Mixed reviews on Governor Kasich

  To us here at Tea Party at Perrysburg, both Barbara Sears and John Kasich have been a disappointment by expanding Medicaid in Ohio. Kasich, in particular, has drawn fire from conservatives because of his somewhat "shady" tactics in circumventing the legislature in expanding Medicaid. 
  The rationale for not expanding the fraud plagued program is here at Freedomworks:

Medicaid has been repeatedly proven to be a poorly run and ineffective program. Medicaid recipients do not see improvements in their physical health and Medicaid patients who undergo surgery are also at a greater risk than those without insurance. I could go on about how Medicaid will actually cost more for the states that have expanded it under the new health care law or that there is no guarantee that the federal government will keep its promise to reimburse states at 90-100% of their added costs, but I really want to focus on the shady tactics Kasich used to expand Medicaid.

Earlier this year, the Republican-dominated Ohio legislature passed a budget that prohibited Governor Kasich from expanding Medicaid without approval from the legislature.  Instead of respecting the will of his constituents, the Governor used a line-item veto to remove that stipulation.

  Media Trackers discusses Kasich's expansion of Medicaid as a "lie":

An estimated 90 percent of the Ohioans eligible for Medicaid under Kasich’s Obamacare Medicaid expansion are able-bodied childless adults.

Pressed by Cavuto about the 2016 GOP presidential primary, Kasich stuck by his standard reply that he’s “not interested” in running for president.

Whatever his political goals, Kasich is helping President Obama pressure states still debating the Obamacare Medicaid expansion by consistently misrepresenting the expansion as a program for drug addicts and the mentally ill that won’t increase federal spending.

 Here is an expanded discussion about the concern with Medicaid overspending on "able bodied childless adults" which has increased from "16.7 % in 1980" to 50.2% of the state budget this year:

“That’s a dramatic change,” Faber said. “It’s a change that’s stopping our ability to educate kids, it’s a change that’s stopping our ability to maintain our roads, it’s a change that’s stopping everything else we wanna do in Ohio to move the state forward.”

“Adding more people to that problem isn’t going to make the number less than 50.2 percent, and so we need to manage that problem through reform,” he continued.

The Obamacare Medicaid expansion is expected to increase Ohio’s annual Medicaid costs by nearly half a billion dollars by 2020, assuming DC keeps its impossible funding promises.

  Though Kasich has argued that expanding Medicaid is bringing Washington's Ohio dollars back to Ohio, the argument must be made that DC's spending is out of control, those dollars are temporary and simply increase the federal deficit.
  Yet Kasich has worked to balance the budget today. From his own talking points sent out last week to Wood County:

..... just a few years ago when Ohio faced an $8 billion budget shortfall? Thanks to smarter budgeting, Ohio now has a balanced budget, we have a $1.5 billion surplus and just last year we passed the largest tax cut in the nation.

Because our state’s fiscal health has been restored, the Capital Budget I recently signed is sending your state taxpayer dollars back to your community.

In fact, Wood County alone will get back $26,957,500 to make important infrastructure and building improvements in your area. If we hadn’t gotten the state’s fiscal house in order, these investments in your community wouldn’t be possible.

  Kasich's job numbers have been improving:

he U.S. Department of Labor says Ohio had the second-biggest job gains of any state in January, adding 16,700 positions.
The January state employment report released Monday says 23 states reported more hiring for that month, while 27 said that the number of jobs fell. Among those adding jobs, Ohio ranked behind only Texas, which added 33,900 positions.

  A significant reason for these numbers, as Hoosierman discusses in a previous post here, is the expansion of fracking in Ohio in the Utica Shale. Hoosierman has written on numerous occasions about the benefit of natural gas drilling in Ohio.
  Some conservatives refer to Kasich as a sort of Obama lite, particularly with his proposed fracking tax as "targeting big oil," a disingenuous and divisive argument considering that the country runs on oil and makes us dependent on foreign companies, including terror sponsors.
  For the record, oil companies receive tax breaks just as Hollywood does, not subsidies, like Planned Parenthood.
  Considering that much of our progress and lifestyle have benefited from "big oil" products, why Leftists and politicians like Kasich have made "big oil" a target is another one of those politically expedient diseases designed to metastasize in the public's mind.
  In truth, the United States has surpassed Saudi Arabia in oil production. It's not cheap to produce oil, particularly with the environmentally conscious methods used today:

The costs, as you can imagine, are forbiddingly high. Even in known oil-rich regions like the Bakken and Eagle Ford, the all-in cost of extracting a barrel of oil from the ground can cost as much as US$75 per barrel (for comparison, Saudi Arabia can produce oil for as low as US$1 per barrel). To put it in simple terms: cheap oil in North America is a thing of the past.

So, the US produces expensive oil and relies on imports of even more expensive oil. And since the refiners need to make money as well, this means higher prices at the pumps. Who loses? The US consumer, of course.

What would help lower gas prices? Building more pipelines to deliver cheaper Canadian oil to refineries in the US and decreasing the refineries' dependence on expensive foreign oil. Until these new and much safer pipelines are built, rail has to pick up the slack. Almost 400,000 railcars full of oil are expected to be shipped in 2013, compared with just 9,500 railcars in 2008, a whopping 41-fold increase.

 The truth is that oil companies make about 8 cents per gallon of gasoline. Much more goes to the governments who tax each gallon of gas:

However the federal government profits approximately .59 cents per gallon through gasoline taxes, 7 ½ times or 750% that of the oil producers themselves and 20% of the price at the pumps. Pay attention here, Washington liberals are attacking oil companies for their 2.5% gross profit margin, while Washington is profiting 20% per gallon. Democrats answer? Tax some more?

If oil companies cut their profit margins by 50%, it would drop the price of a gallon of gas by only .04 cents per gallon. If Washington law makers cut their take by 50%, gasoline would cost .30 cents per gallon less. If the federal government didn’t tax gasoline at all, the price per gallon at the pumps would be $2.40 per gallon instead of $3.00 per gallon and the oil companies would still be at a respectable 2.5% gross profit margin. Who is gouging whom?

  So when Governor Kasich crows about "big oil," we hope he bears in mind the benefits "big oil" brings to this state.
  As far as competition for the next Ohio gubernatorial race, there isn't much. We're pretty much stuck with what we've got.
  Unless, of course, he runs for president.