Ding-Dong! "Nurse Ratched Calling"

In Tuesday's State of the State, Gov. Kasich told us that nursing homes are nothing but a big Medicaid rip-off, and dear old Mom and Dad would save Ohio taxpayers a ton if they'd just stay in their homes, watch Wheel of Fortune, and piss on the couch until they croak.

Thursday he said that we're being robbed by home-care Medicaid nurses, who are compensated $54.95 for their first 15 minutes of in-home time with a patient, then $5.69 per hour after that. And moving on to the next case, the clock starts over.

John-Boy explained that there are high-density clusters of Medicaid recipients in the state where roving gangs of larcenous home-care nurses pop in for just 10 minutes, make their $55, then move on and do it again and again and again. Mo' money, mo' money, mo' money! He says that's just not right and, by God, he's gonna fix it. And we'd all agree that better reporting, more accountability, more efficiency and less fraud are good things.

But Kasich offers no evidence for his assertion. It's just another anecdote -- like Reagan's welfare queen driving a Cadillac -- designed to play upon fears and paint a picture; another bald-faced attempt to turn the general public against a certain segment of society (in this case, public employees).

In the world of business, whether public or private, union or not, most owners/operators/managers understand the importance of maintaining reasonably good relations with their workers. By contrast, King John has gone out of his way to vilify, demonize and ridicule the public segment, many of whom work for him and many of whom undoubtedly voted for him.

I bet they won't vote for him again, but in his cold calculus King John probably figures he doesn't need their support. Here's hoping he's wrong!