Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, said that President Reagan would be a “moderate” if he was alive today.
“I can’t figure out what’s a moderate anymore,” Kasich said during a Monday news conference with Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., a leader of the House moderate Tuesday Group. “Ronald Reagan would be a moderate these days.”
In the wake of House Republicans’ inability to partially repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with GOP votes only, Kasich—the one-time House Budget Committee chairman—and Dent said Republicans need to work with centrists Democrats to fix the nation’s healthcare system incrementally.
“You legislate from the middle and you crowd out the extremes,” Kasich said during a visit to the Capitol about how to prevent small blocs of lawmakers from creating gridlock.
“We can work with some Democrats to try and make some changes. I think the Democrats recognize the individual market is broken and needs to be fixes, there are certain taxes they don’t like, like the Cadillac tax, and certain taxes we don’t like, medical device tax and others, there might be a path forward” but it has to be bipartisan to be “sustainable, durable reform,” Dent said.
“These dialogues have to start and they have to be personal in nature and they have to start small and as then they can grow and they can flourish if people will treat one another with respect,” Kasich said.
“Charlie here, I give him a lot of credit,” he continued. “The guy’s got a lot of guts; and he can be a good leader moving forward in terms of pulling folks together to solve some problems,” Kasich said.
Dent has been on the hot seat since publicly refusing to support the Obamacare repeal bill House GOP leaders and the White House drafted. President Trump told Dent that he was “destroying” the GOP.
Dent said it’s up to the House, not Trump, to show it can function.
“Initially, I think it’s gotta start with us,” Dent said.
Kasich scoffed at the notion that Trump would scold Republicans for reaching out to Democratic colleagues.
“Donald Trump, would he care if they were talking to a Democrat?” Kasich asked. “Of course he wouldn’t care. Why would he care about that? He’s not an ideologue.”
Dent said he has already spoken to centrists Democrats such as Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., about areas where they might find common ground.
“I’ve had many conversations with some Democrats,” he said.
Dent said Republicans should try to deliver on Trump’s infrastructure next instead of moving on to overhauling the tax code, as House GOP leaders say is up next.
“I think it’s easier to assemble a bipartisan coalition on infrastructure than tax reform,” Dent said.
