Photo credit: The Ohio Channel

SAME OLD SONG: Ohio Gov. John Kasich repeated his usual Obamacare rhetoric during his State of the State speech

Gov. John Kasich’s Medicaid expansion promotional tour made a pit stop in Ohio when Kasich visited for his annual State of the State speech Wednesday.

Kasich, a Republican, unilaterally expanded Medicaid after vetoing a legislative ban on doing so. He says he would repeal the 2010 federal health law that created and funds the expansion, but his presidential campaign is built around its success.

Since announcing his support for Obamacare expansion in February 2013, Kasich has stuck with a short list of easily refuted pro-expansion talking points. Wednesday’s speech in Marietta was no exception.

“The formula is working: fiscal responsibility, commonsense regulations, and of course always looking to cut taxes,” Kasich said. “And with the prosperity that comes from job creation and economic growth, we have the resources to go further and reach out to those who might otherwise be ignored.”

“And we should also take into account the fact that because of the prosperity and the additional resources, we’ve been helping the mentally ill, giving hope to the drug-addicted, the disabled and the working poor, and we should all be proud of that,” he continued.

Kasich’s Obamacare expansion is in no way a product of Ohio’s economic growth: benefits are 100 percent funded by the feds until the end of this year, and expansion enrollment has grown four times faster than private-sector employment. …read more here