The Ed Show   |  February 04, 2013

Kasich says 'yes to Medicaid expansion

Republican Governor John Kasich became the fifth GOP governor to say "yes" to expanding Medicaid under Obamacare. The supposed Obamacare opponent is finally making some sense and doing what's responsible. Ed Schultz tells you why Republican resistance to all things Obamacare is beginning to weaken.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> show." today ohio governor john kasich broke ranks with the republican party 's unified objections to all things obama care and said that he will push to expand medicaid under the affordable care act .

>> now, i, as you all know here, am not a supporter of obama care. but i think this makes great sense for the state of ohio . and it makes great sense for the state of ohio because i think it will allow us to deliver care using our dollars to people who up until now haven't even been able to afford a care through their job or they weren't able to even find a job, and they're extremely poor.

>> so he is not a fan of it, but he is going to good ahead and do it. okay. kasich is the fifth republican governor to make the case for medicaid expansion. and supposed obama care opponent has reason that sounds surprisingly liberal. currently, one out of every five ohioans is on medicaid expansion, and it would make an estimated 365,000 additional ohioans eligible for coverage beginning in 2014 , reduce the financial burden on community and rural hospitals, which currently provide uncompensated care. and the bottom line here is this. it makes fiscal sense. the federal government would pay for 100% of the cost of newly eligible enrollees for the first three years, dropping to 90% by 2020 . governor kasich is smart, which is why he has accepted the political reality president obama has been reelected, obama care is here to stayed, and medicaid expansion is the responsible thing to do, no question about it. suddenly, instead of selling himself as a tea party approved budget hawk, kasich is playing the part of the compassionate conservative . kasich knows that running for reelection in a purple state requires a more subtle approach. kasich's fell republicans may cry foul, but any reasonable person should be celebrating this step in the right direction. whatever the motivation. tonight in our survey i asked does the beltway media have america's best interest at heart? 5% of you say yes. 95% of you say no.

>>> coming up, they call it the war on boy scouts . find out which conservatives should get a merit badge from fear mongering . stay tuned. mongering.