Everybody is Talking....

****  I was just wondering when Republican Steve Stivers, a former bank lobbyist, will start talking about his ties to big banks, cutting Social Security, his protests against raising the Ohio minimum wage, his work against consumer protection, his vote against stem cell research, and his views on abortion (Is Stivers for or against reproductive freedom? --- sometimes he is - sometimes he isn't).  Has John Boehner taken him under his wing since so many people are saying that he is Boehner's protege????  Has Boehner introduced him to all his lobbyist buddies?

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*On the Today Show this morning, they did a report of scams.  I immediately thought of Republican candidate for governor, John Kasich.  Why?  Kasich used his familiarity with people in Ohio to arrange introductions to get Ohio pension funds to invest in Lehman Brothers.  This schmoozing by Kasich cost the Ohio pension funds the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.  Those within the pension plans that defend Kasich today are holdovers from the Taft administration.  (Speaking of holdovers from the Taft administration:  Why are there so many unqualified Republicans in managerial jobs within the Ohio Department of Transportation?????)

Kasich wants you to believe that he will bring jobs back to Ohio, even though his primary purpose is to get his rich Republican friends on his cockamamie "private" Development Board, of which only he would control.  His proposal is not even within the boundaries of the Ohio Constitution. As Kasich continues to defend his plan to eliminate the Ohio Department of Development, he even hinted that members of his personally picked board could get bonuses. (Do you remember when Republican Secretary of State illegally gave his staff bonuses? See resource #1, #2, #3 )

Time and time again, while Kasich was in Congress, he voted for tax cuts and tax loopholes that benefited the wealthy Republican supporters. Kasich repeatedly pushed for cuts to programs that he thought were irrelevant: cuts in programs designed to help low and middle income families/individuals, cuts in job training, elimination of the departments of health/energy/education, etc.  (For more on Kasich's previous budget cutting plans see cbpp.org and their second report cbpp.org#2 for details.)

In the Beacon Journal, Kasich is taken to task for duplicating and perhaps even copying what Gov. Strickland has already done.  Stickland's plan was called ''Common Sense Business Regulation.''  Kasich calls his plan on cutting regulations "The Common Sense Initiative."  Is Kasich capable of thinking on his own????


The Beacon Journal goes on and says:
...In 2006, Ted Strickland campaigned making the same pledge. (What recent candidate for governor, or almost any other statewide office, hasn't promised to pare back the bureaucracy?) Almost from the start of his term, Strickland launched Advantage Ohio, part of a broader effort to improve the performance of government. In February 2008, Advantage Ohio resulted in an executive order setting in motion a comprehensive review of state regulations, especially those affecting business....


....Which raises a telling point: If Strickland identified the problem, and now Kasich wants to take his shot, what did Republicans do for the 14 years they commanded the Statehouse? In view of the regular Republican cudgeling of big government, you would think every last wicked rule had been axed or repaired. Finally, when lawmakers took aim at codifying the Strickland plan, their effort collapsed, the Democratic House and Republican Senate unable to reach agreement on legislation. Which left Ted Strickland alone to fight this good fight....

I wonder how many individual retirees and investors lost money in Lehman Brothers???? By the way, how many former Taft employees work on the pension fund boards are covering up for Kasich and his Lehman Brothers investment disaster????????