Tiberi splits from Kasich on Medicaid
Central Ohio Congressman Pat Tiberi may have worked for John Kasich and succeeded him in Congress 16 years ago. But he is parting ways with the governor on the Medicaid expansion allowed by Obamacare.
Instead, Tiberi is joining fellow House Republicans on a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act that not only would end the expansion, but eventually require states to pick up a major portion of the tab.
“As discussions continue on health care reform, a key priority for Rep. Tiberi is to give states more flexibility so they can improve Medicaid and tailor the program to meet the needs of their citizens,” spokeswoman Olivia Hnat said.
Kasich is an ardent advocate of the expansion that has provided health-care coverage for about 700,000 in Ohio. No official cost estimate has been made, but the congressional Republicans’ action likely would cost Ohio hundreds of millions of dollars a year, presuming the state wants to maintain the coverage. proceedings of Alex Acosta, Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Labor after Andrew Puzder dropped out last week.
As an assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush, Acosta’s two-page Oct. 29 missive to District Court Judge Susan Dlott of Cincinnati supported potential challenges of Ohioans going to the polls in November 2004, when Bush narrowly won Ohio and thus another White House term. Acosta said both citizens and elections officials who have “information pertinent” on a voter’s eligibility should be free to bring it to the authorities’ attention, as long as the information is not primarily based on race.
Despite that qualifier, Democrats dubbed this “vote caging,” a widespread GOP effort to disenfranchise minority voters. The had GOP readied 3,600 challengers, including one in every polling location in the 31 most-populous counties. After much publicity, the push to widely challenge voters dissipated.
“Alex Acosta played a notorious role in defending the odious, undemocratic and illegal process of ‘voter caging,’ which Ohio Republicans wanted to use to challenge thousands of lawfully registered voters during the 2004 election,” said Ohio Democratic Chairman David Pepper in a release shortly after Acosta’s nomination.
Analyst expects tight Senate race in Ohio
Yes, they’re handicapping 2018 U.S. Senate races already, and the widely watched Sabato’s Crystal Ball rates Ohio’s probable matchup as “highly competitive.”
The University of Virginia’s Larry Sabato says the likely challenger of Democrat Sherrod Brown, GOP state Treasurer Josh Mandel, will be “well-funded” but also carries question marks. “Mandel underperformed Mitt Romney’s Ohio showing in 2012 and lagged a little bit behind the statewide ticket in his 2014 reelection (he still won easily),” Sabato said. Mandel, who has kept fact-checkers busy in past campaigns, including a 2012 Brown challenge, has openly embraced the politics of President Donald Trump.
The Brown campaign quickly issued a fundraising plea centered on Sabato’s new projections.
Trump right about court’s reversal rate
During last week’s combative press conference, Trump claimed the court that put a hold on his immigration executive order is “overturned 80 percent of the time.” That may sound like a typical Trump exaggeration of “just a number I heard,” but it’s basically true.
The Supreme Court reversed 79 percent of the cases it reviewed between 2010-15 from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco, according to PolitiFact.
But Trump’s companion claim — echoing a false assertion by Fox’s Sean Hannity a week before — that the appellate court is “a circuit that has been overturned at a record number” went a little too far.
In fact, the “honor” of being reversed the most among the 13 federal appellate courts belongs to the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, overturned 87 percent of the time.