Kasich vs. the Truth

Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich is running on his job creation record. We need to separate his rhetoric from the facts. As the Examiner noted, that "...The number of unemployed workers in Ohio in March was still 353,000..."

Examiner:


...Information specific to Ohio, supplied by the widely recognized and respected workforce data collection group Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. located in Moscow, Idaho, many of the jobs Kasich is touting as a GOP comeback governor don't pay a living wage for Ohio, which amounts to about $20-hour....

...Ohio, the nation's seventh most populace state, only regained 600 of the 2,300 jobs it lost in February, and lost 3,500 lost jobs in manufacturing. Trade, transportation and utilities also lost 4,900 jobs and local government jobs decreased by another 3,500, according to information provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And while Gov. Kasich hopes Ohioans believe the recovery started on his watch, his own budget director, in his last Monthly Budget Report, notes that Ohio started its recovery under former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland in 2009, almost two years before Gov. Kasich's first budget became official. Nearly 80,000 jobs returned to Ohio under Strickland before Kasich's policies—and especially his pet project JobsOhio became official more than year after he became chief executive—were in place, with the help of a very friendly GOP-led legislature.

Look around Ohio and you'll see closed and empty businesses, an increase in homeless families and individuals, and workers struggling to put food on the table. I would not define this situation as success for Kasich or Ohioans. In a state where Walmart is the largest employer, Kasich's job creation has been a failure.

* A lot of people are already getting sick of Kasich's re-election ad with his homey approach. In our house, we turn it off as soon as it starts.