GOP governor: Obamacare has made ‘real improvements in people’s lives’

[babylonsister]

Oops!

Posted with permission.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-governor-obamacare-has-made-real-improvements-peoples-lives

GOP governor: Obamacare has made ‘real improvements in people’s lives’
10/21/14 08:40 AM—Updated 10/21/14 04:31 PM
By Steve Benen


Once in a great while, a politician will slip and accidentally tell the truth. Take Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), for example, who inadvertently praised the Affordable Care Act.

“Repeal and replace” has been a Republican mantra for nearly as long as Obamacare has been in existence. Yet one of the GOP’s rumored 2016 front-runners isn’t playing along.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is expected to cruise to reelection this year and then seek the Republican nomination in 2016, recently told the Associated Press that repealing the Affordable Care is “not gonna happen.” “The opposition to it was really either political or ideological,” he said. “I don’t think that holds water against real flesh and blood, and real improvements in people’s lives.”

You could almost hear Kasich’s national ambitions evaporating as the AP article made the rounds.

In context, it’s hard to tell whether the Ohio Republican was speaking about the Affordable Care Act overall or specifically the part of the law related to Medicaid expansion, which Kasich has long supported. In either case, for a prominent GOP policymaker – a former Fox News analyst, no less – to admit out loud that all or part of “Obamacare” is making “real improvements in people’s lives” is a striking development. Kasich’s assessment, which happens to be true, is a reminder that the right’s repeal crusade has already died with a whimper.

Of course, Kasich was forced to scramble last night, undoing the political damage done by his candor. The Ohio governor turned to Twitter to say, “As always, my position is that we need to repeal and replace,” but the damage was already done. Kasich has already made clear – in words and deeds – that he sees no future in repealing the entirety of the federal health care system. Indeed, was fairly explicit on this, telling the AP that the right-wing arguments don’t hold water “against real flesh and blood.”

Jonathan Cohn added a good point:

This is heresy on the political right, although it shouldn’t be. It’s easy to forget, but the basic idea of Obamacare – a system of competing private insurance plans, with subsidies to help lower income people pay them – used to have the support from many conservatives. Many of the law’s features, like a cap on the tax exemption for group health insurance, remain popular on the right. And while Republicans don’t typically like Medicaid, there’s a long history of Republican governors working with Washington to implement the program in ways that ultimately benefit their states.

The reason you don’t hear more praise like this from Republicans is largely political (it’s Obama’s law) and ideological (it involves some government intervention) – which, of course, was precisely Kasich’s point.

In fact, I’d add that Kasich, during his congressional tenure, introduced a health care reform plan of his own, and looking back at his 1994 blueprint, Kasichcare looks pretty similar to Obamacare.

In the short term, Kasich’s candor on health care probably won’t have much of an effect on his career – the incumbent governor has a big lead in the polls over his Democratic challenger, and with just two weeks remaining, it’ll take more than honest rhetoric about health care to shake up that race.

But in the long term, the Ohio Republican has committed a mortal Republican sin by giving away a secret the GOP tries to keep hidden: President Obama’s health care reform system is actually helping people, and its opponents on the right largely deserve to be ignored. Were Kasich to run for national office, this would be quite an albatross.

[Cali_Democrat]

1. Remember how the media was giddy one year ago when they savaged Obamacare because of website issues?

Millions of Americans have been helped by the law and now the media is silent.

The media is nowhere to be found.

Liberal media my ass.

[Doctor_J]

2. there is no way it will ever be repealed

Big Insurance will not let it happen. There will probably be another hundred or so phony votes to repeal, but it will never go away. The same people who paid billions to get it passed (Big Insurance, PHARMA) can use part of their hundreds of millions in annual profits to bribe the legislators. The "repeal" votes are theater - just like the negotiations in 2009-2010. I am proud to say I am paying 1/4 of my annual take-home pay in premiums, co-pays, deductibles, co-insurance, and whatever else the Act legalized - just like a good American should.

[Cali_Democrat]

3. You know who doesn't want it repealed?

Bernie Sanders.

He even voted for it.

Know who he is? He's the dude in your avatar...

[Doctor_J]

4. Snark. Yeahright

You forgot to put in how it's going to lead to single payer. Keep holding on to your fantasy.

Clue: the president is a corporate politician, just like the other in DC. Your lust for him and all of his policies is helping to kill the country.

[Andy823]

6. And if I may say

Last edited Wed Oct 22, 2014, 04:09 PM - Edit history (1)

Your "lust" to discredit everything about him is very unbecoming, especially on a board for democrats! Just saying!

[NastyRiffraff]

5. Won't affect the current election but..

they'll come after him hard in 2016 (the Republicans, I mean. Dems just have to sit back and watch it happen).

[redruddyred]

11. gee I hope you're right.

problem is, we haven't been able to get enough done to shove in their faces down the line. the aca was the exception rather than the rule.

[samsingh]

8. i hate when people say the gop is going what it believes is right for america

i don't think they are. they know they are saying crap and doing crap to appeal to a vocal disgusting base. they know what they are doing hurts the middle class and Americans everywhere.

[redruddyred]

10. some of them are paid off, while others are just plain ignorant.

I think paul ryan believes at least half the crap he says. he is a rand acolyte after all. whether or not their rhetoric is honest, that's another question altogether.

[redruddyred]

9. “The opposition to it was really either political or ideological"

it's incredible that politicians will hold free market purity above common sense solutions to glaring problems. if we had any sense at all, we would fire their asses.