Issue Position: Fiscal Responsibility and Balancing Budgets

Issue Position

No candidate in this race has been as successful as Ohio Governor John Kasich in putting conservative budget policies to work--at both the national and state levels--to create jobs and bring commonsense to government.

Success in Washington Balancing the Federal Budget: As chairman of the U.S. House Budget Committee, John Kasich led the historic effort to balance the federal budget for the first time in a generation, cut taxes, start paying down the national debt held by the public and generate a projected $5 trillion surplus.

BudgetCommitteeSuccess in Ohio Filling a Record $8 Billion Budget Shortfall and Reining-in Spending: When John Kasich took office in January 2011, he inherited a state struggling to overcome massive problems: 350,000 private-sector jobs lost, an historic $8 billion projected budget shortfall, overzealous regulations that hindered job creation, and a failed economic development model. By making job creation his number one priority, Gov. Kasich helped Ohioans create hundreds of thousands of new private sector jobs and reduce Ohio's unemployment rate to its lowest point in over a decade. At the same time, Kasich's conservative financial management has helped grow the state's "rainy day" savings account from just 89 cents to $2 billion, reduced the size of state government bureaucracy to its lowest levels in more than 30 years and cut red tape.

Cutting Taxes by $5 Billion to Spur Job Creation: Since taking office, Gov. Kasich has enacted $5 billion in tax cuts, including eliminating the death tax, cutting the state income tax 16 percent, eliminating the income tax for many small businesses and providing targeted tax relief to low-and middle-income workers. During this same time, Ohio's economy has gotten back on track, and after losing 350,000 jobs during the previous administration, Ohio is now up more than 300,000 private sector jobs and our unemployment rate remains below the national average.

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