Ohio Gov. John Kasich has a plan to balance the federal budget in eight years. On the campaign trail in New Hampshire on Thursday, he formally rolled out “Kasich’s Action Plan,” which details his “strategy for dismantling Washington and reclaiming our power, money, and influence.”
Standing next to a clock showing the United States’ debt ticking upward, Kasich announced his plan with a veiled shot at GOP front-runner Donald Trump.
“All the politics, all the focus groups, all the polls, all the TV ratings need to go out the window,” he said. “No popularity polls, just get the job done.”
Kasich said America needs to cease waiting for the next bad thing to happen and stop hesitating about taking corrective action.
“In his first 100 days as President, John Kasich will send Congress a comprehensive plan that creates the climate for job creation by balancing the budget in eight years, cutting taxes for families and businesses, reining in federal regulations, tearing down barriers to increased energy production, and returning major federal responsibilities back to our states and communities where they can be performed more efficiently and responsively to serve Americans,” explained the governor’s campaign website. “By making government smaller, less costly and more responsive to our needs we can get our economy going again and have the resources to secure our nation, strengthen our families and communities, and reach our God-given potential.”
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To balance the federal budget, the governor’s plan focuses on four areas: transportation, education, job training, and Medicaid.
Kasich proposes to return the federal gas tax to the state with a small portion allocated to the Department of Transportation, which he also wants to downsize.
His plan would “repurpose” the Department of Education by “consolidating more than 100 programs into four key block grants and funds back to the states.”
Kasich also emphasizes using block grants to send job training programs to the states to open up innovation nationwide, and “to reduce federal costs and improve help for workers who need it.”
In Ohio, Kasich expanded Medicaid under Obamacare, which is a decision that he has defended on the campaign trail. He hopes other states would look replicate his actions.
“Ohio reined in Medicaid spending growth and is improving health outcomes using private sector health insurance, medical homes and payment reform, but could innovate more if Washington allowed it,” Kasich’s plan states. “Unleashing state innovation across the country is essential to providing better value and higher quality and containing costs.”
The governor also proposes a one-year freeze on “major new regulations” on businesses, lowering individual tax rates while increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit, approving construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and the exportation of American-produced oil, and getting “smart about unfair trade” deals with other nations.
In an op-ed defending his plan, Kasich argued that his ideas built upon the founders’ distrust of a “big, centralized” government.
“Reclaiming federalism will take the same guts, because those who live off Washington’s bloat won’t go quietly,” Kasich wrote. “If we want results now, however, it’s worth the fight — to revive our economy and restore the intended hierarchy of power in our nation: first our communities and states and then the federal government.”
“It will be hard, but with the courage to put our country and each other first, we can attain the security and opportunity we want, for those we care about and for the future. They’re within our reach.”
