On July 16, Ohio’s Governor, Ted Strickland, visited with local Dayton Democrats in Huber Heights, at the home of Ed Lyons and his family. About 60 people were in attendance and everyone had the opportunity to personally greet the governor.
Strickland spoke of his record as governor and said that he was proud of his accomplishments in education and in his work to help small businesses. He said his opponent, Republican, John Kasich, would like to make the campaign a contest between Strickland and the economy, but the recession came from Wall Street where Kasich was employed by Lehman Brothers and Kasich was part of the culture that created the problem.
Strickland said that Kasich is the “stealth candidate” and that he is hiding from his record. Strickland says he opposed NAFTA and most favored trade status for China, but Kasich voted for both and pushed the outsourcing of jobs. He says that Kasich then voted against providing money to re-train workers who had lost their jobs because of trade.
Strickland said that Kasich voted to allow wealthy people to avoid taxes by renouncing their citizenship and that he voted to dramatically reduce student loans and student aid.
Strickland’s talk is divided into two YouTube videos and following each video there is a transcription.
Part One: Governor Strickland talks about his record:
I just want to take a few minutes to talk about why I am here and what I think is at stake in this election. Your time is precious and I really appreciate the fact that you are here. I’ve been traveling around the state talking about what is at stake.
I want to tell you a few things that I’ve tried to do as governor that has positioned Ohio to move forward. We have gone through very difficult times. This has been a national recession. It did not have to happen, in my judgment. It happened, primarily, because of shenanigans and greed that characterized Wall Street — and that has brought our economy to the brink, I believe, to what could have been a long lasting, major depression.
Ohio has been though a lot., and some people are trying to blame me for Ohio’s economic circumstances. I can tell you that the job loss in Ohio was caused more by Wall Street than I or anyone else in OHio did. I’m trying to lay that out as clearly as I can.
Since I have been governor, we’ve done several things that I think have laid a foundation for Ohio’s future. We have constrained the cost of higher education. Before I became governor, think about this, every year, for ten straight years, tuition at our colleges and public institutions increased at an average of 9% per year for ten straight years. Look at what that does to working families that are trying to educate their kids. We brought a stop to that. We froze tuition for two years. We are the only state in America to do that. We are doing more than any state, I believe, during the four years I have been governor to hold down the escalation of college cost. Consequently, we have 65,000 more Ohioans enrolled in our colleges now than when I became governor. We are proud of that.
For K through 12 education we’ve not done everything we intend to do, but we’ve done a lot…. In Hawaii, they are giving kids only four days of schooling. They’ve eliminated Fridays. In Utah, they’re debating whether or not to eliminate the twelfth grade in order to save money.
In Ohio, we’ve not abandoned our commitment to education. Ohio has increased funding using federal and state resources to our public schools by more than 5 and one half percent during this current budget. When other states, like Indiana, are cutting $300 million out of education, and other states like New Jersey are slashing funding for education, Ohio has actually increased funding for public education.
We’ve passed an energy bill that gives us a very strong renewable standard. By the year 2025, 25% of all the electricity must come from renewable sources. And that is resulting, my friends, in investments being made in Ohio in solar power, in wind power, in biofuels, and in fuel cell research. And just recently, it was announced that an electric car company, called Prota, is coming to Ohio to build their batteries for that car, creating 1000 new jobs in Ohio. …
We’ve worked to find capital for small business expansion. I’ve been working with the Obama administration and friends in Washington on a bill before congress right now that will make billions of dollars available to small businesses, so that small businesses can get the money they need to grow and expand and create jobs.
Jobs are being created in Ohio. The month before last we were third in the nation in jobs being created. And last month more jobs were created. The unemployment rate is much too high, but it is slowing headed in the right direction. At one time we had an unemployment rate of 11.1%.
then it went done to 10.9%, then to 10.7%. and the latest figures has our unemployment at 10.5%., so it is headed in the right direction. This hole that we are in is very deep, but let me tell you, it is because of the recession, and it is what happened on Wall Street.
Part Two: Governor Strickland Talks About His Republican Opponent, John Kasich
I want to talk about my opponent a little bit today. I’ve been pretty available to the people of Ohio. I’ve been to Huber Heights before and this won’t be the last time. I was in Lima earlier today. I was in Maumee earlier today. I’m all over OHio. And when I go around, it’s like this. People ask me questions. But my opponent is sort of a stealth candidate. People don’t know a lot about him. And I think he doesn’t want people to know about his record.
I was in Congress for twelve years. John Kasich was in Congress for 18 years. So we have records that people can look at, and see what we have done. I have a record as governor. So we can compare.
John Kasich would like this to be a contest between Ted Strickland and the economy. But it is a contest between Ted Strickland and John Kasich. Let me tell you about this guy. Some things you may not know. But you need to know. When Kasich was in Congress, he was the chair of the House Budget Committee, when Newt Gingrich was the Speaker of the House.
By the way, I understand that Newt was here yesterday. I want to talk about that a little more. I understand he and Kasich were at Sinclair College talking about the need to educate our children, to give them the skills they need in order to gain employment. They were talking about the need to create jobs. But, let me tell you what happened under Newt Gingrich and John Kasich.
John Kasich put forth a budget that did some pretty terrible things. Before he was Budget Director, he had a record of votes. He voted for NAFTA. He voted for giving China most favored trade status. We were in congress together and he voted for those bills, and I voted against them. I felt those laws would take jobs out of Ohio and out of America. And, my friends, they did. We all know that. Manufacturing jobs went off to Mexico, off to China and other places around the world. So, there is a difference between Ted Strickland and John Kasich.
And Kasich comes to Sinclair College and he wants to talk about the need to help students? Let me tell you something else he did in Congress. Kasich tried to eliminate trade adjustment assistance. Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) provides resources to workers that have lost their jobs — because of the unfair trade practices. Any worker who has lost a job because of trade is able to get resources through the TAA to help them get back to school, to get training, to go to a place like Sinclair College, so they are more able to compete for another job. John Kasich tried to eliminate that program. Not only did Kasich vote to outsource jobs, he voted to take away resources from unemployed workers who lost their jobs as a result of their job being outsourced.
In Congress, Kasich also voted to dramatically reduce student loans and student aid. He probably didn’t say that when he was at Sinclair College yesterday and I suppose former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, didn’t talk about that either. But that is part of his record. I invite you, I invite the press to look at his record. Look at those budgets that he submitted and tried to get passed.
Kasich voted to allow really wealthy people — billionaires, millionaires — to take advantage of a tax loophole that said they could avoid paying taxes if they would renounced their American citizenship. And a lot of wealthy people did that. And it cost the government about $7 billion — allowing people to turn their backs on their country, renouncing their citizenship, so they wouldn’t have to pay taxes. You may think that idea is so crazy, maybe Kasich just made a mistake, and didn’t realize what he was doing. But he didn’t vote that way just once. He voted a second time, and a third time and a fourth time — to allow these wealthy people to escape taxes, by renouncing their citizenship.
It really troubles me. Are there veterans here? Thank you guys, for your service (applause). This is the point I want to make: These wealthy people got rich by enjoying the freedoms and the protection that this country gave to them. And they were so unpatriotic in their attitudes that they literally gave up their citizenship, after making their money, so that they wouldn’t have to pay taxes and John Kasich supported that.
What else? I could go on and on. Kasich voted against raising the minimum wage when he was in Congress. Last year Kasich made about $1.2 million, last year. Do you know how long it would take a minimum wage worker to earn as much as Kasich made in one year? It would take about 95 years. Think of that.
Kasich left Congress, what did he do? He went to work for Fox News and he also went to work on Wall Street for an investment bank company called Lehman Brothers. Anyone here heard of Lehman Brothers? Let me tell you about Lehman Brothers. Lehman Brothers went bankrupt after they had cooked the books and pulled all kinds of financial shenanigans. It was the largest bankruptcy in American history. And John Kasich was one of their managing directors.
Kasich says, “Wait a minute, I just had this little two person office in Columbus, Ohio. I’m not responsible for what Lehman Brothers did.” But he was a managing director. And in 2008, when Lehman Brothers was moving into bankruptcy, John Kasich got not only a heavy salary, he got a bonus. A lot of people don’t know Kasich’s record.
Kasich has made one major proposal, and that is, he wants to eliminate our state income tax. Let me tell you what the state income tax does. It provides 46% of the revenue we have to operate our state, to support our schools, colleges, libraries. …
I believe we need to build this economy from the ground up. That means investing in our workers …
