DEMOCRAT COMMISSIONER BERNABERI: STARK CO. "PROBABLY" NOT JOINING OAG MIKE DEWINE LAWSUIT AGAINST OBAMACARE!

UPDATE:  7:30 PM - NEW INFORMATION ON THE CONTACTS BETWEEN WARREN AND STARK COUNTY BOARDS OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

VIDEO

COMMISSIONER THOMAS BERNABEI

ON

WHETHER OR NOT

STARK COUNTY

IS STILL CONTEMPLATING

JOINING OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL

LAWSUIT

ON

OBAMACARE

Ever since Democratic President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act  (labeled "Obamacare" by Republicans which label has been accepted by President Obama) into law on March 23, 2010, it has become a political rallying point for many elected Republicans in expression their loyal opposition to our nation's Democratic-controlled executive branch of government.

Since President Obama signed the measure into law, there have been some 67 Republican attempts in the U.S. House of Representatives to undo Obamacare to one degree or another.

The fight has pretty much been limited to the national level of our federal (i.e. national, state and local government) structure of government.

However, the fight did filter down to the state of Ohio level with a 2011 Constitutional ballot initiative.

And the-then Democratic Congressman John Boccieri (then a resident of Alliance) likely lost his 16 Congressional District seat (when the district included all of Stark County) in November 2012 to Republican Jim Renacci because of Boccieri's 2010 vote for Obamacare.

Now we learn that there has been an effort to get Stark County involved in a lawsuit filed on January 26, 2015 by Republican Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.

• (SCPR note:  lawsuit also includes Warren County and several Ohio universities)

Where did the effort to involve Stark County come from?

At yesterday's Stark County commissioners' regular meeting, Commissioner Thomas Bernabei said in answer to a SCPR question (see video below) that it came from the Warren County commissioners.  Warren County is a county as of 2010 of some 212,000 residents.

And here is verification that the initiative came from Warren County administrator Dave Gully.

And here is an interesting response to Gully from Stark County Chief Administrator Brant Luther.

Hmm?

Luther:  "Having said that ... we still have a little division here in Stark, making the outcome unpredictable."

So the question is "whom knows whom" (in the politically connectedness sense of the expression - Stark County to Warren County or vice versa - for Stark to be solicited by Warren?

We may never know, but readers of the SCPR can depend on The Report to keep digging.

While he didn't say so expressly, the SCPR thinks that the only reason that Stark County did not join the lawsuit is because of Commissioner Tom Bernabei's opposition.

Of course, Stark County's two Republican commissioners (Creighton and Regula) could override what the SCPR thinks is a Bernabei opposition.

It is interesting that they did not pass a resolution to join the-then contemplated lawsuit at the commissioners' regularly scheduled meeting of December 30, 2014 when Bernabei was absent.

In a videotaped Q&A with commissioners at the conclusion of yesterday's meeting, Commissioner Bernabei (as president of the board and the only commissioner heretofore who had not articulated his position) took most of the questions of The Report.



And the SCPR agrees with his assessment.

Moreover, Stark Countians should not be paying perhaps as much as $85,000 of Stark County Democrat, Republican, independent and "not registered to vote" taxpayer dollars to litigate on a question that has strong political overtones to it and has no better than 50/50 chance of succeeding.

The SCPR believes that DeWine's and the Warren County commissioners' motivation suspiciously reeks of the Republican Party's obsession to undo Obamacare piece by piece.

It is intriguing that the only county among Ohio's 88 counties to sign on with DeWine is Warren.

Here is some material that the SCPR has gathered from various sources on the Internet which some readers might think is strong evidence of The Report's suspicions, at least on the part of Warren County officials.

In a press release, here, in part, is what the Warren County gave as their reasons for joining DeWine's lawsuit initiative:

Warren County, like many other counties and states, has self-insured health care coverage, and utilizes a third party administration company to administer its plan.  It is therefore not exempt from these fees. 

The fees are $63 for employees and dependents for 2015, with the per person charge estimated at $44 for 2016, and $27 for 2017. Warren County’s plan covers about 1,808 employees and dependents, which means we are being taxed $113,904 in 2015, $79,552 in 2016, and $48,816 in 2017.

Warren County Commissioners opted to make the initial payment of $94,710.00 on January 15, 2015 because the ACA’s penalty for non-compliance with remitting the Transitional Reinsurance Fee is $100 per day, per covered life.  Had Warren County not made the initial payment, our penalty would be $100 x 1,808 (current employees and dependents) = $180,800 A DAY!

"The Obama administration has to understand that we don't work for them – county government is a government for the tax-paying county citizens," said David Young, Warren County Board of
Commissioners President. "We, the county commissioners, as all local county officials should, operate and fight for the honest and effective governing of county taxpayer money."

"The Obama Administration’s cavalier approach to funding the Affordable Care Act is reckless, risky, unethical and, we believe, unconstitutional."  (color added for emphasis sake)

• SCPR note:  Stark County paid a little over $218,000 in coverage of over 3,000 employees

The last paragraph, the SCPR thinks, betrays a political vitriol as a strong factor playing into the decision to be a party-plaintiff against the United States government.

As the graphics above indicate, it appears that Warren County is a "one-party-county" in which only Republicans run for county commissioner (at least, in 2012 and 2014) which seemingly encourages them to have the chutzpah to use "local" taxpayer money to advance a political party agenda.

Commissioner Tom Grossman is a former Warren County Republican Party chairman.

Stark County is quite a different story on the matter of not supporting/supporting President Obama before Obamacare and even after Obamacare.

Recently, a SCPR reader e-mailed yours truly requesting that the SCPR get into statements made by Republican commissioners Creighton and Regula as well as Canton's local newspaper to tell the full story on why Stark County getting into the DeWine/Warren County legal initiative might not be a good idea.

At issue was a January 27th Repository editorial advocating that the Stark County commissioners join the lawsuit.

Here is a copy of that readers letter to the editor of The Repository:

The Repository’s editorial board failed to tell readers important information when it urged Stark County to join Ohio Attorney General DeWine’s transitional reinsurance fee litigation (“DeWine files lawsuit over Affordable Care Act fee,” Jan. 27).

First, the editorial board failed to mention the cost of this litigation. For example, DeWine’s staff will spend thousands of hours on this litigation.  Time that could be spent putting criminals in jail and keeping us safe, as promised during DeWine’s election campaign. Further, Ohio’s Warren County has hired a Washington lawyer to be the brains behind the litigation. Top tier Washington lawyers can bill out at $1,000 per hour.

Second, the editorial board failed to discuss the likelihood of success of the litigation. The odds of DeWine winning his litigation are slim to none. 

Already a leading health care expert has told The Cleveland Plain Dealer, and confirmed to me by email, that DeWine is misreading the law. This error may cause DeWine’s litigation to fail.

Third, the editorial board failed to tell readers that what is possibly driving the litigation is DeWine’s political ambition and desire to burnish his conservative credentials. The media has speculated that DeWine will run for governor in 2018. So DeWine is using our tax money to pay for his litigation that keeps him in the public’s eye.

The editorial board should have explained the above factors to readers rather than simply cheerleading expensive litigation that seems to be driven more by ideology and political ambition than common sense.

ROBERT S. MELSON, NAVARRE

It is interesting that Mr. Melson thinks he has to turn to The Stark County Political Report in order to get "the rest of the story" out before the Stark County public.

The Report thinks Melson makes telling points.

As SCPR readers know, yours truly thinks that highly partisan Republicans and Democrats are ruining our democratic-republic as they jockey with one another for political advantage.

That is what The Report thinks this fight is about.

It is a sad day indeed when our local newspaper weighs in on the TRP issue making a recommendation without telling the complete story.

But that is what we have all come to expect from The Canton Repository.

CONGRESSMAN BOB GIBBS WORRIES ABOUT 30 MILLION WHO WILL REMAIN "UNCOVERED" BY HEALTH CARE AFTER "OBAMA CARE IS FULLY IMPLEMENTED IN 2016?

On January 19, 2011, Republican congressman Bob Gibbs voted for the very first time against "Obamacare" (officially named the Affordable Care Act).

The vote came fresh off the heels of his having defeated Democratic incumbent congressman Zack Space in the 18th District (before the 2010 generated redistricting).

Like Republican Jim Renacci in the "old" 16th District did to Democratic incumbent John Boccieri (voted "no" on November 7, 2009, but "yes" on March 21, 2010), he hammered away at the-then Congressman Space vote "yes" on Obamacare in the 2009 session of the 111th Congress before polling "no" on March 21, 2010 as the 2010 election neared.

It was rather silly of Space to vote "no" in 2010 after having voted "yes" in 2009.  After the 2009 vote, the die was cast and the turnabout in March of 2010 was not going to erase his original support of the measure for campaign purposes.

Voters were smart enough to figure out that he was really for Obamacare as evidenced by the 2009 vote and figured he could confuse, fool them by flip-flopping in 2010.

And, of course, Gibbs exploited Space's political opportunism big-time.

While all the politicking was going on leading up to the 2010 election, slightly more than half of all Americans disfavored Obamacare.

With redistricting in 2011 taking place, Gibbs became the congressman for most of Stark County in the guise of the 7th congressional district.

Now that the act has begun to be implemented, it is not clear what the political ramifications are to be in terms of supporting or not supporting the law now that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling has made it "the law of the land."

Republicans are now beginning to show signs of waffling a bit.

The SCPR believes that the 37 GOP sponsored/led votes were designed to put Democrats on the spot with their "yes" for Obamacare votes in order to make political hay at election time.

While the SCPR has not examined each and every vote that Gibbs has cast on the 37 tries, given his latest histrionics on voting "no" on the 37th vote; it is axiomatic to believe he must have voted "no" on each of the ad nauseam votes.

Witness Gibbs "tweet" on his latest vote:

If #ObamaCare is fully implemented, 30 million people will still be without health insurance. j.mp/106Jv35 #TrainWreck
— Rep. Bob Gibbs (@RepBobGibbs) May 17, 2013

The laughable and disingenuous thing about the "tweet" is that the clear implication that he cares about the 30 million or so Americans who will remain without health care at the end of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

For the only way for him to be convincing in a purported desire to cover every single American is for him to come out for a Single Payer System.  Who believes that a Republican would ever, ever support Canadian, European style government provided health care?

So while he is trying to make it appear that he has a big heart, the political truth of the matter is that he is gaming the health care issue for continued political advantage and is seeking to continue to bash Democrats for the Party's embrace of keeping Obamacare pretty much intact.

His "repeal and replace" stance with the implication that the "replace" includes finding a way to cover the remaining 30 million or so uncovered Americans.

But Stark Countians should not believe the implication of his words.

Democrats for their part think the tide may be turning on the part of the electorate in favor of Obamacare and that the 37 "no" GOP engineered congressional votes may in time turn out to be a political albatross around Republican candidates.

With John Boccieri having removed himself from the mix of possible candidates to take on Gibbs, the lot could once again fall to Joyce Healy-Abrams who Gibbs handily defeated in November, 2012.

Whichever Democrat is the Gibbs opposition in 2014, it will be interesting to see how the campaign evolves around the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) issue.

How will each candidate approach getting the full healthcare coverage of each and every American going forward beyond 2016 which is the year of maximum implementation of Obamacare?

Right now, it appears that Gibbs is merely engaging political rhetoric and posturing.

In the 2014 campaign, he will have to provide a real program for achieving full coverage, will he not?

If not, he risks coming across of not only "not having a big heart" and more like being "heartless."

Are the Democrats correct?

Could the lack of full coverage of health for all Americans become a campaign wedge issue that will make the 37 Republican engendered congressional "no" votes a political liability rather than a political plus?