Medicaid Expansion in Ohio; Down but not Out

The budget bill was passed out of the Ohio House yesterday with a 61-35 vote - and it did not include Governor Kasich's proposal to expand Medicaid under Obamacare in Ohio. 

Sadly, this is only a minimal victory. While it is unlikely the Ohio Senate will put Medicaid expansion back in the budget, the fight to expand Medicaid is far from over.

Keeping Medicaid expansion in Ohio on life support, Representative Barbara Sears offered an amendment that passed which will keep the fight against Medicaid expansion going for at least the rest of the year.....

From The Plain Dealer -- (Emphasis Added)

Ohio's Medicaid expansion is down, but not out.

House Republicans kept alive the possibility that Ohio may expand its Medicaid program to cover the working poor, approving an amendment to its budget that could open the door to changes later this year.

The change was one of several the GOP-controlled House considered as members poised late Thursday night to vote on their iteration of Gov. John Kasich's "Jobs Budget 2.0" The chamber approved a budget proposal for the next two years by a vote of 61-35.

The GOP amendment on Medicaid expansion, introduced by Republican Rep. Barbara Sears of suburban Toledo, requires that legislation to reform the Medicaid program in Ohio be introduced in the House, but does not specify what shape that reform will take.

It directs the governor's Office of Health Transformation and his Medicaid director to provide assistance in developing the legislation. And if the legislation is not enacted before the year ends, efforts to change Medicaid must cease. More...

This is truly sad as Rep. Sears was at one time strongly against any form of Obamacare and even introduced legislation in 2010 trying to stop the implementation of Obamacare in Ohio.

So at the end of the day - some GOP members in the OH House are pretending to be conservative for taking Medicaid expansion out of the budget.

And when the truth be told -- these same GOP members that voted to remove Medicaid expansion from the budget -- also voted to support of an amendment giving an extended shelf life for a proposed Medicaid expansion in Ohio under Obamacare.

Time to Defund Common Core; Contact Your U.S. Senator Now!

The left's feel good program to further indoctrinate our children through the education system, Common Core, is thankfully facing a growing opposition.

In Ohio, the Ohio State Board of Education has adopted Common Core and is now cajoling local school districts to accept these new standards.  Common Core turns traditional teaching on its' head and will cause enormous financial burdens on districts as they will need to purchase new text books specifically tailored to teach the new Common Core Standards.

To combat this effort in Ohio, Ohioans Against Common Core (OACC) has been doing great work and has recently held forums across the state in attempts to educate the public on this very dangerous indoctrination program.

To watch a short informative video on what Common Core Standards are, please click here.

As local activist groups across the U.S. try to battle Common Core Standards at the local level, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is taking the fight against Common Core to D.C. and is asking fellow Senators to co-sign a letter asking them to join his efforts to defund Common Core....

From Caffeinated Thoughts --

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is asking his colleagues to co-sign a letter asking the Senate Appropriations Committee that funds education to cut off all future funds that would allow the Obama administration to “cajole state’s” into participating in the Common Core State Standards and it’s assessments.

His office in an email sent late this afternoon document the steps the Obama administration has taken to push states to adopt the Common Core.

• Making adoption of Common Core a pre-requisite for a state even being able to compete for Race to the Top funds.

• Directly funding the two assessment consortia developing tests aligned to Common Core using Race to the Top funds.

• Assembling a panel to review the work of the two assessment consortia.

• Making implementation of Common Core or coordination with Common Core a funding priority for other, unrelated competitive grants administered by the Department of Education.

• Making participation in Common Core essentially a prerequisite for being awarded a waiver from the Department of requirements in the No Child Left Behind Act.

The email said, “This means no more Race to the Top funds in support of Common Core or the assessments aligned with Common Core and stopping further federal review of the assessments produced by the two consortiums. It also means that the Department could not penalize a state that chooses to leave Common Core by revoking its NCLB waiver. The deadline for senators to sign on this letter is April 25 so it can reach the subcommittee in time to be considered. “

Please contact your U.S. Senator immediately and ask them to sign on to Senator Grassley's letter to defund Common Core Standards. (Click to Read Letter)

In Ohio, please contact Senator Rob Portman and Senator Sherrod Brown....

Senator Rob Portman
PH #: (202)224-3353
Email: http://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact?p=contact-form

Senator Sherrod Brown
PH #: (202)224-2315
Email: http://www.brown.senate.gov/contact/

To find contact information on your U.S. Senator please click here.

Tea Party Patriots put Senator Marco Rubio on Notice; Stop Acting Like Nancy Pelosi

As part of the Tea Party Patriots D.C. Intervention initiative yesterday, Tea Party groups across the country descended upon the local offices of all 50 U.S. Senators to express their outrage regarding Senate Bill 649 - over reaching gun control legislation - and the secretive immigration reform bill to be introduced in the Senate.

Rattled by the presence of Tea Party groups protesting against him, one time Tea Party darling, Florida Senator Marco Rubio quickly scribbled out a response (or lame excuse) to his wavering position on the secretive immigration reform bill. 

To read Rubio's response click here. 

Senator Rubio (202)224-3041 - we are not buying it!

From Breibart -- (Emphasis Added)

After Tea Partiers in Florida protested at the home state offices of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Tuesday at an event organized by Tea Party Patriots, Rubio quickly, but largely unsuccessfully, tried to reaffirm his commitments to conservative principles when it comes to the immigration fight.

The group of Tea Party conservatives was protesting Rubio for his part in the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” pushing immigration reform and argued in a press release over the weekend he is the “star spokesman for a secretive, small group working on a bill that purports to address illegal immigration and the entire US immigration system as a whole.”

“Not only might the legislation be bad policy, it has already gone outside of the normal process,” the Tea Party group wrote in the release.

After the protests themed around how some normally conservative senators needed a “DC Intervention” ended, Rubio fired off a letter to Tea Party Patriots members pleading with them for continued support. “Over the years, the Patriot movement and I have worked together on many causes and I want to respond personally to correct some misinformation regarding my involvement in the work to reform our country’s broken immigration system – misinformation that has prompted visits by some of you to my offices across Florida and in Washington,” Rubio wrote in a letter addressed “Dear Patriots.”

“First, there is absolutely no truth to the idea that I will support any immigration legislation that is rushed through Congress in typical Washington fashion,” Rubio wrote. “Already, I have fought and continue to fight to secure commitments for greater transparency through committee hearings and mark-up sessions that will allow senators on the Judiciary Committee ample opportunities to review and amend any immigration legislation before it is considered by the full Senate for additional debate and scrutiny. As a result, not only has the Judiciary Committee agreed to delay its first hearing on this issue, it has agreed to add an additional one next week.”

Tea Party Patriots co-founder and national coordinator Jenny Beth Martin told Breitbart News she was disappointed in Rubio’s letter response to the protests. “Sen. Rubio has quickly forgotten how the rest of the country views a 1,500-page bill that is deliberately being rushed through Congress,” Martin said. “He may be aware of details in the bill but the rest of the Senators, and certainly the American public, are not. He thinks he may be thoroughly educated on how the sweeping legislation will affect every facet of our lives, and on the consequences of his proposed changes, but he cannot be. It's simply too large an undertaking for him to have already fully analyzed all of the ramifications of this bill.”

The legislation was originally supposed to be introduced on Tuesday, but as of the close of business, no bill has been filed. The bill is expected to be about 1,500 pages long. Originally, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) scheduled a single hearing for Wednesday afternoon on the legislation — just one day after its planned rollout. However, Leahy rescheduled the hearing, at which Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is supposed to testify, for Friday.

After Monday's Boston terror attack bombings, the senators postponed their scheduled Tuesday press conference at which they would tout the bill but still planned to file the bill. By the close of the business, they did not meet the deadline.

Martin said that “[a]ssuming the bill is released tomorrow, that gives us only 1 extra day for the hearing this week.”

“The other crumb they are throwing to placate us is the Judiciary Committee's so very gracious agreement to add one additional hearing next week, as though that is enough time for the Senators to deliberatively review the bill and all of its potential consequences,” Martin added.

In his letter to Tea Party Patriots members, Rubio also wrote: “Immigration reform is a difficult issue. It represents the kind of broken government that Tea Party members across our country were fed up with in 2010, and an issue that inspired me to run in order to change the way Washington works.”

Martin took serious issue with that claim.

“Senator Rubio's stated goals to change the way our government works - an entity that he acknowledges is broken - do not mention the constitutional basis of the bill or the fiscal impact of his version of Pelosi's ‘pass it so we can find out what's in it’ legislation,” Martin told Breitbart News. “Sen. Rubio needs to reevaluate his goals and how he hopes to achieve success. He must do this in order to ensure that his measurement of success is rooted in the constitutional principles that are the foundation of our country, and that whatever bill he passes does not drive our country into further debt.”

STOP THE GUN GRAB

STOP THE GUN GRAB

SAVE THE HOUR

ON TUESDAY (TOMORROW)

If the Senate passes S. 649 on Tuesday (tomorrow), it will effectively trample our Second Amendment rights. There are two short videos that provide chilling testimony to just how critical this legislation is. Please take (less than) four minutes to watch these two videos, as they will give you some important talking points.

Sarah Merkle, a 15-year old, testified eloquently on why these proposed gun control measures would do NOTHING to prevent another tragedy such as Newtown.

Manuel Martinez, a legal immigrant from Cuba, testified in Oregon on the danger of losing our Second Amendment rights, as they did in Cuba; video and transcript here (but watch the video if you can).  

On Tuesday (tomorrow), some Tea Party Patriot groups across the country will be visiting offices of their senators or demonstrating outside their offices at noon. In northern Ohio, we thought we might be more effective adding our voices by telephone, fax, and email to those being organized by the NRA. So mark your calendar for Tuesday (tomorrow), at least from noon to 1pm. Whether you are able to phone or fax or e-mail, we think this is every bit as cataclysmic as Obamacare. This is gun control legislation that actually has some chance of passage in the Senate, thanks to promise-breakers like Marco Rubio and Pat Toomey. But won't the House stop it? Not with squishes like Speaker Boehner.

From HotAir: "House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) signaled Thursday that he may continue to bypass a House Republican rule [i.e. the "Hastert Rule"] that has required any legislation being voted upon to have the support of a majority of the GOP conference. He said at a news conference Thursday that he will continue to try and follow it in spirit, but also suggested he might well violate it for upcoming votes on guns, immigration and the budget."

The goal of gun control is to expand and protect the government. One of the three core Tea Party Patriot values is "Constitutionally limited government." Gun control violates our Second Amendment rights and protects, not the law-abiding citizen, but the out-of-control government. So it IS time to push some sort of panic button.

We are urging every single one of you to plan to take time out of your day on Tuesday, Apr-16 to call Sen. Rob Portman, Sen. Marco Rubio, and Speaker Boehner. (There is no point calling Sen. Sherrod Brown, and Sen. Pat Toomey is a co-sponsor of this bill.) If you are at the office, take 15 minutes on your lunch break and call from the hallway or the sidewalk. Keep this message on your screen as you call or print out for talking points. If you are faxing or emailing, cut-copy-and-paste any part of this message into an email that makes the point(s) you think should be made.

S. 649 (the Gun Control bill) is as crippling to our freedom -- and our future -- as is Obamacare. And as you can see in the link for Boehner, Immigration "Reform" is right around the corner. Obamacare, Gun Control, and Immigration "Reform" - these three strike at the heart of our freedom and our survival as a Constitutional republic. We are at a crossroads, so this is calling all Tea Party Patriots and anyone you can persuade to call, fax, or write: 

Sen. Rob Portman

Cleveland Phone: 216-522-7095

Email 

Columbus Fax: (614) 469-7733

Sen. Marco Rubio

DC Phone: 202-224-3041

Email 

DC FAX: 202-228-0285

Speaker John Boehner

Ohio PH 513-779-5400

Email 

DC Fax 202-225-0704

More Obamacare Failures / Reason # 9,547 Not to Expand Medicaid in Ohio

In yet exposing another failure of Obamacare that was predicted, businesses are dropping health care coverage for employees. The reason - insurance premiums rising over the implementation of Obamacare!

During the forcing of Obamacare down the throats of Americans, President Obama and his talking heads were repeatedly saying Obamacare would not take away your employee health insurance. In fact, in cases with businesses with over 50 employees, employers would be penalized for not offering employee health insurance.

We countered with it would be cheaper for businesses to pay the fine for not offering coverage, and by design, premiums would rise under Obamacare, thus forcing businesses to drop coverage, ultimately forcing people into government run health insurance.

And they say we were crazy Tea Party people....

From Cincy Enquirer -- (Emphasis Added)

Businesses in Ohio made some of the deepest cuts in the nation to employee health insurance benefits during the past decade, according to a report released Thursday.

The State Health Access Data Assistance Center, an independent group that studies health care, found about 11 million American workers lost their employer-provided health insurance plans between 2000 and 2011. That’s a drop of 10 percentage points nationwide.

Ohio had the fourth biggest drop in the country, falling 13.7 percentage points.

Workers who kept their insurance saw premiums double in most states, with costs for single coverage increasing by about $2,500 a year in the state.

Analysts blame the decline in employer-provided insurance on a combination of economic turmoil, ever-increasing health care costs and uncertainty over President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, known by some as Obamacare. More....

Sadly, as more Obamacare programs are implemented and are showing to be failures, Governor Kasich wants to expand Medicaid under Obamacare in Ohio.

In spite of, and ignoring the fact that to date every aspect of Obamacare that has been implemented or is trying to be implemented has failed, Governor Kasich's arrogance has suppressed and clouded his judgement.

To protect Ohio from being infected and dragged down by the failures of Obamacare, we are asking that you contact the GOP members on the Ohio House Finance & Appropriations Committee and urge them to support provisions in Substitute HB 59, that remove Medicaid expansion in Ohio under Obamcare.

To contact the OH House Finance & Appropriations Committee click here.

Well, Ain't That a Daisy.... White House can still Afford to Smell the Roses!

From Tea Party Patriots --

From Politico, the pain of sequestration doesn’t appear to extend to the White House gardens  today and tomorrow:

Tours of the White House itself remained canceled because the cuts have left Secret Service short on manpower to staff them. But there will be enough agents to staff the garden tours, the official said.

The tours are slated to happen this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Guests will be able to view the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, Rose Garden and South Lawn of the White House, as well as the White House Kitchen Garden.

The tours are free and open to members of the public who can pick up tickets starting at 8 a.m. both days. The National Park Service will distribute them on a first-come-first-served basis, one per person, at the Ellipse Visitor Pavilion at 15th and E streets.

Of course, nothing is “free” in government. The gardens are maintained from a budget, the National Park Service is distributing tickets, and Secret Service agents are on hand. Despite this, while the White House continues to cut tuition assistance for the Army and Marines, as well as tours of the White House itself – but not  President Obama’s golf game – its most important occupant seems to think garden tours are worth keeping.

Priorities.

"Kasich Veering Left" and Medicaid

John Fund’s column at National Review Online reports on Gov. Kasich’s efforts to expand Medicaid in Ohio: 

Most political observers in Ohio believe Governor John Kasich wants to run for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. If that’s true, he’s approaching it in an odd way, alienating much of his conservative base by making controversial tax proposals and proposing to expand Medicaid — although he now appears to have given up on the latter.. . .  

This week, the GOP-controlled state house stripped Kasich’s Medicaid expansion out of the budget, rewrote his school-funding formula, canceled all of his tax increases, and reduced his income-tax cut to 7 percent for all taxpayers.. . .  

In reality, giving in to the lure of “free” federal dollars to broaden Medicaid isn’t compassionate. Over half of physicians no longer accept Medicaid patients because it is a failed program with bargain-basement reimbursement payments and bureaucratic regulations that lower the quality of overall care. “Medicaid patients often give up trying to find a doctor and wind up in hospital emergency rooms, where they wait three to six hours for non-urgent care,” John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis told me.  

Representative Chris Collins, the chairman of the House’s Small Business subcommittee on health, told me, “The false promise of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion is that it will trap millions of Americans in a program that needs urgent reform first.” Recent studies by the University of Virginia have shown that surgical patients on Medicaid are 13 percent more likely to die than those without insurance of any kind.  

But hospitals — among the biggest employers in Ohio — lust after the $13 billion in federal Medicaid dollars that would flow to Ohio over the next seven years. Hospitals helped bring 2,500 liberal protesters to the state capital of Columbus yesterday to argue for Medicaid expansion. With Kasich insisting he “profoundly disagrees” with the legislature’s refusal to expand Medicaid, he may well ratchet up pressure on the legislature. 

That’s what worries many Republicans. “We are dividing ourselves on a core issue,” says Tom Zawistowski, a Tea Party leader, who is running against the governor’s choice for Republican-party state chairman later this month. He notes that 65 percent of Ohio voters supported an anti-Obamacare initiative in 2011 and at least two-thirds of Republican primary voters oppose Medicaid expansion. “Political analysts like Charlie Cook say Obamacare’s failures could be the big issue in the 2014 midterm election, and we are just fracturing our coalition here,” he told me. 

On policy grounds, GOP house speaker Bill Batchelder says that Medicaid expansion would be a leap into the dark. “This is so screwed up,” he told the OhioCapitalBlog. “We have all these regulations that have to come out. . . . We also have to know what it means if they don’t have the money in Washington.”

 If they don’t have the money in Washington? As the late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously said: “The trouble with socialists is that they always run out of other people's money.”