Yesterday, Ohio Governor and presidential candidate John Kasich appeared on Fox News. During his interview with host Chris Wallace, Kasich was asked about his “D” in our 2014 Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors.
Here is a transcript of the exchange:
WALLACE: Unemployment down from 9.1 percent to 5.2 percent. And the top income tax rate has been lowered from 6.2 percent to 4.9 percent.
But the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, gave you a “D” on its government’s [sic] report card just last year, noting the budget grew 13.6 percent in 2014 and that over your time as governor, government jobs have increased 3 percent. A “D”, sir?
KASICH: Well, I don’t know who these folks are, Chris, another Washington group. But, look, we have the lowest number of state employees in 30 years and in addition to that, our budget overall is growing by about 2 percent or 3 percent, and our Medicaid growth has gone from 9 percent when I came in to less than 4 percent and no one has been left behind. We haven’t had to cut benefits or throw anybody off the rolls. So, we pay attention to the mentally ill and the drug addicted and the working poor.
But, you know, it’s Washington. And, Chris, here’s the thing — remember they said, “He won’t get in the race.” Then I did.
Then, they said, “OK, well, if he gets in, he won’t be able to raise the money.” Then I did.
Then, they said, “Well, he’s getting in too late.” Now they say, “What a brilliant move.”
So, I pay no attention to folks in Washington. I want to move a lot of the power and money and influence out of that town back to where we live like normal Americans, you know?
We seem to have two conflicting views here. In 2014 we gave Governor Kasich the worst score of any governor in the country on spending. We noted the rapid increase, above national averages, in state spending in Ohio. At the same time, Kasich is saying that spending is only growing by “2 percent or 3 percent” in Ohio.