John Kasich's Medicaid Stand Diminishes Scott Walker

War is not over. Look to Twain and history for Tea Party Glory as Good Americans invoke the God of Battles, beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpouring of fervid eloquence which moved every bible-reading listener, inspiring Andy Borowitz to an act of rapture from which he emitted in The New Yorker: "The dream of keeping poor people from seeing a doctor must never die."
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Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) is making headlines for acting to get his state $2.5 billion in extra Medicaid funds for 275,000 Ohioans under provisions in the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) or ObamaCare that help the working poor and unemployed whom, out of an act of conscience for Kasich is drawing loud reaction from the right.

"When you die and get to the meeting with St. Peter, he's probably not going to ask you much about what you did about keeping government small, but he's going to ask you what you did for the poor," said Kasich after moving to get Ohio $2.5 Billion in Medicaid money from the federal ACA or ObamaCare.

Medicaid is a joint federal and state-funded program that provides health care for over 60 million low-income Americans, with the ancillary benefits of boosting the living standards of low-wage workers and increasing the purchasing power of working families.

"This is not a program designed to encourage dependency. It is a program designed to construct a bridge so that people can be functioning in a way where they can contribute," said Kasich in mid-October.

Eight Republican governors have now opted in the ObamaCare Medicaid provisions for their states.

Wisconsin's Scott Walker is conspicuously not one of them.

In an infamous Walker statement in rejecting $billions in Medicaid for Wisconsin citizens, Walker said, "I care too much about the people of this state not to empower them to control their own destiny." (Stein. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. February 13, 2013)

Walker says this in his administration that has proven to be an outfit of uninterrupted cronyism and corruption.

This is not just the foolish economics in essentially (and hypocritically) punishing low-income working families, but is also intentional infliction of distress on people's lives as Walker and his political allies live in the bubble, a narrow and fanatical ideological make-believe world costing the economy $billions on Medicaid alone.

Writes Paul Krugman in June 2103: "Just think about this for a minute. It's one thing when politicians refuse to spend money helping the poor and vulnerable; that's just business as usual. But here we have a case in which politicians are, in effect, spending large sums, in the form of rejected aid, not to help the poor but to hurt them."

Kasich has drawn the support of faith-based groups, unions, several business groups such as the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, major hospitals and health care providers, notes Diane Suchetka of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Virtually every Ohio Democratic Party officeholder applauds Kasich as the Tea Party and rightwing scream bloody murder in a ferocious campaign not seen since the GOP tried to stop Medicare in the 1960s.

John Kasich has been transformed from a Tax Cutter and Job Grower to a man whom Jason Hart says is losing his commitment to "freedom."