It's one thing for politicians to talk about turning around their state or municipality's finances, it's another to explain how they did it. If they turned deficits into surpluses by doing so on the backs of workers and the poor that is, frankly, not something to brag about.
So I am speaking about John Kasich, here, the state of Ohio's governor since 2011. In last night's debate Kasich, an arch conservative, bragged about how he brought his state from an $8 billion hole to a $2 billion surplus since he has been Governor.
First of all it was never in an $8 billion hole. Second of all you should not brag about putting your state in surplus if you end up putting the people of your state into deficit. Ohio's labor participation rate is the worst in 40 years and it has been declining under Kasich. So, while some have gotten jobs (as he claims) many more have just given up.
Furthermore, did Kasich tell us how he turned around the state's finances? Was it done by raising taxes on the rich and growing the economy faster than the national economy? Did he educate and train the state's workers so that they were more productive and innovative than the rest of the nation?
Well, check it out.
Kasich did it the old fashioned way: by cutting spending and raising taxes on workers and the poor and giving tax cuts to the wealthy.
The bottom line is, don't brag about surpluses just for the sake of surpluses. If residents are left with less, how does that help?
