Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Earlier this week, former FAUX News host anf Governor of Ohio, John Kasich, used a quirk in Ohio law to enact Medicaid expansion in his state, and to divide his party. Ohio will expand Medicaid after months-long battle between governor and legislature:
Ohio agreed Monday to offer Medicaid to about 300,000 more low-income
people, a major victory for Gov. John Kasich over fellow Republicans
who control the state legislature and oppose the expansion.
After nine months of battling with the state GOP’s conservative
wing, Kasich resorted to an uncommon maneuver in which he turned to a
relatively obscure state board with power over certain budget decisions.
The board voted to accept $2.55 billion in federal money to cover the
cost of expanding Medicaid in Ohio through July 2015.
The 5 to 2 vote by the Controlling Board, composed mainly of a small
group of lawmakers, is only a temporary answer to a question that has
been roiling politics in Ohio — and other states — for more than a year.
It does not spell out whether Ohio will provide money to keep Medicaid
more generous in future years, when the state would need to chip in a
small portion of the expense. And even before the board acted, some
conservative Republican lawmakers were threatening to go to court,
alleging the governor illegally bypassed the legislature.
Kasich has championed the expansion on grounds both biblical and
economic. He has said that, as a moral matter, the state should provide
medical help “for those that live in the shadows of life.” And he has
argued, with support from business groups, that reducing the state’s
population of uninsured people ultimately translates into more jobs.
* * *
State figures suggest that 275,000 Ohioans will become eligible for Medicaid for the first time. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that
330,000 people in Ohio would have fallen into a coverage gap without
the expansion.
Just like here in Arizona, Tea-Publican legislators in Ohio today have sued their Tea-Publican Governor over expanding Medicaid to the state's poorest citizens. Suit filed over Medicaid expansion; bill to cut taxes introduced:
Opponents of the Medicaid expansion approved Monday by the state Controlling Board claim the
vote violated state law and the Ohio Constitution. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of six state
representatives and Right to Life chapters in Cleveland and Cincinnati (Ohio Right to Life supports
the expansion). It asks justices to order the Controlling Board to reconvene and reject the
proposal, and to prohibit the state Department of Medicaid from receiving funds for the
expansion.
Those filing the suit “have a clear legal right to reversal of the Controlling Board’s action
expanding Medicaid spending in Ohio,” the lawsuit says, “because the Controlling Board is without
authority to act in a manner contrary to the intention of the General Assembly.” The House stripped
Gov. John Kasich’s proposed expansion from the state budget; the Republican-controlled Senate did
not add it; and the final budget they sent to Kasich included a provision barring expansion without
legislative approval — which Kasich vetoed.
Republican state Reps. Ron Young of LeRoy, Matt Lynch of Chagrin Falls, Ron Hood of Ashville,
Andy Thompson of Marietta, Ron Maag of Lebanon and John Becker of Cincinnati are the lawmakers who
signed onto the lawsuit.
“Each representative is disenfranchised in his legislative capacity through the Controlling
Board’s exercise of legislative authority,” the lawsuit says.
Does that sound familiar to you? This is exactly what our Tea-Publican legislators assert against Gov. Jan Brewer. But wait, theres more . . . This evil little twist from Ohio Tea-Publicans may be something we see in the Arizona legislature come January, although our finances are far different.
The $400 million saved by Medicaid expansion would go for a 4 percent state income-tax cut under
a bill introduced yesterday by a Senate leader. But there will be no savings and no expansion if [the]
lawsuit filed later in the day with the Ohio Supreme Court is successful.
* * *
The No. 2 leader of the Senate is sponsoring the tax-cut bill. Sen. Chris Widener,
R-Springfield, who on Monday was among the five members of the Controlling Board voting in favor of
Kasich’s request to spend $2.56 billion in federal money for the Medicaid expansion, said he hopes
the tax cut will pass the Senate the first week of November.
“This seems to be an appropriate way to start the conversation and add to that tax cut we
started in the budget,” Widener said.
The $400 million is available because when Republican lawmakers stripped Medicaid expansion out
of Kasich’s proposed budget this spring, they also eliminated a proposed 5 percent cut of hospital
rates and a 1 percent cut for managed health-care plans, while adding $27 million for health care
for prison inmates.
With Medicaid expansion approved, the Kasich administration can restore those cuts, and the
state anticipates collecting another $117 million in sales taxes from services performed under the
expansion.
The First and Only Commandment of the GOP is not "no new taxes," but "always cut taxes." The health care plan of the GOP is to "let people die, and decrease the surplus population."
Jan Brewer should give John Kasich a call to commisurate.