A letter from the Leader..

I was deeply disappointed when I saw Ohio's latest job numbers early this morning. Too many Ohioans are out of work; too many Ohioans are still in need; and too many Ohioans are missing out on opportunities that seem to be increasingly reserved for the wealthiest among us.

Ohio needs to build our economy from the middle out, not the top down. We need a strong middle class for our state to emerge from the national recession as a model for the nation, but Governor John Kasich and Statehouse Republicans just don’t get it.

Governor Kasich and the Republican Legislature continue to push an antiquated way of thinking about our economy that is steeped in rhetoric rather than reality. The idea that targeting income tax breaks for the wealthiest Ohioans will somehow create middle class jobs is a ruse. Wealth doesn’t trickle down-- Bob Taft and George W. Bush taught Ohioans that. Yet, Governor Kasich evokes the same tired rhetoric that they used, but with a different spin. Now, the failed policies of the past are trotted back out in recent state budgets and called the “Ohio Miracle.”

It is not a ”miracle” to lead the nation in job losses, or to continue hiding the state’s economic development efforts behind the wall of obfuscation  that is JobsOhio. It is not a miracle to propose even more tax breaks for the wealthiest Ohioans, while making the middle class pay for it. No, it is not a miracle. It is not innovation. It is not momentum.

It is simply more of the same.