Attn: RedState. I think you forgot something.

From RedState.com, this is just a wonderful piece of condemnatory journalism. The writer is livid, livid I tell you, that Gov. John Kasich has justified Ohio's participation in the ACA's Medicaid expansion by arguing that it's merely a state effort "to get our money back here and [therefore] to be in a position to be able to help folks who live in the shadows."

Foul! cries the writer. Kasich is lying! And on this point, the writer does not shy away. To wit, 

* Kasich keeps misrepresenting ... the Obamacare Medicaid expansion.

* Kasich’s false talking points are far from garden-variety political spin.

* Kasich included the ... expansion in his budget plan last February, and has been lying about it ever since.

* [T]he Ohio Republican Party has worked to blacklist anyone who tries to hold Kasich accountable.

* Kasich has misled Ohioans about billions per year in taxpayer money.

* It’s impossible to argue that Gov. Kasich’s Obamacare deception has been inconsequential or unintentional.

* [T]he governor essentially has a pass to say whatever he chooses in service of a bigger welfare state.

* [H]is claims are ... easily refuted.

Well that's nice. But there's a problem, a bit of an oversight, here. The writer never refutes them. Not once. In any place. He just insists that Kasich is a lying dirtbag in league with ungodly socialists and the "left-leaning media." End of story.

 

Comments

[AnneJ]

So basically the writer had no real arguments just an overwhelming need to show the world what a nattering nabob of negativity he is?

[Turgidson]

As I have said and will continue to say - the best way to understand the way that today's "conservatives" argue is to remember that they start with the conclusion or first principle and work backwards.

Medicaid expansion = evil is the conclusion. So, working backwards looks something like this:

Kasich wants to expand Medicaid, so he's evil (or, at least, giving in to evil on this). Lying is evil, as is the Medicaid expansion, as is Kasich. So Kasich must be lying, or must have lied at some point.

Pointing out an actual lie is inconsequential to the structure of the argument. If there is an actual lie to plug in, sure, why not, can't hurt. But it's not needed.

Same formula applies to any conservative "argument" about tax rates and the Laffer curve, or Keynesian deficit spending, and a modified version can apply to neocon arguments for WAR WAR WAR, wherein "we have to DO SOMETHING" is the conclusion and the war they want is, natch, just the SOMETHING we need.

With respect to taxes and the economy, there will often be an "everybody knows" tacked on to the beginning of the false assertion about taxes or Keynesian economics. It's a tell that a wholly discredited piece of trickledown or Randian bullshit is forthcoming.

[Peter G]

If only they would keep it down to a dull natter Anne. They have, at Redstate, only one volume setting and that is eleven.