Ohio’s Lost Decade, and Its New Hope
I first saw John Kasich in person at a county Lincoln Day dinner in early 2007. Though the former congressman was a bit under the weather, his animated, passionate style and strong convictions were still quite evident. When he said, in essence, that “Ohio is circling the drain,” you knew he meant it, even though I doubted it.
I shouldn’t have. With the election of Ted Strickland, I believed that trouble was probably on the way. I didn’t appreciate that it was already here.
A recent USA Today chart compiled from government data reported that from 2001 to 2010, Ohio’s economy contracted. Not by much, mind you — 0.7% — but only auto-overdependent Michigan fared worse (-7.1%), and no other state grew by less than 6%. As a whole, despite the Internet bubble, the 9/11 attacks, and the recession, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by over 16% during the decade. Meanwhile, the Buckeye State’s economy spent the time mired in mediocrity and worse, and all those who could have done something about it did was damage.
Republicans promote economic growth, low taxes, and minimal regulation, right? If that were the case, 2001 through 2006, with the GOP in firm control of all branches of government, should have been the Buckeye State’s golden years. Instead, Governor Bob Taft, a pliant legislature, and pay-to-play cronies at ORPINO (the Ohio Republican Party In Name Only) increased taxes in 2003 and allowed state government, its headcount, and its workforce costs to grow at alarming rates. Ohio’s economy barely budged during those years, and was second-worst in the country (again, only Michigan trailed). On a per-capita basis, the state’s GDP grew by less than 0.3% per year. During 2003 through 2006, while the U.S. economy as a whole added over 6.1 million jobs, Ohio added a pathetic 6,000, gaining back hardly any of the 191,000 jobs lost during the decade’s first two years. The state’s 2005 revenue-neutral tax restructuring, which included an awful gross-receipts tax, did more harm than good.
As bad as the Taft era was, it was just a warmup. Under Strickland, with the hugging cooperation of Republicans in the legislature, Ohio’s economy tanked well ahead of the recession as normal people define it (July 2008 through June 2009). After losing 7,000 jobs in 2007 while the country gained almost 1.1 million, the state saw over 400,000 jobs — an astonishing 7.7% of the workforce — vanish during 2008 and 2009. Under “Turnaround Ted,” there was no jobs recovery; fewer Ohioans were working during Strickland’s final month than when the recession officially ended 18 months earlier.
If the Strickland administration did anything meaningful to stop the bleeding during its four-year reign, I certainly didn’t see it. Dayton high-tech icon NCR, the home of the original cash register over a century ago, left the state for Georgia; politicians of both parties, who clearly weren’t maintaining their business community contacts, were totally blindsided. The only thing I recall Ted Strickland doing is begging Washington for stimulus money. All that did is enable the state to keep its bloated structure essentially intact for two years while delaying and worsening the ultimate day of reckoning. Strickland, who fortunately became the first incumbent Buckeye State governor since 1974 to fail to win reelection, though by a scary-slim margin, left a state which had shrunk by over 3% during his four-year term — fifth-worst in the nation, beating out only Nevada, Michigan, Florida, and Arizona — and an $8 billion budget hole for Kasich, his successor.
So, has the RINO state legislature come around? Were any incumbents thrown out by Tea Party challengers? I’m curious what, exactly, is turning Ohio around. Is it the passion and vision of one man, John Kasich? If so, I’d like to know more about him. We got the stats in this article. How about a Part II about the governor himself?
Also: that “We The People” convention looks fantastic. The breakout sessions have exactly the type of info I’d love to get for a California CARPINO-ousting push.
Thanks for the nice mention of the education at the We the People Convention! I am the Breakout Sessions Chair for the convention and it was more a matter of sorting out the better from the good when we sought out material for the breakout sessions. This will be a convention to learn, train, inspire and connect.
Just want to mention that there is still time to come to the events. Not only do we have the convention (2-day $200, 1-day $100, 1/2 day $65), we also have a Ohio Citizen’s PAC dinner on Friday July 1 featuring Dick Morris, and a Saturday July 2 dinner with Herman Cain (both are $60 each).
Ohio went Red, big-time. Yes, lots of Conservatives making it possible for Kasich to turn things around. Go to:
http://elections.nytimes.com/2010/results/house
(Yeah, I know it’s the NYT, but it is a really COOL map and a great tool.)
Kasich == Bill Clinton’s 1994 AWB.
“The only thing I recall Ted Strickland doing is begging Washington for stimulus money. All that did is enable the state to keep its bloated structure essentially intact for two years while delaying and worsening the ultimate day of reckoning.”
And that’s all ANY of the bankrupt states will do. Just look at California. That state already IS bankrupt and all it keeps asking for is more money. And it’s going to need A LOT more because its current governor isn’t doing much to stop the fiscal insanity that’s going on there. Other states like Michigan, Illinois, and New York are not far behind California, so the big question is if the Federal Government will come riding to the rescue. Like Obama really is going to let them go bankrupt just before a presidential election. Nope, we’re all going to get stuck with this bill and have to pay it with money we don’t have at the Federal level. And our national debt will simply get bigger, and bigger, and Obama certainly will NOT have to good sense to let the states figure out how to balance their own budgets.
The unionized (aka. communist) Democrat worker’s party has America on the ropes. It so refreshing to know that Kasich is keeping his word. Check out the 535Project at http://www.libertysoup.org for tools to insist all 535 members of Congress do likewise.
we need to urge our lawmakers not to bail out these states.
obama, not even an american name, and his ilk need to go. we need some economists in the WH, Senate, and House, lawyers be damned.
i pray for may country everyday, and that we unite and get these horrible anti-american people out of our White House. i pray that the Lord is with us on this.
A little reality.
The RINO’s still rule.
The Great GOP Gov. is actually INCREASING spending in this 2 year budget.
No programs, no government cut backs.
The union/teacher complex? Mobilizing to repeal SB5, which they will since their campaign will be totally filled with lies and half truths.
More of the same – this state is bankrupt and the day of reckoning is approaching rapidly.
What happens to governors of Florida, Wisconsin and Ohio in 2012 will be the most catalytic event in American politics for the next 20 years. Such a contrast between these three and governors of New York and New Jersey. All five had basically same problem — far too generous contracts with state employee unions from the past that had to be changed if the states were to survive (not as true in Florida as the others–teachers, etc. here in Florida where I love have nothing like the generous contracts of NYS where I used to live).
Why then did Ohio, Wisconsin and Florida governors stir up such ardent opposition to them PERSONALLY, that (if polls now are correct) may result in recall of Republican legislators. Voter remorse they call it. In Florida, from what I can tell it’s partly waking up to the Scott’s background–he had a known record of having ripped off the state when he ran a health business. I did not vote for him for that reason–other voters (it is my view) woke up after the election and have changed their view now. Or perhaps they didn’t bother to vote in 2010.
As to the other two, I think the first thing that had a bombshell effect was that phone call between one of the Koch brothers in Wisconsin to its governor when in fact the governor was talking to a reporter. The governor fell for the ruse hook, line and sinker and became so patently clear that the governor could be construed as “owned” by the Koch company. He lost his credibility. And remember this–Wisconsin is NOT a state that is really happy with extremist views. They are not basically anti-union as so many southern states are. The governor goofed when he railroaded thru legislation to end teacher union bargaining power and then made it worse by EXEMPTING police and firemen! Another loss in credibility. Ohio’s governor not QUITE as confrontational in style but he too took on the very existence of state employee unions.
Christie in New Jersey never did that! In mny opinion, as of now, he’s the only Republican out there I’d bet money could beat Obama. The other three Republican governors (along with Paul Ryan’s budget proposal re Medicare) have scared the hell out of fence-sitters and anyone over 55. Not to mention unleasing all that manpower unions have to work in campaigns (remember, teachers have summers off???)
As for me, I’m going to register Republican just so I can vote in their primary (I’m totally an independent voter). Haven’t decided yet whether I’ll vote negatively (for the weakest candidate so Obama can win) or positively (Christie runs and turns out he’s an economic nationalist in a party where there is only economic globalists in charge). THAT would get me to vote Republican, and only that.
Meanwhile, I truly think both governor of Ohio and Wisconsin have a deal with the Koch brothers — go for the ultimate result, destroying the unions, even if it means you’re a one-term governor. WE’LL TAKE CARE OF YOU financially.
Oh geez not the evil Koch brothers line again. Don’t any of you know that the Koch brothers companies are part of the public employee unions’ pension funds, especially in Wisconsin? Do you really want to go there?
And…”Wisconsin is NOT a state that is really happy with extremist views…” You aren’t serious are you? That was sarcasm wasn’t it?
OMG do you know anyone from Wisconsin? I do, many of them. The public employees I know from Wisconsin …professors, teachers, and police, are all extremists when in comes to getting what they want from the taxpayers. They could care less about the private sector or anyone else for that matter. Think about it, public employees are the only people who elect their bosses. Can you imagine that working out in the private sector?
As for unions in general, I worked in admin for the UAW and I can tell you they don’t represent the working people, the admin only care about themselves and perpetuating their positions. They really are no different then the CEOs you all criticize, just ask the carpenters of Detroit who saw millions of dollars of their pension fund scammed by an admin of the union.
So at least go get some new Lib talking points, the ones you are using are out of date, didn’t work before, and won’t work now.
I think you missed something key on the reporter’s ruse on the Kock brother’s call. The fact that the Walker fell for the stunt and in fact said during the phone call that he had never talked to Koch before pretty much indicates that there was not a connection between the two.
I know, I know, facts really don’t matter when there is a larger narrative to be served.
You started out sounding credible. I don’t like Rick Scott, either. Then you slipped into DNC talking points. For example, only four of about 200 police unions supported Walker in Wisconsin. His decision to exempt them in the first round was tactical and will probably not survive the next budget as the police behavior in Madison has alienated a lot of public.
The fake Koch call was nothing like your description. You lying lefties all omit the fact that Koch Industries have created 60,000 jobs. How many have you created ?
aurora1920 who do you think you are fooling? You are obviously just a die-hard leftist union apologist trying to make a case against reform of the public union feeding trough. You wouldn’t vote for Chris Christy if he were the only candidate in the race. Nice try comrade!
Re: NCR, their move to Atlanta was acutally funded through the “stimulus.”
When I moved to Ohio a wise man told me that an Ohio Republican was what people in other states would call a Democrat and Ohio Democrats were what other people would call communists. The state Republican Party is still a wholly owned subsidiary of RINO-USA Inc.
Re: NCR, their move to Atlanta was acutally funded through the “stimulus.”
That was not true as of when the deal was done, and as far as I can tell, Columbus GA never got any stimulus money.
By any chance, was that wise old man from New Jersey?
Sounds like a Garden State (or New York) RINO to me.
Gunga as a 40-year Ohio resident I have to say you are, sadly, too correct. The Ohio Republican Party in the 1960′s and 70′s was a potent, and effective conservative force. I’ve seen it erode to the current disgraceful cabal of RINOs like Voinovich, the DeWines (both Kevin State Chair and Mike the AG), Husted (SOS) and the list goes on. The RINO mentality and sentiment is infested deep within the GOP structure and will be hard to root out. Precinct chairs voted overwhelmingly for most worthless Kevin DeWine to stay on a the Party Chair despite the fact that most of the GOP gains in November 2010 were made in spite of him and his cronies. DeWine and his cabal had a big hand in getting a number of full blown RINOs like his uncle Mike and Husted on the state ticket (we HAD some really great alternatives).
It is likely to stay that way as the Ohio Republican party keeps control by making it hard for you even to get the NAMES of the Precinct chairs — they don’t want their pawns to be rooted out.
Under DeWine’s half heart conservatism I have my doubts about the chances of taking out Sherrod Brown in 2012 — only a huge tail wind of anti-Obama votes may save the day for us.
F44, I think you hit it on the head, and for some reason the turning point occurred during the tail-end of the 1970s. The ORP barely lifted a finger to help elect Ronald Reagan in 1980. Reagan won Ohio that year on the backs of the grass roots and thanks to Jimmy Carter’s economy alienating enough of its blue-collar workforce to make a difference.
This piece is devoid of any evidence of Tea Party involvement with Kasich or the GOP controlled legislature. In fact, the Republicans under Taft cut the state income tax rates and eliminated the so-called inventory tax on business. No mention of this in article either.
This piece is devoid of any evidence of Tea Party involvement with Kasich or the GOP controlled legislature.
That’s because there hasn’t been much; in fact, the statewide GOP ticket was much weaker than it should have been because ORPINO proactively opposed Tea Party-supported candidates like Seth Morgan (Auditor) and Sandy O’Brien (SOS) by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting Dave Yost and Jon Husted in the primary. That dampened Tea Party enthusiasm in the general election, and almost cost Kasich his victory. And while ORPINO brags about its sweep of all statewide offices, it could have had a complete double-digit rout across the board if it had engaged the Tea Party folks instead of dissing them and if it had supported Morgan, O’Brien, and Yost as Auditor, SOS, and AG instead of Yost, Husted (OMG) and Mike DeWine (OMFG) for those respective offices.
This is not to put down the activists who were there during SB5, but the fact remains that Kasich has largely accomplished what he has on his own. I hope he realizes he’ll have a tough time sustaining it on his own.
But the larger point is that the Tea Party’s focus until the last election was primarily on changing who controls Congress. The We the People Convention came about largely because Tea Party leaders have recognized that the focus from here on out needs to be at least as much on building local and state activism and candidacies.
As to taxes, I mentioned 2005′s tax changes as being revenue neutral but on balance harmful. That’s because I believe that the Commercial Activities tax, a gross receipts tax, is a significant growth inhibitor, and that its negatives outweigh the positives you noted. For example, I believe Honda expanded in Greensburg, Indiana instead of Ohio in 2006 because of that tax.
The next round in Ohio is the biggest round: the coming vote on SB5. This is staged right now to be a disasterous defeat for Kasich. The unions, the democrats, and the newspapers are all organized and primed to deal the Kasich agenda a death blow in the coming special election on repeal. Kasich and the repubs act totally asleep, whereas the unions have organized effectively from the first day, and have already collected over seven hundred thousand signatures (twice what’s needed) to put the issue on the ballot.
On Sunday, the Columbus Dispatch (properly captioned “the Discharge” – a medical, not martial term – by former governor Gilligan) had it’s favorite simpering hack ideologue Joe Hallett describe in glowing terms how Joe Biden had come to town to address the annual meeting, firing up the faithful who were literally – and I do mean “literally” literally – slobbering in anticipation of the great victory this fall against Kasich and the R’s. Two weeks ago, the routine unveiling of the statehouse portrait of former governor Strickland was turned into a sickening political rally by his pack of sychophants, who thirst for a return to the gravy train.
Kasich’s entire program and the future of his administration are on the line. He is personally in the crosshairs. He can’t delegate this election campaign to some committee, no matter how well organized or funded. As you point out, the ORPINO is as worhless as a wart. Moreover many of the republican “stalwarts” in the legislature have turned out to be about as useful as allies as NATO in Afganistan.
Kasich is the issue. That’s the way the dems have designed it, and the way they will play it. That’s the way he has to play it. At this point the rats are ahead. Far ahead, with momentum. If Kasich doesn’t come off the dime, and off of the bench, right now, swinging, and campaign personally, agressively, and effectively all the way to the election, SB5 will be repealed. The Kasich governorship will be effectively over, the dems will be ascendant again, and may roll downhill toward delivering Ohio to Obama in 2012.
I was about to write about everything you did but you beat me to it. Can’t think of very much to add except that only a total state bankruptcy will have any effect on our RINO element and, of course, the Democrats. I live in the northwest corner of the state and can see clearly that labor and their Dem allies are approaching the repeal referendum as a full-scale quasi-military operation. The establishment Republicans are nowhere to be seen and just want to keep the dust off of their clothes if Kasich gets vaporized.
Kasich is falling into the same old trap that constantly bedevils Republicans with this sort of thing. He wants to be perceived as being “nice” and believes that he can win over the opposition with charts, graphs and OMB logic. He simply doesn’t get the fact that the Dems, labor unions and old media are going to hate him (not too strong a term) no matter what he does. Cris Christie understands this and deals with it the only way possible – by taking it head-on. Unfortunately there aren’t many Christies around.
Ohioans will get the government they deserve because they are asking for it!
I didn’t need to read the article – my answer to the headlining question is, NOT if he golf’s with hussein.
Please research the proper use of the apostrophe.
Who the hell are you?
Lessee. You admit not reading the article, but you post anyway. You made a completely irrelevant statement. You put an apostrophe where you shouldn’t, and did not capitalize Hussein.
So, someone, being annoyed with your inane post, calls you out on the most glaring, comprehensible thing, and you ask who the hell he is? You merely continue in your original manner without pause for reflection. Whodathunkit?
There are people in this world who go around saying every little thing on their minds, offending others constantly, because they think they have an unlimited right to speak. Yet, when others point out something, these offenders are quick to take offense. Such do not feel that others have the same unlimited right to speak. The biggest offenders always have the thinnest skin. Thin skins and impenetrable skulls.
I recently spoke with a friend of mine back home who wanted some advice about setting up a production of a recent patent he registered, as he was getting enquiries from the private and public sector for demonstrations. In the beginning he would need 5 labourers, but if the orders started to come in fast the need for more workers would rise rapidly. After a lengthy discussion over start up costs, leases, etc… I recommended that he set up operations in Texas, not Ohio.
The state is NOT business friendly and unless the RINOs get pitched for real conservatives, it will go the route of Michigan with Detroit as the role model for what is to come.
Unions and the unionized democrat party have wrecked Ohio and America.
Unions are corrupt; and, unions are supported by a corrupt demo party.
Union members are the spoiled and corrupted citizens on display in WI.
The state and federal governments are unionized against un-unionized..
Two thumbs down on the Obama style ‘Hope’ poster cliche.
So what happened to the comment I left last week?? Is this what pajamasmedia is about–allowed comments must not question the core article or come from another political eprspecive??
Disappointing!! But then, not sure I want to be part of a dialogue that includes this gem of rhetoric: “Obama,k not even an american name . . .?”
And don’t even go near the Lucas County Republican Party. The old guard there is a joke, but I can’t tell if the new guy, John Stainbrook is really a Democrat stalking horse. Anyway, Toledo is for all intents and purposes, a one party town. Owned by unions.
Unless the bullet is bit, what will happen is the US dollar will be pegged to a
currency that is backed by more than hot air. So, a changing of the guard perhaps?