Two months after introducing his policy-packed budget plan and launching an all-out sales pitch to pass it, Ohio Gov. John Kasich is no closer to getting what he wants.
So given the bully pulpit Wednesday at a City Club of Cleveland forum, Kasich tried a little bit of everything to freshen up his sales pitch and persuade his fellow — typically loyal — Republicans to back at least some of his proposals.
Recognizing in the crowd State Rep. Marlene Anielski, “whose vote I need on Medicaid expansion,” he tried a carrot.
“I need to go out and wash her car,” Kasich said as he opened his presentation.
When wrapping up his presentation 68 minutes later, he tried a stick instead.
“Kick them in the shins if they’re not going to vote for this,” he said, combining playful with prickly.
But between Kasich’s pleas were several acknowledgements that parts of his two-year budget appear doomed, despite GOP majorities in the House and Senate. Republican lawmakers have balked at Medicaid expansion and proposals to raise taxes on oil and gas drillers while extending the state sales tax to include products and services never before subject to it.
A deeper tax base would help him achieve a 20 percent cut to income taxes.
“It is always necessary to push, to create, to innovate,” Kasich said. “And even if you’re pushing and creating and innovating with your ideas, you can’t fall so much in love with them that you’re not in a position to be able to accept the tweaks and changes and some other directions that come. Because if you can’t, it gets to be a matter of ego, and I’ve learned not only in politics, but in life, that too big an ego always brings you down. So, be open-minded.”
Kasich’s tone of compromise changed, though, whenever the subject shifted to Medicaid expansion. Conservatives have blasted move as the embrace of a flawed system and of President Barack Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Tea Party activists have threatened primaries against Republican lawmakers who vote for the expansion.
“This nasty, mean politics must come to an end,” Kasich said Wednesday. “When it comes particularly to poor people, there is no partisanship. I don’t care if they’re addicted. I don’t care if they’re disabled. I’m not leaving them behind.”
While some conservative leaders have sought to make the Medicaid issue a referendum on Obama’s health care program, the governor has responded by characterizing it as a test of religious faith and compassion. The expansion would provide medical coverage to about 275,000 new Medicaid enrollees, state officials say. The state is expected to see a net gain of $235 million over two years if Kasich accepts the federal dollars being offered to pay for the program’s growth.
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