Governor-Elect John Kasich

I have not written much about John Kasich in the last year. This was not a conscious decision on my part; but more because I had a “wait and see” mentality throughout the campaign. Until I made my final decision in early October to vote for Libertarian Ken Matesz, my jury was always out about Mr. Kasich.

I respect him, his passion, and his ability, but I do not trust him. As my Congressman (12th District), I admired his willingness to tackle the Washington insiders with his work on alternative federal budgets. On the other hand, his relationship with Lehmann Brothers troubles me, because I have to wonder how much he was influenced by Eastern Establishment values. In short, Gov. Strickland’s charge resonated with me.

His actions since the election make it clear that he will not pussyfoot around about resolving the $8 billion deficit. We all know there really is not much fat in state government today given the missions it has been asked to take on by the feds and the General Assembly. Yet a deficit that size (approximately one-seventh of the entire biennial budget) will have to cut a lot of muscle. When coupled with his desire to reduce the tax burden in Ohio, he will need both guts (which I know Mr. Kasich has) and creativity (which remains to be seen). A surgical approach won’t be good enough. Mr. Kasich will have to wield the meat axe.

His warning to the Statehouse lobbyists last week is a good start, as long as he is sure the Republicans in the General Assembly are solidly behind him. The pork barrel is just as ingrained in the culture of state government as it is in the federal. Changing that culture will take a great deal of courage and determination from our state legislators.

Mr. Kasich will defeat his own purpose if he thinks that state government services can simply be turned over to private contractors. Contractors usually cost more than state employees, and if my twenty years’ experience in state government is any indication (and I have had considerable exposure to contractors in my work), their efficiency rarely justifies the added expense. Furthermore, Ohioans have legitimate concerns about contracting out functions related to public safety, including prison management.

To successfully achieve his objectives, Mr. Kasich will have to risk losing “federal funds” for a while, so that he can redesign the safety net in an affordable manner. He will have to support a legislature that is willing to practice nullification aggressively, especially where the feds attempt to mandate additional state spending. He will need to aggressively lobby the Congress not just to scale back, but eliminate most of its fiscal demands on state governments.

Mr. Kasich will have to communicate a vision that will inspire the people of Ohio to sacrifice today for a better tomorrow. No politician in recent memory has even attempted to do this, but the next four years are going to be very hard ones with the best of policies. Part of that sacrifice will be for already cash-strapped Ohioans to help their neighbors in need – personally and through their churches and community organizations.

This approach is the only one that holds with it the hope of preserving and strengthening a free society in hard times. Failure to act boldly will result in the destruction of our state government – and all of our freedom. On the other hand, success will bring us out of this crisis greatly strengthened, both materially and spiritually.

It's time to end the party -- we have work to do

Most of my friends in the Tea Party and liberty movements were ebullient as the Republicans regained control of the U.S. and Ohio Houses, the Ohio U.S. Senate seat, and Governorship. I remained quiet yesterday out of compassion, thinking that they should be allowed one day to bask in their assumed victory.

Assumed being the key word. All evidence to date points to the GOP as trying to swallow up the liberty movement so the party can destroy it. I hope and pray that I am wrong. If liberty-loving Ohioans are very watchful of their state and federal representatives, and put intense pressure upon them to reduce the size and cost of government, well and good. But if we don't, we will find ourselves two years from now being as unhappy with the Republicans as we were two years ago, and as we just were this year with the Democrats.

On a related note, I was extremely disappointed with the number of votes captured by Libertarian and Constitution Party candidates. While I did not expect any to win, I thought they would poll closer to 10%, setting them up for some victories in 2012. That clearly did not happen. They need some media (with many times more readership than The Ohio Republic) that will publicize their campaigns, and explain to the public why their views should prevail. They clearly won't get it from the existing newspapers and broadcasters -- and until such media do appear, nothing will improve for them. Sorry, it's just hard reality.

Meanwhile, we have to spring a few traps, like this one, described by Buttonwood at The Economist:

The Fed's Wednesday announcement on QE [quantitative easing -- the purchase of U.S. government debt, which is equivalent to printing money] is probably more market significant. There seems little doubt that some QE will be announced but there is room for uncertainty about how much. You can take your pick from today's data—weak numbers on personal incomes and a strong purchasing managers' index—and argue for a little QE or a lot.

I have argued before that QE might not work, given that bond yields are already low and banks are flush with cash. So it seems likely that the markets will be disappointed, however big the QE programme.

But there is also a nice irony at work. The tea party is opposed to massive government spending and bailouts. But QE is a way for the central bank to finance that government spending and to pump money into the banking sector. So on the day that the tea partiers may be celebrating, an unelected central bank will be carrying out a programme, probably totalling several hundred billion dollars, that will cut against everything the partiers stand for.

The Gubernatorial Debate -- a waste of time

I just got off from watching the major party candidates argue their cases on the Ohio News Network (video). It was a disappointing exercise in repeating the same charges, usually with no substantiation, and same statistics over and over again.

Mr. Kasich repeatedly charged that Gov. Strickland had increased taxes twice during his tenure, while Gov. Strickland insists that he lowered the Ohio income tax by 17%. Which of them is telling the truth -- or is Gov. Strickland using the Ohio income tax decrease to cover increases in other taxes?

Gov. Strickland was fond of emphasizing Mr. Kasich's experience at Lehmann Brothers as evidence of "Wall Street, not Main Street values," which appeared to gain traction when he noted that Mr. Kasich earned a bonus of over $400,000 the year Lehmann Brothers went under. Mr. Kasich, for his part, stressed the role he played in capitalizing the growth of Ohio business. This has been a continuing theme in the Governor's campaign, which raises a troubling thought: is he so desperate that he has to resort to negativity -- something incumbents rarely have to do?

Neither candidate offered any proposals for covering the $8 billion shortfall in Ohio's budget for fiscal year 2012. The only candidate to address that issue was not permitted to attend -- Libertarian Ken Matesz, who announced his plan on Monday.

We have to start taking a serious look at the candidates who will offer solutions to Ohio's problems, regardless of their party label (or absence of one). Too much is at stake to practice politics as usual this year.

Update 9/15: Usually, I have some problems with National Review Online's neoconservatism (here via National Public Radio, of all places), but Mytheos Holt's analysis has it nailed. And I totally agree, Ohio's major-party gubernatorial campaign is an exercise in class warfare that has no class to it whatsoever. (Virtual buckeye to Ken Matesz at Facebook)

How to fill the $8 billion budget hole

Ken Matesz, Libertarian candidate for Governor has an answer; but frankly, it takes my breath away. According to Marc Kovac at the Kent Record-Courier, Mr. Matesz wants to:

(Full text of speech)

• Eliminate the Ohio income tax by fiscal 2013


• Cut state spending by 40%


• Immediately stop all state borrowing


• Sell the Ohio Turnpike, the state universities, the Bureau of Workers Compensation, and all state parks and lands


• Allow video slots at horse racing tracks


• Reduce the prison population by 25,000 inmates

I do not agree with all the points in the plan above (the Ohio Turnpike is a net revenue source that we need right now, and I have some problems with selling all of the state parks; though perhaps some of them could be targeted for sale). But his plan has one cardinal virtue. It is a plan, in contrast to the silence of his opponents.

"Neither of my high-dollar, special-interest-supported opponents is prepared to make the tough choices that will position Ohio to become the freest, most business friendly, most family friendly and most productive state in the union," he said...

He added, "We don't need a few more decades of Democrats and Republicans with the same policies that got us to where we are today. There really is no difference between the policies of Kasich and Strickland. Both of them are big government politicians, big spenders, who continue to offer no real solutions."

Mr. Matesz's plan needs some tweaking; but again, at least it is a plan, and he deserves credit for formulating a solution to Ohio's toughest challenge. True leadership requires us as citizens to accept that the solution to a problem may be hard to take -- but will greatly benefit us later.

As I wrote in an earlier headline, Mr. Matesz has laid down the gauntlet. Will either of his opponents pick it up?

Remember, the lesser of two evils is still evil. Ohio needs solutions, not spin.

Libertarian lays down the gauntlet on income tax

The Libertarian Party announced yesterday that its gubernatorial candidate Ken Matesz will announce a detailed plan for resolving Ohio's projected $8 billion deficit for 2011-2012. The plan will include a gradual abolition of the Ohio income tax.

No such plan appears to be forthcoming from either of the major party candidates.

The announcement will be held on Monday, Sept. 13, 2 pm, in the Ladies' Gallery at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.

"Serious problems call for serious candidates. The Matesz campaign and the Ohio Libertarian Party are ready to step up to the challenge with a detailed plan that eliminates the deficit while cutting taxes. The other major party candidates are unprepared to tell you their plans because they have none," said Libertarian Party Chairman Kevin Knedler.

Ken Matesz is committed to cutting the income tax

In fact, the Libertarian candidate for Ohio Governor is committed to cutting it out. In this video he observes that one of his opponents [Republican John Kasich] is starting to back away from his announced intention to do the same. Mr. Matesz explains why he is holding fast, and why it is important for Ohio that the tax be eliminated, along with the $7 billion it represents.

Unfortunately, he did not discuss how he would handle the budget in light of such a cut; but he has promised another video in which this issue will be addressed. Mr. Matesz's website is www.mateszforohio.com .

Jobs

Anyone who has followed Ohio politics for more than 25 years or so finds it difficult to hear the word "jobs" in political discourse without thinking of James A. Rhodes (left) who dominated Ohio politics during his sixteen years as Governor (1963-1971, 1975-1983). He was a man obsessed with the idea that every Ohioan should have a decent job. The accomplishments for which he is most remembered are the expansion of vocational and technical high schools, and the creation of a system of community colleges, both of which continue to prepare young (and often, not so young) Ohioans for the workplace.

As everyone knows, Ohio has been dragged out from the industrial era kicking and screaming -- and almost 30 years after Youngstown Sheet went down the tubes, Ohio politicians are still kicking and screaming; so when John Kasich (right) "welcomes" the thought that he is a "reincarnated Jim Rhodes", he is strikng a nerve for many Ohioans.*

Ohio desperately needs a paradigm shift.

Most of us realize, at least instinctively, that our service-based economy is not going to last much longer. The currency is going to hyperinflate, goods from abroad will become unaffordable due to high oil costs (and the depreciated dollar), and multinational corporations aren't going to make their bucks off the American consumer, because the American consumer isn't going to have the money to spend.

"Jobs" are of vital importance only in an industrial economy, where large corporations employ 30-40% of the workforce. In the economy we had two hundred years ago, toward which I believe we are returning, having a "job" conveyed a very different meaning.

Two hundred years ago, a job was something a slave had; or a man who was too poor, timid, or unintelligent to run his own business. Those who were poor, but ambitious, saved their wages to buy the tools they needed to get out on their own as soon as they could.

Everyone else ran a farm, a store or local bank, or made something -- bread, tools, wagons, barrels, whatever. Enterprise was free because no one was large enough or powerful enough to corrupt the system. Competition was brutal, but you had control of your own destiny, and learned to adapt your business to the market -- or if you failed, you looked for a job.

It is not the function of the state to create jobs. It is the function of the state to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to compete on a level playing field, by ensuring that every child has the opportunity to get a useful education, by protecting the sanctity of contracts, and by protecting our property from force and fraud.

If the state wants to strengthen the Ohio economy, it would secede to get out from under the federal tax burden; then reduce taxes and entitlements to a point where it becomes profitable for ordinary people to go into business for themselves. It can review banking regulations to remove any barriers to lending to small business.

But what the state should not do is to continue our feckless search for industrial jobs, which, by now we should know will never return.

It's time to move on, Ohio, and neither Mr. Kasich nor Gov. Strickland seem to have the foggiest idea how to do it. We do have an alternative. Consider Ken Matesz (Libertarian) for governor who appears to be on the right track.

One thing is clear, Ohio will not recover until Ohioans change the way they think about politics and the economy.


* I agree with Joe Hallett at the Columbus Dispatch that the comparison is inaccurate, if for no other reason than that Gov. Rhodes did not have Mr. Kasich's conservative ideology, but the point of this post is to discuss what Mr. Kasich wants the voters to believe.

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).

President Obama to raise money for Gov. Strickland Aug. 18

Laura Bischoff at the Dayton Daily News reports that the President will be at the Columbus Athenaeum for lunch Aug. 18. Tickets will cost $500 per person -- $2,000 for "priority seating."

At a time when Democratic politicians all over America are distancing themselves from the President, our Governor chooses to embrace him!

That should say something about where Gov. Strickland's loyalty lies.

What we really need is a good protest like the one they had in Texas on Monday.

Cautionary note for Tea Parties

Sarah Palin energizes big tea party rally in Nashville.
Big mistake.

Here's why:

Sarah is urging the Republican Party to embrace the Tea Parties. Republican Chairman Michael Steele thinks that's a good idea. But does anyone really think the Tea Party movement will retain its integrity once it folds into the GOP?

From the Wall Street Journal coverage:

Organizers here seek to shift the focus from staging political rallies to winning elections. "The Tea Party movement is growing up," said Judson Phillips, a Nashville-based criminal-defense lawyer who organized the National Tea Party Convention. "If 2010 is another year of rallies, we've lost."

Rallies have value, but Mr. Phillips has a point.

Sarah Palin didn't kill Tennessee's Tea Party movement -- the movement committed suicide when it invited her. The reason it committed suicide was that the leadership apparently still clings to the notion that the federal government can be reformed -- which is the only reason to invite a national political figure (as opposed, say, to Judge Napolitano or Thomas Woods).

Federal tyranny can only be overthrown through action at the state level. There are a few politicians at the state level who can strengthen the movement, such as Georgia First Ray McBerry and the Vermont Nine; but in general, Tea Parties should be wary of establishment politicians.

This particularly goes for Ohio, where the movement takes a risk by inviting candidate for Ohio Governor John Kasich to speak. There are points of agreement, but the effect of supporting Mr. Kasich will be similar to that Nashville experienced in supporting Sarah Palin.

Back to the Wall Street Journal article:

The movement's electoral mettle will face further tests as Republican primary elections take place across the nation ahead of the November general election. At a Friday session at the convention here, activists here discussed how to coalesce around conservative candidates early in primary contests to avoid losses by splitting their votes.

"We've got to wise up to that. We need to size up candidates early and get behind them," said Bruce Donnelly, an Illinois-based businessman who created SurgeUSA, a Web site that vets primary candidates.

Attendees were urged not to spend their money traveling to Tea Party rallies in 2010, and to support political candidates instead. The message resonated with Janet Smith, a 70-year-old wife of a retired preacher, who was thinking about attending a Tea Party rally planned for September in Washington, D.C. "Maybe instead it's time to find good candidates," she said.

Correct. But Tea Partiers: don't waste your time on Congress and the Senate. If your candidates did win, they would have zero influence once they got to Washington. Concentrate on your state legislatures and Governors! Support nullification of health care, firearms regulation, and Real ID!
Support letting your states make their own decisions free of federal meddling!

The way to freedom goes through the state capitols, not the one in Washington.

Ohio jobs: a shocking view of the numbers

The Kasich for Governor campaign blog has published an internal memo giving the unemployment statistics in Ohio over a period of years:

MEMO
TO: John Kasich

FROM: Ben Kanzeg, Deputy Policy Director

DATE: October 21, 2009

SUBJECT: Latest Jobs Numbers

Just an update on Ohio’s jobs numbers for September.

Notice that while the unemployment rate went DOWN to 10.1%, Ohio actually LOST 5,900 jobs in the month of September.

September Numbers

UNEMPLOYMENT- U.S. Unemployment was 9.8% in September, up from 9.7% in August.- Ohio’s unemployment rate was 10.1% in September, 12th highest in the nation, down from 10.8% in August, and up from 6.8% in September of 2008, one year ago- Ohio’s unemployment rate of 10.1% is the highest it’s been in 25 years (Jan 1984)- The number of unemployed workers has increased by 190,000 in the past 12 months.

JOB LOSS/GAINS AS OF OCTOBER 21, 2009- Ohio lost 5,900 jobs in the month of September:
- Ohio lost 155,000 jobs in 2008
- Ohio has lost 174,600 jobs so far in 2009
- Ohio has lost 258,100 jobs over the last 12 months.
- Ohio has lost 329,600 jobs since Ted Strickland became Governor.
- Ohio has lost 388,900 jobs since the last national recession ended in November of 2001. Twenty-two states lost jobs during this period, and only Michigan fared worse than Ohio.
- The last national recession ended in Nov 2001, the most recent recession started in Dec 2007. During this period of time Michigan lost 250,000 jobs and Ohio lost 58,000 jobs. Every other state added jobs to their economy.

At this writing there were 28 comments to this entry, most of them very thoughtful. Five of them are worth reproducing here (Emphasis added):

Mike Slone:

The numbers above indicate that most of the 2008 jobs loss occurred in the last couple months of the year.It would appear that much of this loss was due to the failed work of our congress and senate over the last several years, despite many warnings from people like Senator McCain our country refused to direct financial responsibility towards wall street. Now our country is actually encouraging fiscal irresponsibility to the American public asking them to take out loans on cars they can not afford, and then encouraging finance companies to make those loans. Our government is also taking a role in the private sector, and closing more auto plants than ever in history. Easy fix, get Gov out of Business and make them do their jobs.

Mark:

The problem with jobs in Ohio is serious, but it is not going to be fixed with political pablum. Until the legislature and governor get away from the pervasive attitude that it is the government’s role to take care of the citizens, there will never be enough will to cut the unnecessary spending and overburdening control that hamstrings the Ohio economy. The same is true for the US economy – every “stimulus” bill puts us further in debt, further down the road to ruin. If you’re serious about fixing Ohio, then quit trying to make government be the fix. Instead, just get rid of the burdens government places on the economic engine – people and their businesses.

Nate:

If you consider just central Ohio and ask what has made it prosper over many years you would have to conclude that the area has witnessed the start of a lot of small companies which ultimately became large employers. The Limited, Worthington Industries, Cardinal Health, Wendys, Bob Evans, Bank One, Huntington Bank to name a few.

The one thing that all of these companies have in common is that they were brought public by little local firms with capital that was raised, for the most part, from the local community. In short, the local community raised equity to support local employers. Now ask yourself, when was the last time that a central Ohio company came public?

Becasue of excessive government regulation the companies that did this work have all sold out to major, primarily New York, investment houses who are not interested in Central Ohio. We need a governor who will lead us back to what works, the same thing that has worked in the past. Lets not look to Washington for help. A governor needs to get the government out of our way.

Carol Bensing:

One of the main things each state has to do is fight for its sovereignty against the Federal government. Number two is a balanced budget done by going through every state pay out and eliminating any programs that are redundant and especially those that are pure pork payouts for votes. Instead of getting casinos to take up the slack in revenue the state should be cutting spending across the board. If public schools aren’t educating our children we should be using vouchers, Many states have successful programs that could be copied instead of starting from scratch.These are in addition to some of the great comments already posted here.

Dr. Thomas Pampush:

Ohioans are so oppressively taxed that I have urged the younger members of my extended family to flee as soon as they graduate college. If they want to engage/start up in business, do it elsewhere. (this is, of course, true of the whole US. Taxes make our goods so expensive to make here that, to remain competative, industry must move offshore.) * ...

Eschew “hands across the aisle.” This is just Republican capitulating to Dems.

I really think that Ohio could be made an economic oasis by reducing taxes to a realistic level. Our present government attitude kills the goose that lays the golden egg.

Thank you, Kasich campaign, for sharing the memo with us; and to the commenters. Ohio has always had a wealth of practical wisdom -- the problem lies with those who would ignore or suppress it. I know the idea of independence runs against the grain of many good, practical, people; but reading the above, what better solution exists for the excesses of government? What else hasn't been tried and failed?

* If that isn't a call for independence, I don't know what is!

John Kasich to run for Governor

It's official, according to Mark Silva at the Chicago Tribune. Former Congressman John Kasich is filing to run for Governor next year. Mr. Kasich is well respected among conservatives and moderate Ohioans who know of his career in the Congress, particularly in his role as a deficit hawk.

Mr. Silva continues:

"Kasich already is on the circuit: He served as the keynote speaker at the Richland County Republican Lincoln Day over the weekend and at a Columbiana County GOP dinner this week.

"'We've been drifting and we've got to stop it,' Kasich said at his most recent dinner. 'Ted Strickland is a nice man, but he's a caretaker governor when we need a man of action.'

"Kasich described the state of Ohio that he first came to know in the 1970s and said the state has come to have higher taxes and unemployment with fewer people to support it all.

"'The most important thing is to point out we need a major change in Ohio's economics,' he said. 'We need to restructure Ohio's government to help bring down the economic barriers so we can have good, high-paying jobs in Ohio.'"

Virtual buckeye to syclone538 at the Ohio Freedom Alliance.