MANCHESTER, N.H. — Ohio Gov. John Kasich claimed during Saturday’s Republican presidential debate that he hasn’t tried to ‘trump’ the legislature, but he actually bypassed his state’s legislature to expand Medicaid through Obamacare.
In response to a question by Hotair.com’s Mary Katharine Ham about executive authority, Kasich said, “An executive order should be used frankly in consolidation and with consulting with the leadership in the — in the Congress. I’ve done it in Ohio. I consult. I could use executive orders, but I don’t trump the legislature, because if you do, you aggravate them, you anger them and then the long-term prospects get bleak.”
But when it came to expanding Obamacare as governor, it was a different story. In 2013, the state legislature stripped the Medicaid expansion from his budget and blocked him from implementing it, but he vetoed that provision and rammed the plan through a seven-member panel known as the Controlling Board rather than putting it through the full legislature.
When I pressed Kasich on this point on Friday, Kasich claimed — incredibly — that going through the panel actually represented approval by the legislature, and he actually did a favor to legislators by sparing them from a vote that would give them trouble in a Republican primary.
“The leadership felt it was better to take it through the Controlling Board than to force a vote in the House and the Senate so people didn’t have to face primaries from people who distorted what we were doing,” he said.
He later added, “a lot of rank-and-file members were thrilled that we took it through the Controlling Board because they didn’t have to vote on it and worry about a primary.”
Watch Kasich’s full response to my question here.
