Ohio is Open for Business?

Ohio Governor Declares His Support of Business

by Max
After meeting with automakers and asking for more auto business for Ohio, new Ohio Governor, John Kasich declared that "Ohio's open for business." What does this mean exactly? Does this mean that we need to reduce corporate taxes in order to compete with Alabama? It is likely that this will mean that we need to reduce the individual income tax in order to attract CEOs with their obscene salaries. But the big issue, in which Kasich campaigned on, was to reduce government regulations that stifle business. Here are some examples of ways that Kasich could reduce the development and expansion of businesses in Ohio.

• Strip away regulations of mines so that we could experience the tragedy that took place at Massey Energy mines here in Ohio and the loss of 29 miners deep inside the earth.
  
• Eliminate funds for government expertise to even be able to understand complicated drill mechanisms such as those in the Deep Water Horizon. Ohio too could join the other communities that have experienced a man made disaster by reducing government regulations.
• We could allow insurance companies to do whatever they want and charge whatever they want.
  
• Ohio could have the fun of cleaning up a coal ash dump like at the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee without proper government oversight. We may be able to add jobs cleaning up 1.1 billion gallons of sludge like they did in Roane County after government did protect the citizens against improper fly ash dumping.
  
• We can get rid of the regulations of payday lenders, and allow companies to exploit low income residents in need of small loans.
  
• We can eliminate regulations on the banking industry and financial services like Kasich's old firm the bankrupt Lehman Brothers. We could continue to allow Ohioans to be exploited by the sharks with lawyers who rob them of their houses.
  
• Maybe we can go through another Savings and Loan fiasco with government not watching out for fair lending practices.
  
• We could allow corporations unlimited access to influence our elections without transparency and without limits.
  
• We could turn our attention away from the regulation of vehicles so that they are unsafe or we could turn our roads or bridges over to private corporations to maximize profits while minimizing maintenance.
  
• We could reduce regulations on public utilities in the hopes of reducing red tape and improving competition or causing another Love Canal or Davis Besse reactor head hole.
• We could turn our public education over to corporations so that we could drop out of the top 10 states with the best education system in America.
  

I am not comforted that Ohio is open for business. I want someone watching corporations to avoid all the abuse we have seen just over the last decade by corporations. Kasich's friends on Wall Street almost took down our economy with their disregard for rules and their lust for money. I have no confidence that he will be our watchdog in Columbus. How many government regulations will he cut to bring in businesses? How many people will die or have their housing taken for the greater good of bringing jobs to Ohio? How many taxpayers will be harmed because Ohio is open for business?

Now You Have to Govern

by Max Johnson

We have seen these swings for the past 25 years at the federal level, so we can weather the changes in the House of Representatives. In addition, there is this internal war going on within the Corporate party which will eventually lead to a Day of Reckoning. I mean these tea baggers will wake up and realize that their partners in bed were the very people who ran up the deficit. They will realize that Dan Coats was a lobbyist and long time Congressman who brought the pork to Indiana. They will realize that Marco Rubio and Rick Scott in Florida are businessman who are more interested in enriching themselves and improving the business climate than being a populist. They will see that the amount of discretionary funding available to cut is so small that it is meaningless. The Corporate Party will have to cut defense, transportation, education, social security, and Medicaid (all popular programs) to make any impact on debt. When this day of realization comes will be interesting to stand back and watch the feud.

I have to wonder if the corporations of America held off hiring until after the election to make sure that they would have a favorable election. There is nothing comparable to motivating people to vote for the party out of power like unemployment. It certainly would be a good strategy to reverse the Obama gains to keep the economy sluggish. I just have to wonder.

Where we have to worry is state government and especially Ohio. Kasich of Ohio, Perry from Texas, Scott in Florida, Brewer in Arizona, and many others are facing huge budget deficits and have made pledges that they will not raise taxes. There is no way to cut enough out of the budgets to get a balanced budget. Even if the economic climate improved today that would not raise enough dollars to balance the budget with additional income tax in the next year. So, what is left? The only choice left is to sell off public assets. They will have to sell public parks, roads, and maybe even schools, parking meters, and public utilities. Anyone want to buy Interstate 70 or 71 for $8 billion? We are not going to have a train, so in order to get to Columbus we will have to pay a toll. We will have to pay for a quality elementary charter school, and the poor kids will go to the crappy public schools. There is nothing else to do when these right wingers have painted themselves into a corner. The entire state except Cuyahoga County is now red, and they break it, they buy it.

The Ohio Nightmare

by Max Johnson

I just don't understand Ohio voters at all. I keep pressing refresh on Nate Silver's NY Times blog hoping that it will change the polling for Ohio Senate and Governors Race. How could the polls have the two worst possible candidates in the lead for election in these critical offices for Ohio? The big picture here is that the Ohio Republican party has been in power for most of the last 25 years, and where are we? Voters gave one of the worst Governors ever, Bob Taft, two terms in office. The Republicans have won basically on the pledge to cut taxes. In good times and bad, their only platform is to cut taxes. It is a winning strategy to get elected, but a losing strategy to govern a state. This is like telling your bank that you will balance the budget of your business only by reducing expenses. "I will not even consider working to create additional resources for my business. Any price increases or new product offering is off the table." See how long your banker would tolerate this recklessness and keep extending credit to you.

They are the party of "no." They have done nothing when they were in power and now they want their old jobs back. I understand throwing the bums out, but do not understand putting back the guys who got us in trouble. They have isolated us on the international stage, and have preached fiscal responsibility without acting responsibility. I never get the sense that the Republican elected officials have ideas for solving problems, but are great at marketing. This is the party of Abramoff and Gingrich who were run out of Washington for mismanagement and scandal. This is a small tent party that has alienated its traditional base in Hispanics with no answer to immigration issues except building fences and law enforcement. They preach small government, but don't mind if government gets involved in the sex life of our soldiers and wants government involved in deciding who can marry and what pain relief doctors can prescribe. The Republican party is the party of hypocrisy and slogans.

In Ohio, John Kasich is the Republican nominee for governor. This is a man who was employed at the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers. He made millions off of the misery of Ohioans. This was a company that was up to its eyeballs in subprime lending. This is a company that destroyed many neighborhoods in Ohio, and Kasich was their point man in Ohio. Kasich stands for Wall Street and Wall Street caused the near depression that we witnessed. He picked a woman as his running mate who shipped jobs to Florida. He has advocated destroying the Ohio budget by eliminating income taxes. As a commentator on Fox News, he adopted extreme positions to get face time, and the guy does not have a compromise bone in his body. We have a huge debt in Ohio, and we need all options on the table. I just can't imagine a worse candidate for office.

Rob Portman has a lead over the weaker Democratic candidate Lee Fisher. Ms. Brunner would have energized more Democratic voters, but Fisher is more of a main stream candidate who can attract independents. What do we actually know about Rob Portman? What are his signature positions that he is running on besides not agreeing with Obama? I think that all we need to know is that he served in the Bush administration. He was a loyal soldier in the administration that took us to a useless war, began torturing people, allowed a city to drown, and gave corporations a free ride. Portman was in charge of two areas of the administration that could only be considered a failure. The US trade deficit went from a negative $390 billion to $670 billion during the decade of the Bush administration, and Portman was the US Trade Representative. Bush and Portman excelled at not paying for the Iraq war or prescription drugs, or no child left behind or the 2001 tax cuts while Portman was at the Office of Management and Budget. This is really all I know of Portman, but that alone would seem to make him unelectable. Not in Ohio. This is a nightmare. How can this happen?