Economy

Austerity in Ohio

Austerity now apparently means selling state prisons to private companies, killing unions, and preserving massive tax cuts.

(Reuters) - Ohio's Republican Governor John Kasich on Tuesday unveiled a $55.5 billion two-year budget that sells off five prisons and slices aid to local governments to help close an $8 billion budget gap.

The proposal preserves an $800 million income tax cut and provides $34 million in tax incentives that Kasich hopes will lure jobs to the state, which has suffered big job losses in recent years. [...]

Last week, Kasich said he would change the state's system of nursing homes for the elderly and how it administers the Medicaid health insurance program.

So the threat to grandma is going to come from Republican governors, not President Obama? Could have fooled me.

Just how many times do we have to go through the process of finding out that tax-cuts do not create jobs, do not somehow magically lead to increased revenue, do not increase demand, and do not close budget gaps? Governors across the country including Rick Scott, Jan Brewer, Rick Snyder, Scott Walker, John Kasich, and Mitch Daniels, among others, are all employing the same cookie-cutter trickle-down economic model.