Obama Failed to Show He Was Serious About Attacking Fiscal Problems

Kevin DeWine Op-ed

January 27, 2012

Chillicothe Gazette

In his third State of the Union Address, Barack Obama once again squandered an opportunity to exude leadership and rise above the partisan divisiveness he has exacerbated during his time in Washington. Three years of failed promises have led our nation deeper into debt, created greater uncertainty for Ohio job creators and prolonged unacceptably high unemployment. The president would be well served to follow the pro-growth, free market strategies championed by Gov. John Kasich and Ohio Republicans.

While listening to Obama's remarks, whether being delivered in front of Congress or at a campaign pep rally here in Ohio, it is important to remember that actions, and, furthermore, results, speak louder than words. Ohioans were promised by Obama that an $825 billion federal stimulus would keep unemployment below 8 percent. The national unemployment rate has sat above 8.5 percent for 32 consecutive months. Sen. Sherrod Brown, who supports Obama's agenda more than 95 percent of the time, claimed massive deficit spending would create more than 133,000 new Ohio jobs. Instead, government figures show that Ohio actually has 65,800 fewer jobs than when the stimulus passed.

What was particularly striking in the president's speech Tuesday night wasn't what he said, it's what he failed to address -- Washington spending. At $15 trillion, our national debt has now grown to exceed the size of our nation's economy. This development represents a moral hazard for our generation, and it's one both parties share responsibility for. Instead of kicking the proverbial can down the road for future generations, Obama should confront our debt head-on, in much the same fashion as Kasich tackled the $8 billion budget gap he inherited from former Gov. Ted Strickland. Kasich erased the shortfall by lowering taxes and reducing government spending. These practices helped to encourage job creation, private sector growth and send a message to the rest of America that Ohio was serious about tackling our fiscal challenges.

The president's decisions to pursue job-killing EPA regulations, such as the Utility MACT Rule, which break the backs of Ohio's struggling energy and manufacturing sectors, were equally as wrongheaded as his recent move to reject the Keystone XL pipeline. Opposition to these harmfully extreme environmental mandates is bipartisan. If the president is truly concerned about creating jobs and emboldening American manufacturing, then he should stop placating to special interests and join Republicans and Democrats in supporting commonsense reforms that harness the potential to lift Ohio and America toward economic prosperity.

The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives, under the leadership of an Ohioan, Speaker John Boehner, has passed 27 pro-growth, reform-oriented jobs bills that help streamline burdensome federal regulations to restore confidence for American job creators. These bills presently remain stalled in a Democrat-led U.S. Senate that has embarrassingly not passed a functional budget in more than 1,000 days. It's time for the Senate to act, and a serious budget proposal for the benefit of reducing our nation's staggering debt is long overdue.

Sen. Rob Portman, a longtime advocate in favor of fair and stringent tax reform, has put forth substantive plans to help simplify and streamline our nation's antiquated, unfair, growth-prohibiting tax system. Conservative tax simplification and fundamental reform deserve to go hand in hand with Obama's call for tax fairness.

Fortunately for Ohio taxpayers and families, voters are beginning to realize that the only thing being stimulated by Obama's spending policies is government growth and debt. That is the wrong prescription for Ohio, and it is why this week's State of the Union will, in all likelihood, end up being Obama's last.

Kevin DeWine was elected chairman of the Ohio Republican Party in January 2009. He was re-elected unanimously to serve a two-year term in January 2011.

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