Ohio’s Obamacare expansion has cost taxpayers $5 billion

Posted by Jason Hart @ Ohio Watchdog / October 20, 2015 

(Editor's Note:  Sadly Ohio Watchdog is no longer in business so this link will not work. RK)

September brought another milestone for Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s Obamacare expansion, and a heavier millstone for taxpayers stuck bearing the costs.

Kasich’s decision to put working-age Ohioans with no kids and no disabilities on Medicaid has cost federal taxpayers more than $5 billion in less than two years.

The Ohio Department of Medicaid reported spending $394 million on Obamacare expansion in September. Ohio’s Obamacare expansion has cost more than $300 million every month since December and more than $370 million every month since July.

After just 21 months of enrollment, Obamacare expansion costs dwarf state spending on programs long recognized as the state government’s basic responsibilities.

By contrast, Kasich’s Office of Budget and Management reported spending $133 million on justice and public protection and $206 million on primary and secondary education in September.

Even when non-General Revenue Fund spending on Obamacare expansion is excluded for the sake of an apples-to-apples comparison, Ohio spent nearly as much on Obamacare expansion as on public safety and K-12 education combined.

Kasich, a Republican, expanded Medicaid to bring new Obamacare funding to the state. The expansion has been rocketing past cost projections since taking effect in January 2014.

Blocked by the Ohio General Assembly, Kasich went to the obscure Ohio Controlling Board for permission to spend $2.56 billion in Obamacare money for the expansion’s first 18 months; in 14 months, that money had been spent.

By June, Kasich’s Obamacare expansion had cost taxpayers more than $4 billion. By September, the cumulative cost of Obamacare expansion benefits in Ohio was $5.2 billion.

On the presidential campaign trail, Kasich boasts of building Ohio’s rainy day fund to $2 billion in four years; at home in Ohio, his Obamacare expansion cost more than $2 billion in the past six months.

Obamacare expansion funding — which Kasich describes as “Ohio’s tax dollars” he is “bringing back” to the state — is 100 percent new federal spending until the end of 2016, providing a boost to the state budget on the shoulders of federal taxpayers.

If spending continues at its current rate, taxpayers will be on the hook for more than $4 billion in Ohio Obamacare expansion costs every year. Ohioans will have to pay a state share starting at 5 percent in 2017 — increasing to 10 percent by 2020.

Free-market think tank Opportunity Ohio recently published a study estimating the state’s future Obamacare expansion costs under a variety of scenarios, taking into account the possibility of federal funding cuts below the promised 90 percent.

Opportunity Ohio projects Medicaid expansion will cost Ohio taxpayers $5.3 billion from 2019-26 with no changes to Obamacare, or as much as $19.9 billion if Congress cuts the federal share so expansion is funded at the same rate as traditional Medicaid.

With or without further changes to Obamacare, the law’s Medicaid expansion appears certain to cost Ohioans more than advertised by the Kasich administration.

“There’s no question that state taxpayers are going to be on the hook for more than we were told initially,” Greg Lawson, a policy analyst for the free-market Buckeye Institute, told Ohio Watchdog.

Lawson said it’s likely the state will cut Medicaid benefits for pregnant women, poor families, the elderly and the disabled to help pay for the cost of putting working-age adults with no kids and no disabilities onto the welfare program.

In his most recent budget, Kasich proposed cutting Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women and women with breast or cervical cancer from 200 percent of poverty to 138 percent of poverty. The General Assembly blocked the proposal.

“We have to be very careful that we’re not robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Lawson said. “In this case, robbing the Peter who everybody supports being on Medicaid to pay for the Paul who a lot of people think doesn’t need to be on Medicaid.

Lawson said meaningful reforms to Medicaid require flexibility President Obama’s administration has refused to give. That’s one reason the Buckeye Institute advised against Obamacare expansion.

The governor’s office failed to respond to questions about Ohio’s Obamacare expansion costs.

To Be or To Do, Which Way Will You Go? End Joint Membership Now!

By Rich Kozlovich 

As most of you know I left the OPMA because I couldn't resign from NPMA due to joint membership.  I can tell you from conversations, that discontent isn't isolated.  While others have expressed the same discontent with NPMA as I, they've chosen to remain within OPMA,  always hoping for the best, and trying to see the benefits offered, and I can understand that.

Of course the question everyone should be asking is: Would I act differently if I was still active, in the leadership and not retired?  No, I wouldn't, and those who know me best don't doubt that!   While I intended to do a piece on this later this year, this article has been inspired by a post by Peter D'Abrosca, Ohio Attorney General Silent After Texas, Others Leave NAAG, appearing in the Ohio Star discussing a letter addressed to Iowa Attorney General Thomas Miller (D), the president of NAAG.

After the top attorneys in Texas, Montana and Missouri announced that they would be leaving the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), Ohio appears poised to remain part of the group.  “The attorneys general of Texas, Missouri and Montana have decided to withdraw our states’ membership from NAAG,” said a letter penned by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R)..........

The article goes on to show how they've approached the leadership about "the Association’s leftward shift over the past half-decade has been intolerable. Indeed, this liberal bent has fundamentally undermined NAAG’s role as a ‘nonpartisan national forum’ that ‘provides a community … to collaboratively address’ important issues,” the letter said. “We can no longer spend our taxpayers’ money to sustain our membership with NAAG under these circumstances.” 

All of which accomplished nothing.  What conclusion did they arrive at?  It was never going to be fixed and they ended their relationship with their national association. 

The article goes on to note Ohio and 18 other states almost immediately ended their relationship with the National School Boards Association because of their position that parents who were exercising their Constitutional rights protesting what their school boards were up to were domestic terrorists, and wanted to sic the FBI on them.   

Both associations hold values antithetical to the values of many of their members, and quite frankly, to the nation's values. 

So, what's this have to do with NPMA?  Below is information I've published in the past. It's nothing new and shocking, but it is the truth, and it needs to be taken seriously.

In my years I have seen our industry go from being ardent defenders of pesticides universally, to a substantial number who are almost as anti-pesticide in their approach as anyone from the Sierra Club or the NRDC, especially with their embrace of "green" pest control, and IPM.  I find this especially true with those holding advanced degrees in our industry, any or all of whom I'm still willing to publicly debate, irrespective of position or education. 

Over they years the NPMA did some excellent work for our industry, and they should be commended for it, but having done something right doesn't give anyone a pass on the rest of life.   Over the years I've yet to see them take a truly heroic stand against leftist green positions.  School Environmental Protection Act?  They supported it.  Our members went to Legislative day and told our representatives Ohio did not. If Ohio could stand up against this, why couldn't NPMA? 

The EPA spent untold millions promoting a structural pest control system that doesn’t exist.  IPM!  In point of fact there is no such thing as IPM in structural pest control. (Please see The Pillars of IPM.)  NPMA embraced it. 

When the EPA instituted regulations to impose restrictions on the use of pyrethrins and pyrethroids based on dubious conclusions, industry played into this.    

Perhaps I missed it, but as far as I can tell they've been silent on repealing the Food Quality Protection Act, and some even claimed it was a good law.  But time is the great leveler of truth.

This law was originally intended to be a pro-pesticide bill fixing the Delaney Clause, the foolishness 1958 Amendment of the of the 1937 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.  An amendment that unscientifically declared if something tested carcinogenic at any level, it was carcinogenic at every level.  But the EPA turned this into one of the most corrupt anti-pesiticde laws since the EPA banned DDT.   As a result, we lost Ficam and Dursban, (carmabates and organophosphates) because of EPA's irrational and radical changes regarding risk and unending testing.   

Neither were banned in spite of what you may read. The manufacturers pulled their registration for structural applications.  There was very little argument, and when Dow decided not to fight it the other companies manufacturing chlorpyrifos gave up. Chlorpyrifos: A Hostage of the Secret Science Rule?   Then there was the EPA's unscientific demands regarding endocrine distuptors. 

It has seemed to me that over the decades the NPMA has far too willingly embraced a philosophy of appeasement with the neo-pagan secular psuedo-religous movements of the left.

Then there was the Butterfield Bill, as I outlined in my article, The Butterfield Bill: Activity as a Substitute for Accomplishment, Part II, which NPMA wanted us all to support.  Why?  I read it, and outlined to the leadership what was wrong with it.  I was told I needed to see the positive aspects of that bill.  I asked - what were they?  I didn't get an answer.

Well, it didn't pass, and if it had, it wouldn't have done anything to relieve the plague of bed bugs in America.  If passed it would have been an expensive waste, and an ineffectual imposition on our industry and the public.  In short, more government, less results.  And we were supporting this why? 

Why? That’s the question I kept asking over the years, and I've never  gotten a satisfactory answers.  I've gotten a lot of logical fallacies and obfuscation, none of which was satisfactory. 

Over the years the rates of cancer have consistently dropped, and yet we still hear the irrational – and unscientific – mantra that pesticides cause cancer. If you were to take a plastic overlay of our modern demographic and put it over the demographics of those living in 1914 and those living in 2014 you would notice two very distinct differences. Very few people smoked and very few people lived past 65, the two major areas of cancer related deaths. The decrease I spoke of would be even more dramatic if we reduced the demographic of smokers and the aged from our modern demographic chart.

Now that whole narrative has been shown to be blatantly false, so what did they do?  Now the big ones are endocrine disruption (and here), Colony Collapse Disorder, and the junk science surrounding the Sixth Mass Extinction.   All of which have been proven false by time and real science.   None of which, as far as I can tell, the NPMA stands up against, and in point of fact, collaborates on. 

When the federal government banned DDT industry rose up as one to defend it, and it was the same for chlordane. Then came the Food Quality Protection Act and which brought about the irrational elimination of Ficam and Dursban (chlorpyrifos), [Neither were banned in spite of what you may read. The manufacturers pulled their registration for structural applications.  There was very little argument, and when Dow decided not to fight it the other companies manufacturing chlorpyrifos gave up.

Was it a business decision? You bet!

Chlorpyrifos was out of patent and it represented a very small percentage of their annual intake, at least from structural pest control, and the lawsuits kept coming. It is interesting that the last time I looked it’s still used as an agriculture product under the brand name Lorsban. But since then we've now learned just how deceitful the EPA has been with it's Secret Science on Dursban. Why aren't we demanding Dursban's return?

The makers of Ficam W (bendiocarb), which I understand is still used in Australia and New Zealand and I’m told still works on bed bugs, gave up also. Why? We lost two whole categories of pesticides [organophosphates and carbamates] from our arsenal with that terrible piece of legislation called the Food Quality Protection Act, which wasn’t about food or protection. It was about making it too expensive to keep pesticide registrations active, thereby banning pesticides without having to go through all those nasty and potentially messy legal and scientific steps - where they would have lost.

Now we come to those new restrictions on pyrethroids, and there was hardly a peep, except from Ohio’s pest controllers. People at the national level may not like it, but if the Ohio pest controllers – who are responsible for the very existence of NPMA – can stand up to be counted, and fight the good fight, why can't the NPMA?

A fight the entire industry should have been fighting and should still be fighting. But nothing happened. Quietly as church mice, passive as sheep and as rational as lemmings, NPMA did nothing useful to maintain our ability to use pyrethroids as we've been doing for decades.  Oh, I can hear the screams now about how much NPMA did, but the proof is in the pudding.  We have unreasonable restrictions.  

What’s worse it appears the manufactures of pyrethroids, known as the “Pyrethroid Working Group (PWG), an industry task force whose members are AMVAC, Bayer, Cheminova, DuPont, FMC Corporation, Syngenta and Valent", were part and parcel of this pesticide reduction scheme. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when the Pyrethroid Working Group was formed. 

I wonder, does this whole thing sound conspiratorial to anyone besides me?  I know…I know…. there’s no such thing as a conspiracy.   I often wonder why the people who have never read a history book are so ardent in that view. Just a thought!  

And why were these restrictions to structural pest control and not to lawn care or agriculture?  We have substantial restrictions against where and how we make pyrethroid applications to structures, while the lawns, fields and shrubs can be covered with pyrethroids by the lawn care and agricultural industries.

Does that sound irrational to anyone besides me?

All this to protect an almost microscopic shrimplike creature known as Hyalella azteca, a creature that is capable of living in extremely adverse conditions, and is one of the most prolific creatures in North America and South America. Pyrethroids are used extensively everywhere. How can that be?  If these products are so deadly to Hyalella here in the United States, or more specifically California, why aren't they in the rest of the world?

I have spent some time going over the information available and there are a number of things I would like to see answered. Since this “shrimp” is so impacted by small amounts of pyrethroid materials; with one study claiming the appearance of chlorpyrifos created a more toxic impact, which I found truly interesting since we are no longer using chlorpyrifos in structural pest control, so where did that come from?  Agriculture!  Until recently there was no real effort to eliminate it for agricultural purposes, but Scott Pruitt, President Trump's first EPA director put a stop to that saying they were going to follow the science. While that's still being litigated, the important fact is this: The chemical companies fought to keep it for agriculture. Why not structural pest control? 

Why hasn't NPMA been more strident on these matters?   But the real questions that need answering are these:

• NPMA seems to have a penchant for embracing leftist narratives on pesticides and junk science. Why?
• Now our national association is deciding if it's going to get involved in "diversity" issues. Why?

  The structural pest control industry has nothing to be ashamed of.  We've accepted people from every walk of life in our industry, regardless of race, religion, sex and even sexual orientation.  In Ohio, in the 1960's one of the founders and first President of what's now the Greater Cleveland Pest Control Association was Bob Caldwell, and is a past President of the Ohio Pest Management Association.  He's black.  In the 1960's Ohio was either the first or among the first to choose a woman for it's state association President, Betty Portwood.  One of our recent Presidents was Molly Patton Marsh.  John Patton's daughter.  

  Betty has now passed and was in her 90's, and Bob is still running his company,  and both were respected and treated accordingly by our industry forever.

• What are NPMA's priorities?  
• Why has the NPMA decided to get involved in social engineering?  
• Is that their job?  
• Where in the NPMA constitution does it outline that as a duty?
• If that became their job, when was that decided, and by whom?   
• Does that mean we can start posting about social issues on the NPMA Open Forum, if it still exists?
  

  In the past anyone doing so would have their posts deleted, and even then, we were subject to unpublished and unknown standards for acceptance, even if the posts or comments met the posted criteria for acceptable posts.  

  I've been there, done that, so I know it's true.  Just like EPA had secret science, it would appear, the NPMA had, secret standards for posting on the Open Forum regarding topic, and who was posting.  But either way, we still have to come back to the main questions. 

• Why is the NPMA getting publicly involved with Social Justice issues?  
• What is their agenda, and why?
• If the NPMA can be so public about social issues that have no bearing on pest control, how can they restrict anyone else from doing so?
• Is that blatant hypocrisy!

I think those are important questions because they've clearly gone in directions that are not part of the real reason they came into existence, which used to be to fight for the structural pest control industry against all adversaries and enemies, in and out of government.

• What is their agenda now?   
• What are their priorities?
• Who articulated such an agenda and priorities and why?
• Do we need to redefine and rewrite the NPMA constitution and bylaws? 

Make no mistake about this, as Thomas Sowell stated: If there is ever a contest for words that substitute for thought, “diversity” should be recognized as the undisputed world champion. You don’t need a speck of evidence, or a single step of logic, when you rhapsodize about the supposed benefits of diversity. The very idea of testing this wonderful, magical word against something as ugly as reality seems almost sordid.

Ohio pest controllers and New York City pest controllers created the NPMA, back in the 1930's, and it's time Ohio walks away.  The fact of the matter is, NPMA Rang the Bell long ago and it's time for Ohio to decide to once again take the lead!  To Be or To Do: Which Way Will You Go?

Enough is Enough! Open Ohio Now! June 24, 2020

By Rich Kozlovich

This article will be an expansion on my regular coronavirus updates, which I've posted regularly in recent weeks.  I think you will find this expansion profound, and hopefully thought provoking.  I would also hope it would also generate, at the very least, a modicum of outrage. 

Maybe it's time for Ohio Republicans to start looking for a Maggie Thatcher.

I've posted much to show this "pandemic" is mostly media driven hysteria, and in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, society has gone insane with this stuff. Therefore, I've decided to post the mortality rates regularly.

The COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) keeps a running total of deaths and proven infections.  As of 5:21 AM on June 24, 2020 here are the coronavirus rates of infection and the rates of mortality based on a worldwide population of 7,800,000,000 and an American population of 330,000,000 using this internet calculator.

Here are the results:

• Worldwide infections, 9,273,773. Infection rate, 0.1%
• Worldwide deaths, 477, 807 Mortality rate, 0.006%
• Confirmed infections in the United States, 2,374,102. Infection rate, 0.7%
• United States deaths, 121,225. Mortality rate, 0.03% (Editor's note. That number may have been inflated by fraudulent reporting by as much as 25%. Cooking the books here, and misrepresentation here.  RK

Please note the substantial difference between the infection and mortality rates of coronavirus and past virus attacks.

• In 1968 the Hong Kong flu killed over 1,000,000 people worldwide. Worldwide population in 1968 was 3,534,000,000. The mortality rate was 0.3%! America lost 100,000 that year, and morality rate was 0.05%.
• In 1957/58 the Asian flu, which originated in Guizhou, China killed up to 2,000,000 people in a worldwide population of 2,900,000,000 had a mortality rate 0.068%. America lost 116,000 people. The mortality rate was 0.07%. 

No one sought to shut down the nation then when the infection and mortality rates were higher. Why are we now?

Let's face it, in the past Americans understood these infections are a part of life, and also understood this is a crap shoot.  As Don Sucher , in his article, Epidemics and mass panics, then and now, notes:

"I have seen similar viruses simply worked through. Nineteen fifty-eight's, for instance, and even the H1N1 virus in 2009.Yes, people got sick, and yes, some died. But both were accepted as part of human life, thus human life continued." 

I'll be 74 in three weeks, and I've seen these events in my life also, and everyone understood, whether or not you got sick was a crap shoot, but that was no reason to destroy the nation's economy.  But the nation wasn't filled with snowflakes then.  Taking something seriously is one thing.  Panicking over it is another.

 The nation is suffering from what  Anthony J. DeBlasi calls the Coronavirus Derangement Syndrome saying:

Again, coronavirus has been killing people forever, via aggravated colds and other serious respiratory infections. That it is suddenly necessary in some states for everyone to be told daily how many coronavirus deaths have occurred, without reporting deaths from other viruses – as though the comparison is not newsworthy – smells too strongly of deception.

In support of the oppressive restrictions damaging lives and livelihoods beyond calculation we are enjoined by experts like Anthony Fauci to respect the science and heed the authorities on the matter. Where have we heard such advice before? Well, from the “climate change” experts who peddle their doomsday scenarios. Could it be that “authorities” who draw their conclusions from “settled science” are actually clueless or, heaven forbid, lying?

As for Ohio.  Ohio and the CDC keep playing games with the numbers.  There are two numbers representing how many coronavirus infections that have been in Ohio, and how many died.  I will cover both, based on a population of 11,700,000.

Confirmed cases 42,767.  Percentage of infections. 0.3%.  "Probable cases" 46,127. Percentage of "probable" infections. 0.39%.  Confirmed deaths, 2,497.  Mortality rate, 0.02%.  Expanded number, 2,735.  Mortality rate.  0.02%

Now we're finding out that these claims about asymptomatic coronavirus people, aren't really very infectious after all.  So, if that's true, and it seems that it is, why were we told they were in the past?   It's a lie that has been used to justify all this ridiculous masking and social distancing, and control of society.  The answer is historical.  It's the same of speculatory scare mongering tactics these people have always used, and it's based on leftist philosophy, not science.  Of course social distancing is totally unimportant if you were violently protesting!  Then it was okay to be inches apart.  

Let's try and get this right once and for all.  Epidemiology isn't science!   It's statistics, speculation, guess work.  All of which are components of science, but in themselves, none of them are science.  Science must be observable and repeatable.  Epidemiological projections are incapable of demonstrating either.  Only time, observation and the actual documentation of events represent science.   Below are seven reasons why epidemiology isn't science!

On June 23, 2020 Steve Bigler published the article, A retired physician's take on epidemiologists, saying:

"I am a retired physician. Over my career, I've had some contact with epidemiology. I'll be blunt here: I came away unimpressed with that field. Here's why:

1. When a pandemic strikes, I've never once witnessed an epidemiologist get his hands dirty in providing actual patient care. So where the rubber meets the road during a pandemic, they're useless.
2. Their models, and therefore their advice and counsel, are based upon best guesses from previous pandemics. It's been pretty clear during COVID-19 that in any number of cases, their accuracy has been less than impressive.
3. Typically, the confidence ranges of their models are wide enough that you could drive a Mack truck through them. Then, when actual outcomes fall somewhere within those massive ranges, they pat themselves on the back as though they've really accomplished something. I honestly think you or I could come up with equally accurate models by throwing darts at a dartboard!
4. They get to have tunnel vision. The concern of the epidemiologist is to focus on the disease and the disease only. It is not their job to concern themselves with the economic, social, political, marital, and psychological devastation resulting from strict quarantines and lockdowns. 
5. In fact, they have no personal economic skin in the game. During any pandemic lockdown, the epidemiologists still receive their full salary and benefits.  I've always thought it would be interesting to suspend their pay and benefits during a lockdown and see how enthusiastic they'd be about continuing! It's easy to make dire and sweeping pronouncements when you have no skin in the game.
6. They typically work in packs.  They're often employed by an academic or consulting center.  This gives them the comfort of never having to take personal and individual responsibility for their projections.  It's rare to have an individual epidemiologist step forward and say, "Yes, this is my model, and I'll accept responsibility for its accuracy."  And when's the last time you heard of an epidemiologist being sued for malpractice? Answer: never.
7. They seem to think they're in charge of everything — that they've suddenly become the chief executive officer of a state or the entire nation.  They seem to forget that their job is simply to advise a governor or a president, not take over the executive role.

Bottom line: Basically, it's a well compensated occupation with little or no personal accountability for the outcome.  Nice work if you can get it!"

As for Ohio and DeWine's continued and blatantly unconstitutional restrictions on Ohio's citizens and businesses:  Suggestion - Impeach DeWine!  I've also been advocating the dismissal of Dr. Amy Acton, but since she's resigned, that's now moot.

Peter Skurkiss posted the article, Dr. Amy Acton, architect of Ohio's shutdown, resigns, outlining this part of the coronavirus story, and "Operation Rescue call for her resignation after publishing an expose of her troubled past......" He then goes on to question DeWine's choice of her for this job in the first place, and his continued support.   Well, she's gone now, and that part has been fixed, except by the last report I'm aware of she's still being paid her $185,000 salary.  And here I thought Ohio had a budget problem.  However, DeWine has a fix for that.

It's been reported that due to Coronavirus in Ohio: State wants vendors to take voluntary 15% cut on contracts, services. Their "request" carries a veiled threat as Roger Geiger, executive director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses for Ohio notes:

“If any small businesses want to preserve their status as a state contracted vendor they will likely have to take this very seriously.”

What arrogance!  This administration is wanting companies who had to present the lowest bid for those contracts, creating a narrow margin of profitability, to now make that narrow margin of profitability even less profitable!  While at the same time, as Ohio's Future Foundation reports, they've decided to spend "An estimated $425,000 in new spending on two newly created positions after a state spending freeze was announced. Ohio taxpayers should be outraged.  Watch the Video HERE" 

Let's remember, this unnecessary financial crisis was created by this administration, and will be felt in Ohio for years to come.  Shopping malls, that were having difficulties already, charge a very high rent and service fees has a lot of renters with no customers, and the malls are still demanding their money.  

• Where's that rent to come from since they've been forcibly shut down?  
• Will there be lawsuits as a result?   
• Will there be bankruptcies?  
• Will malls go out of business?

What's happening between mall owners and retailers is a good example of what's happening with all small business owners over the nation.  What will be the long term negative consequences to society and small businesses?  None of this bodes well for small businesses, the economy as a whole, and for the continued stability of society, and it shouldn't take a degree in economics to understand that.  So, one has to be left wondering what's wrong with DeWine?

He calls himself a conservative, but apparently he, like Kasich, feels he can define conservatism as he pleases, and like Kasich his definition includes more taxes, more regulations, and a more abusive and intrusive government than Ohio has ever seen.  Strange, that definition seems to be the same definition for left wing progressives.  

David Horowitz, a former communist activist, and son of communist activists parents, but now the noted conservative publisher of Front Page Magazine, knows well for which he speaks when he says:

"Inside Every Progressive Is A Totalitarian Screaming To Get Out"

We know the walk like duck quack like a duck adage, right?   Well, I'm going to paraphrase and expand on that old saying:

If DeWine walks like a progressive and it talks like a progressive.  DeWine's a totalitarian screaming to get out.

Here are some more important questions conservatives and Ohio Republicans should be asking themselves:

• What's wrong with the Ohio Republican party?  
• It's clear in spite of all his blatantly unconstitutional actions, the Ohio Legislature has no backbone for impeaching DeWine, and if they did, I'm not sure the Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted would be any better.
• But why can't they muster enough backbone to pass legislation stopping this insanity?
• Finally, why is it the Ohio Republican party has so much difficulty in finding a Ronald Reagan in their midst?  

Well then, maybe it's time someone in that party started looking for a Maggie Thatcher.