Kasich's "Blueprint" is a Rehash of Old Failed GOP Policy

John Kasich

Ohio has not recovered from the Bush Recession as quickly as other states. Many workers cannot find jobs. Those who are working are finding their wages falling or remaining stagnant. Frequently, both parents of middle class families are working long hours just to maintain the statusquo. The number of Ohio children living in poverty is increasing. The gains and protections won by labor unions in the past are slowly being eroded.

But the other side of the coin is that Ohio's most wealthy citizens have never had it better. Their personal wealth, mostly inherited, is generating more and more return and being taxed less and less.

Given this situation, one would think the state's elected officials would, in 2015, change the course for the ship of state. Sorry. Not going to happen. Ohio's government is controlled by the GOP (Greedy Old Politicians) who are determined to consolidate the wealth.

Exhibit #1 is Governor Kasich's proposed 2015 budget which he touts as "Tax Reform." It is more of the same "trickle-down" economics that were proven to be fallacious when Ronald Reagan was selling back in the 80's. It didn't work then or when George W. Bush tried the same gimmick. And today Kasich is still trying to sell us that same piece of Marie Antoinette cake.

Just like one of his discredited predecessors, Bob Taft, Kasich wants to lower the income tax with the result that the wealthy pay less percentage-wise, and raise the sales tax so the middle class and poor pay disproportionately more.It takes a lot of guts to stand in front of Ohioans and promote this as "blueprint for a new Ohio," but then John Kasich has not backed off when it comes to making a fool of himself.

The GOP's deep-pocket donors have to love it, and Johnny is going to need those deep-pockets because he is posturing himself to run for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. Screw you, Ohioans, I want to be President of the United States! I need all that big money, now that the  Republican Supreme Court freed it up for me with the Citizens United decision.

Perhaps Kasich should rename his proposal for what it is: a blatant posturing to attract some of Romney's wealthy donors. After all, it costs a ton of money to run for president; and face it, those poor people can't give any money and if we play our cards like we did in 2004, we will keep them from voting.

The two key cogs of the proposed "Tax Reform" are:
■ 23 percent income tax cut across all brackets of the personal income tax
■ A half-cent hike in the state sales tax to 6.25 percent and expansion of the tax base to include such services as cable, lobbying, parking, public relations, travel packages, and debt collection. (Local sales taxes have to be added. In Lucas County the total will be 7.25 percent as of April)

In this case,  both Democrats and Republicans, Liberals and Conservatives  have attacked the plan for a myriad of reasons, but the bottom line is that this strategy has been used repeatedly and it has always been a colossal failure. Most seem to agree that if this is the future of the "new Ohio," we are in for some tough times.

Lowering the income tax (a progressive tax -- the more income,the more you pay), and offsetting the lost income with an increase in the sales tax  (a regressive tax, the poorer one is, the larger percentage of one's income goes to taxes) has resulted in a series of economic recessions.


According to Policy Matters, “"Tax cuts would average $11,906 a year for the top 1 percent' of Ohio’s tax payers under Kasich’s proposed tax 'reform' plan.  'The bottom 60 percent, on average, would see increases” of up $116 a year.   In total, 80% of Ohioans would see zero change or a tax increase under Kasich’s proposed plan.'"

 Plunderbund agrees:  "Kasich wants to increase taxes on 60% of Ohioans."

As all economic studies have indicated, cutting income taxes and raising sales taxes moves more wealth from the lower economic levels to the most wealthy. And the most wealthy, according to Standards and Poor, "tend to save a greater share of their income and spend it on untaxed services."

The concentration of wealth caused by shifting the tax burden from income tax to sales tax results in a decline of the annual average state revenue growth.  In the 10 most sales-tax dependent states, there has been a "significant"decline in the annual average state tax growth."


And the ordinary consumer realizes that  increasing the sales tax penalizes consumerism, which in turn has ill effects for manufacturing. I  was thinking about purchasing a new truck or new household appliances, but if I have to pay even higher sales tax, I will make do with the ones I have.

As Policy Matters reminds us:  “cutting the income tax and expanding the existing tax break for business income is a failed economic strategy; after 10 years of tax cuts, Ohio still has fewer jobs than it had in 2005, while the nation has gained 6 million.”

One has to wonder why these  presidential wanna-bes, like Kasich, are bogged down in the failed Reaganomics of the early eighties. If it didn't work then, it's not going to work now.  As a wise woman I know says: "Repeating the same failed action over and over and expecting a different outcome is the epitome of stupidity."

Ohioans deserve a more creative policy. And that may mean we deserve new policy makers.