John Kasich did himself no favors with his Medicaid expansion answer.

James Taranto drilled down on this, I think:

The passage in question:

…Randy Kendrick, a major contributor and the wife of Ken Kendrick, the owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, rose to say she disagreed with Kasich’s decision to expand Medicaid coverage, and questioned why he’d expressed the view it was what God wanted.

The governor’s response was fiery. “I don’t know about you, lady,” he said as he pointed at Kendrick, his voice rising. “But when I get to the pearly gates, I’m going to have an answer for what I’ve done for the poor.”

The exchange left many stunned. About 20 audience members walked out of the room…

Yeah, the fallout on that outburst stretched across the Republican party.  I know plenty of people who permanently soured on John Kasich that day, and rather more who felt that they just had their previous souring confirmed.  And can you blame them? I mean, the only reason more Democrats don’t say You’re going to Hell if you don’t expand government services is because a non-trivial percentage of their base would go spare if anybody in the Democratic party ever formally confesses to a belief in Hell…

Moe Lane

PS: By the way: Medicaid is horrible and doesn’t help poor people.  It is, however, an excellent way to obscure them. I will be kind and not suggest that that is why Democratic politicians like the program so much.

5 thoughts on “John Kasich did himself no favors with his Medicaid expansion answer.”

  1. I soured on Kasich when he proved he couldn’t learn from others’ examples during the attempts to break unions in Ohio.
    .
    Walker handed Kasich a *blueprint* for how to splinter puy blic-sector union support, Kasich wiped his ass with it, and .. lost that issue.
    .
    Then, he doubled down with this bit of stupidity. To those who just now soured, glad you finally caught up, eh?
    .
    All that said .. this news makes me very, very happy. See, Kasich is an Establishment guy… he’s cut from the same (xxl) cloth as Jeb Bush or Chris Christie .. his *only* real claim to the nomination is he’s won Ohio. (that’s not small potatoes, but .. it’s not enough.)
    .
    So .. why am I happy? The last time Establishment guys were falling all over one another this late into the season, IIRC, was … 1980.
    .
    Mew

  2. If your answer at the Pearly Gates is that “I gave the poor some of everybody else’s money,” I’m afraid that might not prove as popular there as some might think.

  3. John, we already have a Midwest governor in the race, who is, honestly, a lot better suited for President than you. and VP is out, that will be either someone named Marco or someone picked by Marco.

  4. See this is what differentiates John Kasich from Snyder and Martinez ( and Pence before RFRA debacle) and that is the manner in which he passed Medicaid expansion ( via executive fiat, and saying anyone who disagreed was going to hell)

    People accept policy differences, they don’t accept being told they’re evil, certainly not from someone expecting their vote.

    Did John Kasich learn nothing from Gordon Brown ( and Labour in general) what happens when you insult voters?

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