Republican buzz alert!

In the wake of yesterday's sound and fury, we now have Mr. Kasich announcing his second major policy initiative, "regulatory reform." The blurb introducing the story in today's Hannah Report (it was e-mailed -- no link available) reads:

Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich promised what he called "common sense" regulatory reform during a press conference outlining his campaign's second major initiative.

And this means, what... ? Shuffling some organizational charts, maybe?

The only meaningful "regulatory reform" will come when the powers of government are significantly reduced -- at the state as well as at the federal level.

I don't think Mr. Kasich has that any more on his mind than Gov. Strickland does.

If he really wants to do something constructive, he will give us a realistic plan for eliminating the $8 billion budget deficit -- which necessarily will involve a major reduction in the size of state government (assuming that he does not want to raise state taxes to confiscatory levels -- something that usually does not sit well with the GOP).