Los Angeles Times:
...A new Quinnipiac survey released Thursday showed that by a margin of 48%-34%, voters would blame Republicans instead of Obama if the debt limit is not raised and the nation defaults. Voters also support his call for a "balanced package" that includes both new revenues and spending cuts.
The president's approval rating has remained remarkably stable even in the high-profile dispute with Republicans. Quinnipiac found 47% of voters approved of his performance, unchanged from a June survey and up slightly from his pre-Bin Laden showing.
Meanwhile the approval rating for congressional Republicans dropped to 26%, lowest since assuming majority status in January, and now below the similarly poor rating for their Democratic counterparts.....
With Eric Cantor siding with the wacko Tea Party Republicans in the House of Representatives, he is undermining the Speaker of the House John Boehner's ability to negotiate. If Boehner cannot get an agreement with the Republicans, will Cantor try to take over Boehner's post?
Not upset yet with the Republicans? I'm sure that after hearing what Gov. John Kasich did today with your tax money, you'll be shocked.
Dispatch:
Gov. John Kasich made an impromptu $2 million pledge of state money today to Nationwide Children's Hospital leaders to be shared with similar institutions throughout the state for a joint research project....
....Kasich pledged the money before he knew where it would come from. While speaking with Allen and Dr. John Barnard, president of the research institute at Nationwide, Kasich had his staff try to reach budget director Tim Keen, to no avail.
Kasich pledged the money anyway, and later told the two physicians: "I may have to get it to you in a couple months."
Kasich pledged the money anyway, and later told the two physicians: "I may have to get it to you in a couple months."
If Gov. Kasich wanted to pledge some of his own personal wealth to Nationwide Children's Hospital, that would be great. However, with the state budget as tight as it is, Kasich's actions are just irresponsible.
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There was NEVER an $8 billion dollar deficit in Ohio!
Innovation Ohio has the details:
On Tuesday, the Office of Budget and Management released the monthly financial report for June. In it, OBM validated what Innovation Ohio reported last month: Governor Kasich’s frequent claim that the state faced an $8 billion dollar deficit was never true. The report indicates that in fiscal year 2011, which ended June 30, the state collected nearly $1 billion ($973 million to be exact) more revenue than was forecast, reducing the gap between actual expenditures in the last two-year budget and available revenue in the upcoming biennium.
The OBM report validates our claim that through increased revenue in fiscal year 2011, better-than-expected revenue growth in fiscal years 2012 and 2013, and the availability of new sources of one-time money, the actual gap that budget-writers faced was closer to $5.1 billion, not $8 billion....
Once again the Republicans continue to lie, lie, lie.
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**** Has anyone else wondered what kind of work Republican Rep. Steve Stivers is doing for the people in Ohio's 15th district? Stivers has not created jobs in the district as he promised.> Guess which Republican Presidential candidate supports SB 5???? Newt Gingrich.
Gingrich, the guy married three times, divorced twice, and involved in a check writing scandal while he was in the House, is giving advice to Ohioans to support SB 5, according to Cincinnati.com. That should turn a lot of heads. Not.
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A letter to the editor in today's Columbus Dispatch says the following:
I have one question for Linda Lee Kennedy (letter, July 7) and all other opponents of Ohio Senate Bill 5: What makes them think they represent the middle class? Union workers comprise something like 12 percent of the work force. That means the other 88 percent of us represent the vast majority of middle-class workers in the U.S.
Unions, pensions and collective bargaining are relics of the past. In today's marketplace, good workers are any company's greatest asset and are compensated as such. Different people perform at different levels; why on earth should a lesser performer be paid as well as a better performer through something such as collective bargaining? It just doesn't make sense in a market economy.....
The writer of the letter just doesn't understand what constitutes the "middle class" in our country.
According to dictionary.reference.com, the middle class is defined as:
middle class
–noun
1. a class of people intermediate between the classes of higher and lower social rank or standing; the social, economic, cultural class, having approximately average status, income, education, tastes, and the like.
2. the class traditionally intermediate between the aristocratic class and the laboring class....
In an article at marketplace.nationalpublicradio, several economists were asked to define middle class. Below are the names of the economic experts and their quotes from NPR:
Gary Burtless of the Brookings Institute:
....He uses the term "middle income" rather than "middle class" and he bases his definition on the median household income -- which last year was $48,200.
Burtless says the middle can range from half of that to twice that number, so $24,000 to $96,000....
Frank Levy MIT economist stated:
I would say a reasonable range is about $30,000 to $90,000. Most of what we mean by middle class, I think, is how easy it is for you to afford the basic building blocks of a good life in America and that means can you afford a single-family house and can you afford a car and can you afford to heat the house and so on and so forth...
According to teacher-world.com, here is the list of average income for those involved in teaching in Ohio:
Average Beginning Teacher Salary: $31,753
Burtless says the middle can range from half of that to twice that number, so $24,000 to $96,000....
Frank Levy MIT economist stated:
I would say a reasonable range is about $30,000 to $90,000. Most of what we mean by middle class, I think, is how easy it is for you to afford the basic building blocks of a good life in America and that means can you afford a single-family house and can you afford a car and can you afford to heat the house and so on and so forth...
According to teacher-world.com, here is the list of average income for those involved in teaching in Ohio:
*Teacher Salary Information For 2008—2009
Average Beginning Teacher Salary: $31,753
Average Teacher Salary: $47,602
Average Administrator Salary: $77,740
Elementary School Principals: $82,414
Middle School Principals: $87,866
>>>> Indeed.com has the following income statistics for Ohio firefighters:
| Firefighter in Ohio.........................$52,000 | ||||||||
| Paramedic Firefighter in Ohio .....$49,000 | ||||||||
| Firefighter Paramedic in Ohio.....$44,000 | ||||||||
| Emergency Communications Technician in Ohio.....$37,000 | ||||||||
| Fire Protection Specialist in Ohio.....$63,000 | ||||||||
Ohio Labor Market Information reports that average income for police and sheriff's patrol officers in Ohio is--------------------- $53,310
The author of the letter to the editor doesn't understand that teachers, firefighters, and police officers are making incomes far below his own income. Does the author of the letter want the firefighters and police officers who risk their lives protecting his family to make far less? Does he think that their jobs are worth less than his own? Does he think that teachers that have educated his children, enabled them to go to college, are not worth their income even though they have bachelors and masters degrees?
What do you think? Do you agree with the writer of the letter to the editor of the Dispatch???? If you'd like to respond to the letter, you can check out the Dispatch's letter policy here.