Kasich, new TV ads, Obamacare and Medicaid expansion in Ohio

Despite the fact that it's summer when political things usually slow down, there's a lot of activity going on when it comes to Medicaid and Obamacare...

At a rally yesterday in Columbus, Ohio Gov. John Kasich continued his push for an expansion of Medicaid and enrolling up to 366,000 new members by the end of the year.

The General Assembly rejected this expansion as part of the state's two-year budget which they passed last month.

Jason Hart at MediaTrackers has good coverage of the event starting with:

Governor John Kasich stuck to his practiced Medicaid expansion pitch – a mix of progressive pseudo-Christianity and outright falsehoods about the program’s funding – during a speech at a July 9 Statehouse rally for socialized medicine.

As his administration has done for months, the Republican governor conflated Medicaid coverage with “health care,” though 28 percent of Ohio’s office-based physicians were already refusing new Medicaid patients in 2011 and a recent study found that Medicaid coverage does not improve physical health.

Americans for Prosperity - Ohio, one of the leading critics of expanding the state's Medicaid rolls (as allowed under law), argues that expanding Medicaid rolls will push thousands of low-income Ohioans into a shoddy system at enormous cost.

"AFP will continue to educate Ohioans about the problems with Medicaid expansion. Ohioans need more health care choices, not more sub-par, bureaucrat-controlled health care and higher taxes," Eli Miller, State Director of AFP-Ohio, said.

Also yesterday, in conjunction with the AFP-Ohio efforts, broadcast and cable networks in Ohio started airing a new ad from Americans for Prosperity. The goal of the ad is to "expose the major problems with the Pres. Obama's health care law, the Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare."

It's called “Questions,” and features the story of Julie, a mother of two who started paying close attention to her family’s health care options after her son began having seizures. The threat of shrinking options, higher premiums, and Washington bureaucrats making health care decisions leaves her with serious concerns about ObamaCare.



"The American people have serious questions and concerns about the negative impact of ObamaCare," Miller said."Ohioans are waking up to higher premiums and fewer choices, but are being told by President Obama and outside groups that everything is just fine. Well President Obama, everything isn't just fine. We feel it is important to educate Ohioans on the true consequences of government intrusion into the private health care decisions of families."

AFP-OH and state chapters across the nation plan to host events and meet-ups to further educate and provide information on the negative consequences of ObamaCare.

AFP describes itself as "a nationwide organization of citizen-leaders committed to advancing every individual’s right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP believes reducing the size and intrusiveness of government is the best way to promote individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans."

The AFP ad competes with a national buy from the pro-Obama Organizing for Action, though both groups say the timing is coincidental.

Called "Better Coverage," the OFA ad features Stacey Lihn, who is also a young mom, and focuses on the Obamacare provision that eliminates a lifetime cap on benefits. “Thanks to Obamacare, we can now afford the care that Zoe needs. And for her, that’s a lifesaver,” she says.



Both ads are going after a key demographic in the health care debate, as this quote from a 2010 Time article explains:

Women make the primary health care decisions in two-thirds of American households. They account for 80 cents out of every dollar spent in drugstores and are likelier than men to choose the family's health insurance. Even when both parents work, wives shoulder 75% of domestic responsibilities, including making the kids' doctor appointments and getting them there on time. "Women are the main brokers of health care in the United States," says Dr. William Norcross, a family physician and faculty member at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. "This has long been the case and is probably true elsewhere in the world too."

But be ready, Ohio, because the push for Ohio to expand the Medicaid program and the ad wars on Obamacare are just getting started.

WSPD show recap - Sept. 26, 2012

Here are the links to the subjects we discussed Wednesday on 1370 WSPD:

* Bacon shortage?!? I'm stockpiling.

link to story

* Lucas County jobless rate lowest since '08 is headline in the local paper...but the actual numbers show something different:

Link to Ohio statistics website

Link to Ohio Labor Force Estimates

Employment numbers - not the unemployment rate - is the statistic we should watch.

205,900 was the Lucas County employment in May 2008.
192,900 was the Lucas County employment in Aug 2012.

Even though unemployment rate is low, there were 13,000 more people working in Lucas County back in 2008.

131,200 was the Toledo employment rate in May 2008.
119,800 was the Toledo employment rate in Aug 2012.

Even though there was only a difference of 200 in the number unemployed in Toledo when you compare May 2008 to August 2012, there are 11,400 people NOT working in August than were working in May.

The picture might be slightly better, but the headline is based on distorted numbers and the real truth of the job situation is revealed when you look at the number employed.

* Mayor Mike Bell doesn't like the presidential candidates bashing China in Toledo when he's holding an economic forum for dozens of Chinese investors on the same day.

Link to story

Note Councilman Joe McNamara's comment at the end of the story and then check out page 7 of this report from Ohio which shows that employment, compared to last year, in the categories of Motor Vehicles and Motor Vehicle Parts is down 1,400 and 1,000 jobs, respectively.

* With President Barack Obama touting his tariffs on Chinese tires, it's important t know it didn't really do anything to help the American tire market. The article has the details

Link to story

* Fritz Wenzel of Wenzel Strategies revealed the inside story about the latest New York Times/CBS/Quinnipiac poll which shows Obama leading Romney by 10 points.

Podcast of interview is available here.

Hugh Hewitt interviewed Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac Polls, who said that "it is probably unlikely" that Democrats will turn out to the polls in the margins at which they are reflected in the polls. Here is the link to the blog post.

* Jason Hart of Media Trackers Ohio talking about his investigations into the personal biases behind the so-call objective fact-checking that PolitiFact supposedly does.

Podcast is available here.

Additionally, I referenced a series being done by Ohio Watchdog that checks the fact-checkers at PolitiFact and finds much of it is fiction.

Here is the lastest post in the series, "OH: PolitiFact claim in Brown ad refuted by PolitiFact" with the earlier entries linked at the bottom of the story.

Thursday Show:

We'll talk about the letter Mike Rowe, Dirty Jobs, sent to Mitt Romney and what it means in terms of future jobs. Also, Andrew Marcus, the writer and director of the soon-to-be released movie, "Hating Breitbart."

Kasich's severance tax increase a bad idea

I'm not sure what's up with Gov. John Kasich, but he wants to increase taxes on one segment of our state in order to provide a tax cut to other segments.

In case you're not clear, this is exactly the same line of reasoning Pres. Barack Obama has when he says he wants to 'tax the rich' to provide funds for various government give-aways.

Kasich believes that an increase in taxes paid by oil and gas drillers in the state would be enough income to cover a reduction in taxes paid by individuals. Many individuals, not versed in Economics 101, hear 'tax cut' for themselves and are ready to jump all over the provision.

But if oil and gas drillers are taxed more, they'll just add the extra taxes to the cost of their product, driving up what individuals will pay. Which means that tax cut we'd get will go right back out to pay for the increased costs of the gas and oil products.

Not smart ... but appealing to people who don't think.

Jason Hart at MediaTrackers.org recently interviewed Jerry James, president of Marietta-based Artex Oil Company, about the proposal. As Hart writes, "While it may go without saying that James opposes higher taxes on oil and gas drilling, the perspective of Ohio employers should not be discounted simply because they have a financial interest at stake."

You can view the interview here.

Hart writes (emphasis added):

According to James — who currently serves as president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association — leaving the severance tax unchanged would not only benefit Ohio landowners, energy companies, and blue-collar workers, but would drive overall economic growth in eastern Ohio. James predicts this would result in greater tax revenues under the more competitive current rate.

As a supplement to his comments in the above interview, James provided a chart showing a 50% drop in drilling activity in Arkansas after that state passed a comparable tax increase early in a similar energy boom. The Arkansas example was also cited by industry spokesman Terry Fleming of the Ohio Petroleum Council when Kasich’s proposal was first being discussed this spring.

James noted that in addition to the severance tax, energy companies in Ohio pay income tax, sales tax, an “ad valorem” tax on the value of underground minerals, and the state commercial activity tax (CAT). He disputed drilling cost and output estimates from the governor’s office, pointing to the oil & gas industry’s narrow profit margins.

Kasich’s proposal, which remains delayed in the General Assembly, has been endorsed by the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and the Columbus Chamber of Commerce on the premise that increased energy production from the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio should be leveraged for lower taxes statewide.

The combined severance tax hike/income tax rebate plan is opposed by the National Taxpayers Union, although it has been deemed compliant with the Americans for Tax Reform pledge.

The last thing Ohio needs is to duplicate Pres. Obama's mantra and politics of division by raising taxes on one industry in order to provide tax relief to others.

It's robbing Peter to pay Paul, which certainly makes it popular with Paul.

But it's bad policy and will hurt all of us in the long run.