KASICH VS STRICKLAND

Thanks to the Dayton Daily News (“Ohio State paid Kasich $4,000 per Visit”, Dispatch, Aug. 17) we learn that for nearly seven years, THE  Ohio State  University paid John Kasich $50,000 annually to spend four hours per month with its students.  So by my math, Kasich raked in roughly $350,000 —and was paid nearly $1,400 per hour.  Not a bad gig at a public school.  But while Mr. Kasich is an interesting guy and his lectures were no doubt splendid, how many Ohioans would willingly pay $1,400 an hour to hear him speak?  And whether he was paid with taxpayer money or privately donated “discretionary” funds, Ohio State has ears of tin if it thinks students and parents struggling to pay ever-rising tuition bills will conclude that this was a good idea.  I’m guessing many of them would like to pose the same question to OSU that Jay Leno once famously posed to actor Hugh Grant who was caught in an equally ill-advised dalliance:  “what the hell were you thinking?”

But if Ohio State looks bad, Mr. Kasich looks worse.  As a member of Congress, Kasich repeatedly voted against increasing the minimum wage for working people — but sees nothing wrong with a sinecure for himself that pays $1,400 per hour.  As a gubernatorial candidate, he says colleges must cut costs and professors should work harder — while he happily collected $50,000 per year for teaching four hours per month at the state’s flagship university.  But let’s give Kasich his due. When it comes to hypocrisy, he is Ohio’s undisputed all-time heavy-weight champ.

In his ubiquitous campaign television commercials, Mr. Kasich demagogues the recession and complains that Governor Strickland “hasn’t gotten the jobs done.” Creating jobs, Kasich implies, will be his specialty.  But in his entire adult life, Kasich has yet to create a single job for anyone other than himself.  He has been a state legislator, a Congressman, a Lehman Brothers rain-maker, a Fox News television host, and a, ahem, well-compensated college instructor.  Kasich “gets the jobs done” all right — but only for himself.

Dale Butland, Columbus

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Lately we have been hearing a lot from Rob Portman.  It distresses me to even mention his name.  Portman is connected to the failure that was George Bush.  In fact you could even say he was the architect of that very failure.  Portman was Bush’s budget director.  If you remember when Bush took office he took a budget surplus and in record time turned that into a massive deficit.  When you see Rob Portman you can thank him, for that.

Worse yet, now Portman, a congressman wants to be your next U.S. Senator.  There is a good chance that could happen in these times of “throw ‘em out politics”.  Portman is using Karl Rove tactics to convince you the voter to elect him.  Portman would have you believe that turning on your computer will result in taxation.  It’s ridiculous and an out right lie.  The legislation he refers to is what is known as “Cap and Trade”.  This legislation targets companies that pollute the environment at the same time it rewards companies that are not polluting the environment.  This system of “pollution credits” or Cap & Trade is not new.  It was used in the early 1990’s to reduce acid rain, and guess what it worked.  Better yet no one was taxed for turning on their computer and any other household appliance for that matter.  Rob Portman is trying to convince voters of just the opposite.  It is what Republicans do.  They tell you lies, half truths or out right deception to get your vote.  Be smarter than Rob Portman, shouldn’t be that hard, because he is lucky to put two cohesive statements together that make any sense at all.  Rob Portman would have you believe that he has some sort of magic formula to create jobs and protect the environment at the same time.  Don’t fall for Portman’s rhetoric.

If Portman is elected, here is what you can expect.  His track record has been protect corporations, reduce their taxes.  Portman WILL raise taxes on the middle class, on working families.  Portman is in lock step with the Republican assault on the poor and the middle class.  Millionaire politicians have no idea what faces working families.  Politicians like Rob Portman and John Kasich have no idea what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck.  Portman and Kasich can no more relate to the problems facing the average family, than the average family can relate to their plundering of the working class.  Republican economic policies have destroyed pensions and created massive unemployment in Ohio.  Portman and Kasich were major players in the fiscal irresponsibility that drove this country to the edge of bankruptcy.

Why would we want more of the same, in 2010?