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Governor Kasich on Obama: Why doesn’t he do his job?

By: Tabitha Hale (Diary)  |  April 29th, 2011 at 04:00 PM  | 

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Ohio Governor John Kasich recently signed controversial Senate Bill 5, which restricted the much-abused collective bargaining power of public sector unions. The bill, similar to what passed in Wisconsin, inspired a similar level of vitriol from the unions and supporters.

Obama jumped into the conversation earlier this week saying “public employees should not be blamed for a financial crisis they had nothing to do with and sacrifices should be shared in tough economic times.”

Shared by who, President Obama? Because in Ohio, the average government worker makes 24.6 percent more than their private-sector counterparts. In addition, Ohio has lost more than 600,000 private sector jobs in the last 10 years, while public sector employees are still getting pay increases.

What SB5 does is remove automatic pay increases and introduce a merit-based system. At a time when Ohioans are struggling to find a job, those that are being paid with taxpayer money should at least be paid based on how well they’re doing their jobs. This is not a unique or unfair concept, and is in fact much more indicative of “shared sacrifice” than putting public sector employees into overpaid positions with bankrupt pensions while their private sector counterparts struggle.

When Kasich was asked about his thoughts on the President weighing in on what’s happening in Ohio, he didn’t mince words.

“We have balanced our budget, under this budget that we’ve presented, along with preserving the tax cut. The President of the United States has, I think a $3 trillion debt. Why doesn’t he do his job? When he does his job and gets our budget balanced and starts to prepare a future budget for our children, then maybe he can have an opinion on what’s going on in Ohio.”

Thanks, Governor Kasich.

COMMENTS

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  • Ausonius

    The amount of money must be immense: there are some ridiculous ads with octogenarians in VFW hats quivering about being thrown out of nursing homes and worse by the Republicans’ austerity measures.

    “Don’t let them take away my dignity,” says one ancient man, who I am sure believes the lies from the Dems.

    What is disconcerting is the lack of a response – so far. Where are the Republicans on this? Some politicians could at least hold a news conference to delineate the errors in the propaganda.

    “When a lie is repeated often enough, it will become “the truth” ” is the First Law of propaganda. These ads are part of the campaign to repeal Ohio Senate Bill 5 in November.

    They need to be swatted down.

    • earlgrey

      sink to support you. I don’t mean to be cruel, but people need to get away from this I deserve this and I deserve that mentaliy.

  • Death_of_the_Donkey

    I am not exactly thrilled with Kasich’s budget. Essentially, he balanced the state budget by shifting a ton of costs on to the local governments. In other words he just rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic. And in many cases, it is not like the local governments can exactly cut the services that were shifted either.

    • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

      I guess you’d prefer he raised taxes?

      • http://tabithahale.com Tabitha Hale

        That calls for a Palin graphic. ;)

      • Death_of_the_Donkey

        sending convicted felons from state prisons to local jails to save money (as one instance), that isn’t exactly something the locals have any way to deal with. Or cutting local government payments after the huge CAT tax shift (for those not from Ohio, the CAT tax replaced personal property taxes which went to local communities and schools and gave all CAT tax revenue to the state). And he is doing all this while not eliminating any mandates still placed on local governments (so they really cannot save money).

    • swami7774

      The highest level of government cuts back first. Then the next level, then the next, and so on. Eventually every level of government must, and will, cut back. They’ll be forced to do so.
      ALL levels of government do too much.

      • Old_Crow

        Here in NY, Cuomo has cut the state budget forcing funding decisions down to the local levels (where it belongs). However, he hasn’t eliminated the state mandates. Without mandate reforms, the local governments and school districts cannot make significant budget cuts and reforms.

    • johnt

      pay for state roads, maintenance of state buildings, etc, and have no say in the matter ?? Hell of a situation that! I’d move if I were you, maybe California or Illinois.

      • johnt

        they play, and talk, and do what they are told, and say what they are told to say, and pretend.

        • ohiohistorian

          for health insurance purposes, and we all know that children of 18 can vote and elect The One, so why do you say that children DON”T have jobs? This administration is a result and an enabler for the “me first” childlike intellect.

    • aesthete

      is that his budget grows the government at a greater rate than the last administration — not cool. At this point, I like what MI, WI and FL are doing more than what OH is.

      • http://slcliberty.blogivists.com randy streu

        You mean things like this:
        http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_19/b4227004622477.htm

        You want to talk about growing government…

        I’m not against EVERYTHING they’re doing in MI, to be sure — but the idea of an unelected “official” having the power to essentially nullify elections is particularly troubling.

        • powertothepeople

          before making a decision, and if some of the ones I respect on here such as Aaron, Moe, or Neil know anything about the law and its pros and cons, help me out with a breakdown.

          That being said, after living in Shelby Township for many years and being quite familiar with the decay of many of the cities in the states, their unpaid bills, the absolute union control and the unions unwillingness to back off while the city collapses, etc. drastic is all that will fix these places. There was one city while I lived there that was paying so much to the unions and was so far behind in paying bills, taxes, etc that they finally stopped paying paychecks for all employees. Cops, firefighters, etc were gone, there was no law, no safety, etc. Houses were being burnt with no response, no arrests when it came to crime, a building that housed evidence was left unguarded and the electricity was turned off which resulted in DNA in rape cases and other type crimes going bad and being rendered useless, guns were stolen out of the building, etc. Case after case had to be thrown out and finally a neighboring city had to take over policing due to the town being used as a hide away and as a jumping off point to committing crimes in the neighboring city. It was an absolute mess and the same crooks that ran the city into the ground, kept getting re-elected due to no one being able to vote since poll places did no exist and due to corruption.

          I am also reminded of the Detroit/Kilpatrick situation and the still lingering devastation caused by him and his cronies.

          I will try to look up that law more, but something has to be done and from briefly reading the info you provided, seems to me to be more of a corporate board takeover of a weak and useless CEO rather than a power play. But I have been wrong before once or twice.

          • aesthete

            I’m mildly concerned, but not as annoyed as I am with Kasich for blowing up the budget and pretending to be a fiscal hawk while doing it.

  • steve010

    just like always you all are going to tell the tale.

    • luvnthebigsites
  • pragmatic

    I’m sick of the attacks from the unions. They keep claiming without collective bargaining the middle class will be destroyed (read:them). Public sector employees account for just 6.5% of the workforce in Ohio, according to the Columbus Dispatch. That’s 395,000 people out of 5.5 million. What they’re really saying is that they’re an elite class, and because they’re an elite class that the rest of us need to pay their way. I’m sick of it.

    • gekster

      no extra words needed.

  • http://whattoreadtoday.blogspot.com/ Paula

    D of Donkey…

    Have you heard that Rep. Ron Amstutz (and others) have proposed a revised budget? It gives the schools more money so that no district takes more than a 20% cut. It also (sort of) addresses the funding of local governments:

    “For local governments, among the hardest hit in Kasich’s plan, the House proposes creating a new mechanism to reduce costs and encourage shared services. It diverts $50 million a year from the commercial activity tax paid by businesses to a special fund for local governments that collaborate. Some money could go to fiscal emergency situations.

    Amstutz acknowledged that that money doesn’t make up for the cuts local governments will see in the budget already. Local governments are in line for a 33 percent cut in general revenue

    • http://whattoreadtoday.blogspot.com/ Paula

      Oops – forgot to include the link:

      http://bit.ly/iMy2BJ

    • Death_of_the_Donkey

      have a lot of faith in it getting passed. As for the potential savings from SB5, I am not so sure. SB5 can save money provided health inflation continues to rise above the CPI, but if health inflation slows, then SB5 won’t save money and may cost more, as now everyone (not just unions) will be getting all their new compensation in the form of additional base-line pay. The big problem Ohio has is that Taft greatly underestimated the revenue that the CAT tax would bring in vs the old corporate tax and personal property tax that it replaced.

    • ohiohistorian

      The House Democrats in Ohio and the last D Governor left this mess. Now they bleat and whine. Kasich’s budget may not be perfect, but it is WAY ahead of whatever is coming in second. Tell Amstutz to offer his chqnges in the legislature; he was hired to do his job there and in his district.

      Besides, there isn’t a city in Ohio that could use $50 million to make a dent in its budget. So Amstutz is totally smoke and mirrors.

      Maybe the schools can make enough cuts to get back to the place where administrators are the top of the pyramid of educators and not half of the blooming payroll.

      • http://whattoreadtoday.blogspot.com/ Paula

        Amstutz has been around quite a while. He was in the state senate until he was term limited out (not thrilled about that whole deal, but we’ll save that for another day). He was one of the few screaming about the OH legislature plugging the budget with one time stimulus money and accounting gimmicks. I was there two years ago and when he kept insisting on the House floor that it absolutely was not sustainable. He had a pile of charts and graphs and spreadsheets and passed copies around to everyone there. Of course, Strickland, et al didn’t listen.

        I’m glad he’s leading on this. He’s not really a political hack – just a hard-working solid conservative.

  • Spartan4Life

    Obama has led us to a $14.2T debt, not $13T. A trillion here and a trillion there and pretty soon you are talking real money.

    Just a little thing with me but we need to have complete command of these numbers. I cringe when I hear someone on our side interchange the debt and the deficit, for example. It is hard enough for average Americans to understand what is happening to them without our side adding to the confusion.

    That is why Ryan can be so effective. He commands the audience by commanding the facts.

    • ohiohistorian

      He makes the claim that he engineered the budget surplus and that we paid down debt. Well, John, last time I looked all you did is take less of Social Security’s surplus for the Federal pig trough. Please get your facts right. “There was NO surplus under Clinton, just like there was NO “lockbox” for Social Security.

  • http://whattoreadtoday.blogspot.com/ Paula

    Today I was at a local park for the town’s community yard sale day – the place was packed with people for this annual event. I saw two young people I knew signing a petition that a woman was circulating. She then came to me and asked if I wanted to sign for “better working conditions for nurses and bus drivers.”

    Sure enough, she was a union hack collecting signatures to repeal SB 5. I wish I could have stayed and followed her around telling people that she was misleading them. I was FURIOUS! Once I told the two young people I knew what they had actually signed, they felt they had been duped by this woman who led them to believe it was merely a petition saying their community supports good working conditions for public servants. Unfortunately, they didn’t bother to read what they were signing. Maddening : (

    This is what we are up against!

  • charles17121

    Hopefully this illegal person in our White House wont be there much long to play president . There is space at Leavenworth prison waiting for obama and the rest of those in our government that are complicity in this fraud.

  • jppuruzi

    I’m not an Ohioan (I live next door to WI) but can assure you that if those local governments are CONSERVATIVE, they WILL easily be able to ‘balance their budgets!’

  • gunslingr45

    The President of the United States has, I think a $3 trillion debt. Why doesn

  • knighted

    In four words, ‘He Doesn’t Know How’.

  • knighted

    I count 8 trackers. Anyone seeing more?

    • steve010

      nt

    • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

      GetClicky, Sitemeter, and Google Analytics.

      If you’re THAT worried though, don’t accept cookies or javascript from domains other than redstate.com.

  • kebozarth

    Because he’s a traitor to our Unanimous Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights and thus has no loyalty to America or the American people.

  • Old_Crow