The Buckeye Institute was recently invited to participate in a roundtable discussion with the editorial board of the Cincinnati Enquirer regarding Medicaid expansion. Along with the Buckeye Institute, Chris Littleton of Ohio Rising and Sen. Bill Seitz (R- Cincinnati) raised serious questions on the wisdom of expanding Medicaid in Ohio.
The Buckeye Institute has been leading the way in Ohio by offering detailed critiques of expanding Medicaid in the state, and offering meaningful alternatives.
The American Legislative Exchange (ALEC) has just released its annual “Rich States, Poor States” report, in which it ranks all 50 states economic prospects. Ohio has seen some serious improvement moving from 37 to 26 since last year’s report. However, the report also echoes key themes Buckeye has been discussing for years: the need for further tax reform and the need to become a Right to Work state.
On Wednesday, Buckeye Institute offered testimony to the Ohio House Ways and Means Committee on one of the hottest topics in Columbus: municipal income tax reform. This is a key issue for Ohio’s future economic competitiveness for several reasons.
This week, the Ohio House of Representatives is poised to pass its version of the biennial budget. While the bill looks much different than the blueprint originally introduced by Governor Kasich, and now includes changes to his tax reform and education funding plans, the biggest change involves Medicaid. The Ohio House stripped the expansion from a substitute version of the bill that was introduced last week.
Those who argued that ObamaCare was a looming public policy disaster are being vindicated almost daily as Americans confront sticker shock over the legislation’s most expensive components.
Ohio’s broken collective bargaining process is showing its true colors again. A highly compensated group of teachers has engaged in a particularly ugly strike that leaves children in the middle of a heated dispute between a Strongsville School Board that is weighing fiscal considerations and a profligate public-sector union. The dispute hinges on benefits that management deems to be unsustainable and the union believes to be non-negotiable.
If each state in America is its own laboratory of democracy in action, there are numerous states that Ohio might want to consider emulating. Those are states that are seeing their populations grow and their private economies expand. By contrast, Ohio lost two Congressional seats after the 2010 Census and has lost eight since the 1960s.
The “Fiscal Cliff” is rapidly approaching. We have already discussed how this combination of tax increases and indiscriminate Federal spending cuts will cost Ohioans more, potentially handicap our national defense, all while failing to address the main driver of our increasing national debt:–entitlement spending. Additionally, make no mistake: indiscriminate cuts to Defense will also cost Ohioans jobs.
One of the greatest legal minds of our time, Robert Bork, passed away early this morning at the age of 85. His passing strikes close to home. He was my first boss in Washington when I was but a lowly intern, and the impression he left on me was both overwhelmingly good and indelible. Any attempt to fully capture the man will be doomed to failure.
