Having done nothing during his 4-year team to significantly reduce state spending to a sustainable level, Ted Strickland on Friday had this to say about the man who is picking up the pieces of the budget disaster Ted left him:
“We had an election and the people chose Mr. Kasich, but they did not give him a mandate to do what he is doing,” Mr. Strickland said. “He got less than 50% of the vote – he got more votes than I did, and I acknowledge that, and I’m not trying to be a sore loser here – but most of the people in this state did not vote to embrace his radical agenda.”
“They did not vote for him to dismantle organized labor, they did not vote for him to become a tyrant and treat people they way I believe he’s treating them.”
Ted Strickland refused to make the hard decisions. He chose instead to take the easy way out, and patched up the state budget with dozens of one-time fixes, including free money from his friends in Washington.
Now, John Kasich is willingly taking on the challenge that Strickland was too timid to face. Restructuring the budget to be sustainable even after you leave office is not radical. Part of the solution is addressing public employee union compensation. Governor Kasich is trying to implement policies that will result in more responsible use of our tax dollars.
That’s called being a leader, Governor Strickland. Not a tyrant.
