Why are businesses not investing in new jobs? Ohio Governor John Kasich explains why the Obamaconomy is devastating to business

Wisconsin's Scott Walker is not the only Republican Governor doing a bang-up job in the so-called "Rust Belt". Ohio's John Kasich has also revitalized the Buckeye State in spite of the ongoing Obama depression. When asked recently why businesses aren't investing in new jobs, Kasich's answer was both accurate and poignant.

There's so much uncertainty.

This national debt is growing and they can't seem to get anything done whatsoever in Washington, which tells business people to look out for a big fat tax increase.

They're talking about raising the taxes on capital gains and then you have Obamacare. And if you're a small businessperson, you have no clue how you're going to deal with the unfunded costs of Obamacare. Then you have Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation and no one knows what the rules are you going to be.

Let's just take you and I. If you and I are going to invest in a business, but we don't know what the rules are going to be, we're likely to just wait. And that's what's happening right now.

It's extremely frustrating to me. At the end of the day, and this is a totally unrealistic thing, but wouldn't it be great if the Congress and the President got together and sat down and said, "We've got a crisis here." I mean, Rome is on fire. And it's singeing places like Ohio. I'm very concerned about it. We've been making great progress... but the headwinds, they're kicking up again.

We [in Ohio] finally got out of an $8 billion hole, and we build up a rainy day fund, and we have people in the legislature saying, 'let's just go spend it.' I mean, are you kidding me? ...It's very disappointing to see [the president unable to act]... as someone who was there when we got something done there, I just look at this and just shake my head. [It's] just dysfunctional.

Ohio erased an $8 billion budget deficit, the largest in history. It cut taxes -- including killing the death tax (get it?) -- by $800 million. It brought sunlight and transparency to the budgeting process. And in response, S&P and Moody's both upgraded Ohio's credit rating while while downgrading the United States under Obamanomics.

Methinks we need more straight-shooters like Kasich and Walker in Washington.

Ohio Governor Reacts Appropriately to Liberal Media Inquiry

Hot on the heels of President Subprime McDowngrade's visit to Ohio -- during which he attempted to take credit for Gov. John Kasich's stunningly successful fiscal record -- comes the obvious question from a reporter. Obvious, that is, if you're a liberal Statist hack.

The governor's reaction is priceless.

Yes. That was Kasich cracking up.

Over the course of the past year, fiscal conservatives -- led by Kasich -- eliminated an $8 billion shortfall in Ohio's budget. How did they accomplish this feat? By slashing government, constraining spending, and cutting taxes by nearly $1 billion.

Ohio, which was 48th in job creation under Democrat governance, skyrocketed to fifth under Kasich.

And while the United States under President McDowngrade was McDowngraded, Ohio's credit rating was ratcheted up.

Now that Ohio is running a surplus, Democrats are doing what Democrats always do. Which, generally speaking, is trying to steal the taxpayers' money and slather it around. Under Gov. Kasich, at least, they're going to have a much harder time ripping off the private sector.

Hilarity: Obama tries to claim credit for Ohio's economic resurgence, which was orchestrated by... GOP Gov. John Kasich

President Obama was visiting Ohio today and tried to take credit for the Buckeye state's economic resurgence.

Obama, speaking Wednesday at Lorain County Community College in the Cleveland-area town of Elyria, touted his support for investment in job training programs that connect community colleges with unemployed workers, programs he warned the Republicans would "gut" under their budget blueprint...

...Obama's trip to Ohio -- the 20th of his presidency, according to CBS News -- was ostensibly official, and not a campaign event. But he again used the congressional Republicans as a proxy to frame the general election case against Romney. [Ed.: and again stuck taxpayers with the bill for his campaign expenses.]

..."What's the better way to make our economy stronger? Give more tax breaks to every millionaire and billionaire in the country, or make investments in education and research and healthcare and job training?" he asked.

In celebrating Ohio's comeback, Obama is unintentionally repudiating his own policies. It turns out that, in spite of Obama, Ohio is 4th in the nation in job creation and tops in the Midwest. In the previous four years before Republican Gov. Kasich came into office, Ohio was 48th.

Even the states that are ahead of Ohio in job creation are far larger. Check out the other members of the top five job-creating states: Texas, New York, California and Florida. All are far more populous than Ohio. Florida, for instance, has 6.5 million more people, yet Ohio edged it out in job creation.

In fact, February's BLS data showed that Ohio created more jobs than any other state. When was the last time that happened? Can't tell, because the BLS doesn't offer data prior to the Clinton era, so it's been at least that long.

In short, Ohio proves that conservative fiscal policies work in spite of Barack Obama. While Obama's "leadership" destroyed America's pristine AAA credit rating, S&P was simultaneously upgrading Ohio's rating.

And for Obama to run to Ohio and try to take credit for its success is outrageous, but not unexpected coming from the man who claimed "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it."

Kasich has a damn good record when it comes to fiscal policies. Bill Clinton won't ever admit it in public, but the real architect of the much-ballyhooed 'Clinton Surplus' was none other than John Kasich, the Paul Ryan of Newt Gingrich's House of Representatives.

S&P Raises State of Ohio's Credit Rating; Cites GOP Governor Kasich's Whining About His Predecessor and His Budget, But Mostly His Budget

By electing a fiscal conservative, Ohio is moving in the right direction when it comes to economic vibrancy.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services upgraded Ohio's debt rating just one day after it put the United States on "creditwatch negative" on what it calls a rising risk of policy stalemate in the debt limit negotiations.

For Ohio, the rating was revised from "negative" to "stable" after Gov. John Kasich signed a new budget the ratings agency says will essentially balance the state's finances for the next two years. S&P also said Ohio is experiencing a modest economic recovery which has stabilized revenue.

In making the upgrade, the agency also assigned a "AA+" long-term rating to Ohio's $416.75 million general obligation bonds... "After a significant decline through the recession, Ohio's economy is steadily recovering," according to S&P's statement issued Friday.

The agency listed factors such as Ohio's unemployment rate has stabilized and fallen to 8.6 percent through May 2011 from a peak of 11 percent in March 2010. The also state experienced positive employment growth in 2010 and through the first quarter of 2011...

In S&P's statement Thursday about the U.S., it said it placed its 'AAA' long-term and 'A-1+' short-term sovereign credit ratings on "CreditWatch with negative implications."

The action means there is a "substantial likelihood of it taking a rating action within the next 90 days." ...

Unlike President Obama, Kasich actually took proactive steps to reduce the size of Ohio's government and improve business conditions for the private sector. Plus he didn't blame his predecessor, demonize his political opponents, or say "I" and "me" all the time.


Linked by: Instapundit, Weasel Zippers and Memeorandum. Thanks!

Ohio Governor John Kasich: the Era of Having Public Sector Union Bosses Control the Budget Process Is At an End

The Chris Christie virus is spreading. And it would appear that Ohio's new Republican governor -- John Kasich -- has caught the bug. He's explicitly warned public sector unions that the days of their unaffordable compensation, benefits and pension packages are over.

A day after hundreds of public employees jammed the Statehouse to protest a bill they believe will kill their unions, Gov. John Kasich said he is working on an even-tougher version, one that would punish workers who go on strike.

If the Republican-controlled legislature doesn't fashion a collective-bargaining reform bill to his liking, Kasich said yesterday, then he will include language in the coming state budget to enact the changes he wants... "We would outlaw strikes, and the penalties would either be firing or docked wages," the governor said.

Asked what recourse public union workers would have under his proposal, Kasich said, "They have a job. They should continue to negotiate and try to come up with something."

Kasich's statements underscored the resolve of Republicans, who enjoy hefty majorities in the House and Senate, to roll back the power of public-employee unions. On Wednesday, a Senate committee opened hearings on a measure sponsored by Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Springboro, to eliminate collective bargaining for all state workers and significantly weaken it at the local level.

... [The proposal] would prohibit all public employees, not just police and firefighters, from going on strike. Along with possible termination, workers could be fined two days' pay for every day they strike, and their unions could lose the right to deduct dues from paychecks... Kasich restated his intent to eliminate binding arbitration, the use of outside arbitrators to break contract stalemates with public-safety forces...

You may remember Kasich from his days in Congress. When Democrats crow about "the Clinton surplus" they are really complimenting Kasich and his band of fiscal conservatives who kept shoving sensible spending bills into Clinton's hands to sign. Which he did. After the '94 mid-term debacle, Clinton wasn't willing to expend much political capital fighting Kasich's crew.

And Kasich's common sense approach to dealing with unions is precisely what is needed now. The nefarious anti-taxpayer alliance of big government Democrats and public sector union bosses has run its course, economically and ethically. The unions must be shattered once and for all.

There is no alternative if fiscal sanity is to be restored.