Gov. Kasich Will Still Murder Your Obamacare, Ohio, Except For All The Parts Of It

This one makes a lot of sense: Ohio Gov. John Kasich kind of embarrassed himself by speaking a very uncomfortable truth Monday, saying that even though Republicans like to talk about repealing Obamacare, it's just "not gonna happen," and that Republican opposition to the Affordable Care Act was "really either political or ideological." Or at least that's what the Associated pressquoted him as saying. 

After the predictable "Kasich breaks with party" stories came out, however, Kasich explained that, no, he didn't mean Obamacare. He still thinks that Obamacare can and should be repealed. Instead, what he really REALLY meant was that Medicaid expansion, which in his mind is somehow not part of Obamacare, shouldn't be repealed:

“I have favored expanding Medicaid, but I don’t really see expanding Medicaid as really connected to Obamacare,” Kasich told Politico. 

This is a rather interesting position, seeing as how Medicaid expansion originated with that bill called the "Affordable Care Act." It's especially puzzling, given that 20 states have refused to expand Medicaid because they say it's part of something that they have stubbornly been calling "Obamacare." Looks like John Kasich needs to go and explain to those states that it's not "really connected" to the ACA. In fact, we rather wish he would do that!

Nevertheless, Kasich still insists that every last word of Obamacare needs to be repealed, and the few half-assed proposals to "repeal and replace" the ACA have not included any provisions for keeping Medicaid expansion. Just to clarify, Kasich sent out a couple of tweets to clarify that the AP got it completely wrong, since he was only talking about Medicaid expansion, which is not part of Obamacare:

Wonkette sought a response from Gov. Kasich, who was unavailable for comment as he had once again mistaken his ass for a hole in the ground.

[ TPM / Politico / AP / WaPo ]