Obamacare expansion costs through 2020. Based on actual spending, Kasich is understating costs by at least $10 billion.
Of course, there is no vault of “Ohio money” for Kasich to “bring back” to the state, just like there’s no vault of New Jersey money paying for Chris Christie’s Obamacare expansion. It’s all new federal spending.
Assuming Obamacare isn’t repealed under a Republican president, Ohio will be on the hook for 5% of the expansion’s benefit costs next year and 10% in 2020. Where’s that state match of $40 million+ per month going to come from?
By design, Obamacare expansion’s promised 90% federal match rate will make states prioritize welfare spending on childless, able-bodied, working-age adults over programs for the truly needy.
But maybe it’s silly to see Kasich’s Obamacare expansion as the worst policy implemented in Ohio in 30 years.
In the interest of fun and fairness, following are several counterarguments from Obamacare expansion supporters. See if you can guess who said each line: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, or Martin O’Malley.
Scroll down for the answers.
Ready for the answers?
Here we go:
These quotes are only a sample of the condescending pro-Obamacare rhetoric Preacher Kasich’s Obamacare Roadshow has been hawking across the country since 2013.
And yet at each debate he touts his economic conservative cred.
That’s STOOOOOPID! Even by McKees Rocks standards!
Thankfully he has zero chance of getting the nomination.
Trouble now is, he could be VP.
RE: And yet at each debate he touts his economic conservative cred.
Yes, and he keeps emphasizing that he’s the son of a mailman. I bet he’ll repeat that in the next debate.
“Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s Obamacare expansion passed another exciting milestone last month: $6 billion in new federal spending!”
TOTALITARIANCARE expansion costing $6 billion in new federal spending. Haven’t we, our children, our grandchildren been plundered enough?
Socialism Is Legal Plunder - “The Law” - Frederic Bastiat
Prison is too good for these punks.
The federal debt increased each year John Kasich was in Congress. I don’t know how that was possible if he balanced four budgets as he claims, but it is a fact. The last year our national debt did not increase was 1957.
Why has he done so well in New Hampshire lately?
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