Kasich's view won't help Ohio
9/15/2010Comments made by Republican gubernatorial nominee John Kasich are not consistent with moving Ohio forward.
To cancel the state income tax without a stated plan to provide Ohio with adequate income to balance its budget is unacceptable.
Moving the Third Frontier program out of higher education institutions and transferring it to businesses is not consistent with research efforts in Ohio and the nation, unless you are attempting to help private businesses at the expense of higher education.
To blame Gov. Ted Strickland for the 400,000 jobs lost in Ohio indicates that Mr. Kasich ignores the financial crisis caused by major banking and investment firms, one of which he served as a board member. Further, in Ohio, major job losses were related to the auto industry.
He forgot to mention his opposition to the President's stimulus funds, which supported General Motors and Chrysler and saved as many as 500,000 jobs.
He forgot that Mr. Obama took office with a $10.5 trillion deficit and that the President has added $2 trillion to the deficit to support private industry, Ohioans, and other U.S. citizens. Mr. Obama's budget continues to fund the tax cuts and two wars.
It is obvious that Mr. Kasich's rhetoric is to win the governorship, but not to provide the leadership or information on how to lead Ohio forward.
Richard D. Ruppert
Pelham Road
Editor's Note: The writer is the former president of the Medical College of Ohio.
The Sept. 8 Readers' Forum letter “Why the economy won't fly,” repeats the tired claim that government cannot create jobs. The writer quotes a former Treasury secretary under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, claiming that government spending “didn't create any jobs.”
Near the writer's home are two monuments that prove that government can create jobs: The Glass Bowl and Scott Hall on the University of Toledo campus were built by workers paid by the government's Works Progress Administration.
There are hundreds of similar WPA projects in the Toledo area, including the downtown library, miles of sewers, and much of the Toledo Zoo. These facilities were successfully designed and constructed for the long-term benefit of the public.
You can argue about the extent to which these government jobs ameliorated the Great Depression or added to the national debt. But the fact remains that government can create jobs.
Frank Ward
Goddard Road
Don't blame President Obama for the sins of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, or Donald Rumsfeld. We all suffered the misery of 9/11 and the military action in Afghanistan, and we are still there because of the Bush/Cheney cabal. In 2003, the United States pre-emptively invaded Iraq. Thank Mr. Obama for ending military action in Iraq.
If anyone believes this recession is his fault, think again. It took eight years of George W. Bush to run the economy into the ground. It was the Obama Administration that successfully accomplished national health care.
The Republican Party of “no” has been obstructionist at best, destructionist at worst. The GOP represents big business, big money, and its own interests, not the interests of the average U.S. Joe or Josie.
Robert Carrasquillo
Whitehouse
According to op-ed columnist Marilou Johanek (“Beck's 9.12 ‘unifiers' are more comedic than serious,” Sept. 9) Glenn Beck, Fox News, the Tea Party, and anyone who opposes the administration are bigots, racists, and deluded hatemongers.
President Obama and company are heroes who “are determined to move forward with the hard work of progress.”
It's all in the eye of the beholder.
Bill Williams
Perrysburg
Rep. Marcy Kaptur's attack ads against Rich Iott are a sign of desperation in an attempt to retain her ruling-class position (“Iott decries search for ‘dirt'; Hopeful alleges Kaptur camp distorting sale of Food Town,” Sept. 10).
The grocery business is probably the toughest industry. Fortune magazine lists profit margins of around 2 percent historically. When Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Meijer expanded in greater Toledo, with tremendous economies of scale, Rich Iott had to merge or sell to a firm with the wherewithal to try to compete.
Miss Kaptur's campaign exemplifies what an unscrupulous business she is involved with: politics.
Denny Katell
Waterville
Marcy Kaptur is part of the fabric of northwest Ohio. She has proven herself by her tireless work for Ohioans. After all her years in Congress, there may be an issue or two that she has or hasn't supported that we may not agree on.
But overall, she is the best thing that has ever happened to this part of the country. We should keep her in office for as long as she agrees to keep the job.
Gene Madrzykowski
Perrysburg
Since Marcy Kaptur came into office, I can't think of one job she has created, but I remember many that have left under her tenure.
She is always ready to get her picture in the newspaper after the heavy lifting is done by people trying to create jobs in the area.
After Miss Kaptur's 28 years in office, are we better off? Where are the jobs that Miss Kaptur produced?
James Moline
Sylvania
For many families of the victims of 9/11, building a mosque near Ground Zero where their loved ones died is similar to tearing open a wound and damaging it further. Many families' lives were forever changed by that horror, and they still grieve.
Do Americans know what having a mosque would mean in such a strategic area? This is different from building a church or a synagogue.
Why build the mosque so close to the place where those who professed to believe in Islam deliberately crashed airplanes?
Why do so many of us not understand what this mosque and cultural center is about?
Donna Kirk
Greenview Drive
If you insist on continuing to insult the intelligence of your readers by adding “formerly known as the Medical College of Ohio,” every time there is a reference to the University of Toledo Medical Center, at least get it right. The institution that merged with UTMC in July, 2006, was the Medical University of Ohio, not MCO.
It's been more than four years since the institutions merged. Let it rest. We get it.
Dick Eastop
Drummond Road
Editor's Note: The writer is a retired University of Toledo administrator.
The only answer to 9/11 is prayer (“Attacks on America: Memorials for 9/11 take a political, touchy turn,” Sept. 11).
I responded with prayer as I listened to bells in the area ring on Sept. 11 at 8:46 a.m. I hope the rest of the country also prayed for peace.
Peace is the only thing that begins to cancel hate.
J. Spalding
Belmar Avenue