Kasich: GOP vow to repeal ObamaCare ‘a stupid promise’

Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) says the GOP erred by pledging it would repeal ObamaCare during the 2014 midterm elections.

“You’ve been supporting conservative candidates, [and] in 2014 they told you that they were going to repeal ObamaCare,” he said on “The Jay Weber Show,” as first reported by BuzzFeed.

{mosads}“Do you realize that that’s just a big joke?” the GOP presidential candidate asked. “It got all these conservatives stirred up and angry because they didn’t keep their word.

“I mean, what a stupid promise. The base of the party is furious because you didn’t repeal ObamaCare. How are you going to repeal ObamaCare when Obama’s president?”

Kasich also argued that his political experience renders him capable of achieving real results on issues such as healthcare reform.

“I can get these things done,” he said. “I can put a team together, and the proof is in the pudding.”

Kasich’s expansion of Medicaid under ObamaCare in Ohio has angered some conservative voters.

Critics say his move neither reduces the size of government nor curbs wasteful entitlement spending.

Kasich has countered that Ohio would be leaving tax dollars in Washington, D.C., if it rejected the expansion.

The federal government foots the entire bill for expanding the program during its first three years, eventually reducing that total to 90 percent of costs.

Kasich has also charged that he expanded Medicaid in Ohio on moral grounds, suggesting it helps drug abusers, the poor and the mentally ill.

“Now, when you die and get to that meeting with St. Peter, he’s probably not going to ask you what you did about keeping government small,” he said in 2013. “But he is going to ask you what you did for the poor. And you better have a good answer.”