Columnist missed bigger transgressions
The Tuesday op-ed column “Gov. Kasich has year to rescue his legacy” by Matt Mayer asserted that Gov. John Kasich’s failure to turn Ohio into a right-towork state was his biggest failure. A further investigation into Ohio under Kasich would indicate that is far from his greatest failure.
In April 2017, an Ohio House of Representatives report said that Ohio’s education system fell nationally from fifth to 22nd under Kasich. The average household income in Ohio ranks 32nd nationally. The report said that 1 in 7 Ohioans now lives below the poverty rate, which is higher than the national average.
Ohio ranks 39 out of 50 in the nation for health and life expectancy, which is a full year below the national average. Ohio leads the nation in heroin- and opioid-overdose deaths. The Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies in March 2017 cited “a rising tide of poverty in Ohio.” The Dispatch reported that Kasich increased sales tax so he could reduce the income taxes. The cutbacks have meant that local-government spending has forced increases in local taxes and decreased local services, according to The New York Times.
Ohio ranks 45th in infant mortality (U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services) but Kasich preferred to focus on taking away women’s reproductive-health decisions 20 times, with the latest being his signing into law a restriction of abortion after a fetal diagnosis of Down syndrome, a move that is anything but small government.
And for Mayer’s belief that turning Ohio into a right-to-work state would be an economic boom, the data show something different. The Economic Policy Institute reports that rightto-work states have 3.2 percent lower wages and 12 of 15 states with right-to-work laws have the worst pay gaps between men and women. They also have 15.3 percent poverty rates compared to 12.8 percent poverty rates in non-right-to-work states. Ohio’s poverty rate already is 14.6 percent, according to the Census Bureau.
What makes a governor’s legacy matter depends on your values and beliefs. Cutting taxes for political gain while roads, schools and clinics suffer is just bad policy. I choose to believe we are all better when no one is left behind and that taking away citizens’ rights always has adverse consequences for our society.
Penny Winkle Columbus bring in the Martians.
I’d take Kucinich’s “zany” thoughts on how to run a government (rationally, intelligently, sanely) over the entire lot of third-rate, corrupt, foolish Republicans currently running the show into the ground. This country desperately needs sane, morally decent politicians, such as Kucinich, Richard Cordray and Bernie Sanders, who have a positive, intelligent vision for America.
The dark, negative “vision” that the GOP crowd is embracing is spooky, chilly, ignorant and a straight road to fascism. Can’t happen in America? Want to bet? I’ll Trump it. Columbus