In a recent email exchange about Cleveland laying off 466 city workers due to Kasich's "Jobs Budget", a friend asked why people in Ohio aren't revolting. This was my answer.
People aren’t revolting because people don’t pay attention. And there’s also a large number of people who believe what they hear and read and only seek out “mainstream” sources of information. And mainstream sources of information these days are all too often either entertainment (there’s a problem when the news shows are fighting over ratings) or bought and paid for by people and interests with deep pockets. So if the governor says that his budget saves money and creates jobs, then it must be so.
These are the people who think that FoxNews actually reports accurate and honest and actual news. These are also the people who are busy hating Strickland, who blame him for what was a national (international, really) economic crisis, and who didn’t notice that Ohio actually weathered the recession better than most states, including all of our neighbors. The same people who didn't notice that Strickland left office during the tenth or eleventh month of consecutive drops in unemployment and increases in jobs.* The same people who didn't notice that Ohio was ranked somewhere in the top 10 in education. The same people who didn't notice that our unconstitutional school funding formula had been changed so that it was no longer violating our state constitution. The same people who didn't notice that in his last budget, Strickland actually had a larger imbalance to deal with and he did it without raising taxes, without gutting education and local monies, and by cutting overall spending (for those not paying attention, do please note that Kasich’s budget actually increases spending; that’s part of the reason some of the cuts have to be so very deep)… and Strickland did that without his party controlling the Statehouse.
Kasich, on the other hand, is having one b*tch of a time. Votes are all too often completely along party lines (never a good thing). One of his favorite pieces of legislation, something he thought would go flying through with no problem at all, took three or four last minute committee member changes in both chambers just to get it to the Senate and House floors for votes; prompted a number of protests; and is going to be a referendum on the fall ballot. And that’s with Kasich’s party in charge of EVERYTHING in this state.
Meanwhile, thanks to Strickland’s last budget and the strengthening economy, we’re going to end the fiscal year with a surplus (how often do you see that reported on in the mainstream media?!?).
Nope, people don’t pay any attention. They know that they’re hurting and so in November they voted out everyone who was in office without paying attention to who they were voting in and what those they were voting out had actually done. And now they believe the guy they voted for when he says this is a Jobs Budget. And now they’re all about to find out that by “Jobs Budget” he actually means “Jobs KILLING budget.” And they’re not going to know how this happened. Those of us who pay some attention, take what we hear and read with a grain of salt, and seek out other sources of information, on the other hand, are all already braced because we know exactly what’s coming.
* Meaning the unemployment drop was not just due to people leaving the workforce or the state, rather, they were actually going back to work… and yes, some of this is due to the national economy recovering; however, when you start doing state by state comparisons, you have to factor in the policies chosen by the administrations in charge when it comes to doing significantly better or worse than similarly situated states.
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