John Kasich’s ‘Matthew 25’ ObamaCare Expansion Has Cost Ohioans $4 Billion

Following God’s Word hurts sometimes – but misunderstanding God’s Word hurts every time. Take the case of John Kasich, the Republican presidential hopeful who believed God wanted him to sign up more people for ObamaCare. “Now, if you ever read Matthew 25, I think, ‘I wanna feed the hungry and clothe the naked.'” he said on one occasion. Another time, he said, “When you die and get to the, get to the meeting with St. Peter, he’s probably not gonna ask you much about what you did about keeping government small, but he’s going to ask you what you did for the poor.” The Ohio governor actually went around his Republican-controlled legislature to implement ObamaCare by executive fiat – something Barack Obama would approve. At the time, the Ohio Dept. of Medicaid projected expanding Medicaid would cost $2.56 billion over 18 months, but the actual cost has exceeded that by 156 percent: $4 billion. The governor estimated that 366,000 people would sign up; the actual number is nearly 600,000. Although Kasich justified this program as pro-life, he “has proposed slashing funding to pediatric hospitals and kicking pregnant women off of the program” in his last two budgets, according to Jonathan Ingram, research director at the Foundation for Government Accountability. Jesus never said a word about expanding government. (I believe Christians may prudently, charitably — and passionately — disagree on the role of the State in the economy.) When He spoke of the Good Samaritan, His hero did not wear a badge, a uniform, or collect a city pension. And when the Samaritan took the infirm to the inn for medical care, he spent his own money (Luke 10:35). But Jesus did speak about miscalculating the cost of a new project, and how people would respond to someone whose forecasts proved inaccurate:

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? (Luke 14:28-30).

You’d think Kasich’s track record would inspire a Biblical virtue: humility. Instead, he has traveled to Tennessee to convince Republican Governor Bill Haslam to adopt the same policy. Ingram told Jason Hart of Watchdog.org, “Instead of traveling the country lobbying other states to expand ObamaCare, maybe Gov. Kasich should stay in Ohio and figure out a way to roll back his disastrous Medicaid expansion, before it’s too late.” The voters may send a message to Kasich – who has said he would not fight the Supreme Court’s gay “marriage” decision and recently attended a same-sex “wedding” – that his theology misses the mark. Or Kasich can double down on his ideology, and voters will send him a message in the primaries.