HOLLIS, N.H. — Ohio Gov. John Kasich, following a town hall on Friday, tried to justify his 2013 decision to bypass his state’s full legislature to expand Medicaid through Obamacare.
Kasich’s decision to expand Medicaid remains one of the biggest obstacles he faces in attracting the support of conservatives during his presidential run, which is one reason why he’s been focusing on New Hampshire, which has a more moderate electorate and allows independents to vote in GOP primaries.
During a press availability following his townhall meeting, I noted that one of the big complaints conservatives have about President Obama is that he goes around Congress to advance his agenda. I asked how conservatives could trust Kasich not to do the same given that he went around the legislature to expand Medicaid in 2013.
“Paul Harvey has this thing, called the rest of the story,” Kasich responded, before giving his version of events. “The fact is we took this through the Controlling Board, which is a group of legislators who are appointed by the leadership. The leadership felt it was better to take it through the Controlling Board then 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. And it passed.”
What actually happened was that when the full legislature passed his budget, they stripped out the Medicaid expansion. So Kasich went to a small seven-member legislative board, which included one of his appointees and two Democrats. To help get enough votes, one of the members was replaced with a term-limited Republican who supported the expansion.
At the time, Senate President Keith Farber said, “I have repeatedly stated my opposition to the expansion of Medicaid in Ohio, but the governor made this decision without legislative approval… The Controlling Board does not have the authority to expand the Medicaid program.”
I noted to Kasich that the legislature opposed the expansion.
“No, if the legislature opposed it, it wouldn’t have passed through the Controlling Board,” he said.
Kasich then boasted that his allies rigged the board so the outcome was a forgone conclusion.
“Leadership appointed the members of the Controlling Board so that I could win, okay?” he said.
Kasich then addressed the rest of the assembled press, “Does everybody understand what I’m saying? So in other words, sometimes, the legislature would prefer not to have a vote.”
I noted that sometimes rank-and-file members disagree with leadership.
“Whoa, 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,” he said to me.
I interjected that this meant they were unaccountable to their voters.
“They are accountable, they’re elected officials that serve on the Controlling Board appointed by the leadership, so you just gotta get it straight,” he said.
But if I am getting it straight, Kasich’s argument is that the legislature actually supported Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, but they didn’t approve it, because they were afraid of facing primary voters. So he did them a favor by denying them the ability to vote and instead forcing the expansion through a small board that was rigged so he could get his way.
