John Kasich

Personal Full Name: John Richard Kasich

Family: Wife: Karen; 2 Children: Emma, Reese (twins)

Birth Date: 05/13/1952

Home City: Westerville, OH

Religion: Christian

Education BA, Political Science, Ohio State University, 1974

Political Experience Governor, State of Ohio, 2010-present Representative, United States House of Representatives, District 12, 1983-2000 Candidate, United States President, 2000 Senator, Ohio State Senate, District 15, 1979-1983 Caucuses/Non-Legislative Committees Former Member, Armed Services Committee, United States House of Representatives Former Chair, Budget Committee, United States House of Representatives Former Member, Budget Committee, United States House of Representatives Former Member, Policy Committee Former Member, Republican Steering Committee Managing Director, Barclays Capital, 2008

Professional Experience Associate, Schottenstein Stores Corporation, 2008-2010 Contributor/Host, Fox News, 2001-2009 Managing Director, Lehman Brothers Investment Banking Division, 2001-2008 Aide, Ohio State Senate, 1975-1978 Religious, Civic, and other Memberships Former Trustee, Concord Counseling Service, Westerville, Ohio Presidential Fellow, Ohio State University, 2003-2009 Honorary Chariman, Recharge Ohio, 2008-2009

Additional Information Father's Occupation: Mailman

From “John Kasich’s Biography on Project Vote Smart

More general information on Kasich: It’s pronounced KAY-sik, and 4 other things you should know about the Ohio governor from the Washington Post

Website: https://johnkasich.com/

Issues

Tax Reform

From Kasich’s “Cutting Taxes Factsheet”

Tax Cuts for Individuals and Families: Lowering income tax rates, reducing the number of brackets, and increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit will allow all taxpayers, especially low and middle income earners, to keep more of their own money and be better able to save and invest for the future.

• Lower Income Tax Rates: Simplify and cut taxes for Americans by reducing the number of brackets from seven to three, cutting the top rate from the current 39.6 percent to 28 percent—the same rate President Reagan used in his 1986 tax cut—and cutting the other rates as well.
• Low-Income Tax Relief: Increase the Earned Income Tax Credit by 10 percent.
• Lower Capital Gains Tax Rates: Reduce long-term capital gains rates to 15 percent.
• Eliminate the death tax.
• Simplify Deductions: Preserve the tax deduction for charitable donations for all taxpayers and the mortgage interest deduction (maintaining current limits).

Tax Cuts for Job Creators: Lower taxes and incentives to invest will restore global competitiveness to America’s business to help create new jobs.

• Lower Tax Rates: John Kasich will cut the top business rate to 25 percent from 35 percent to make America more competitive.
• Double the Research & Development Tax Credit for Small Businesses: To help small businesses innovate, be competitive and create jobs, John Kasich will double the value of the research and development tax credit for businesses under $20 million in gross revenues.
• Repatriation: America’s current high corporate tax rate and worldwide tax system discourages U.S. multi-national corporations from bringing their foreign-earned profits back to the U.S. where they can create jobs for Americans. To encourage businesses to bring these profits back from overseas John Kasich will apply a low rate on the estimated $2 Paid for by Kasich for America, www.johnkasich.com 2 trillion in previously deferred active foreign earned income.
• Territoriality: To keep U.S. businesses’ foreign-earned profits flowing back into the U.S., Kasich will replace our current worldwide tax system with a territorial system that only taxes profits businesses generate in the U.S. This will make the U.S. more competitive and put it on the same footing as Canada, Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom and most other major industrialized nations.
• Immediate Expensing: John Kasich will let businesses immediately deduct the full cost of new equipment, machinery and buildings. Accelerating the tax deductibility will encourage more company investment, resulting in greater growth and job creation.

Tear Down Barriers to Innovation:’’’ Initiate a comprehensive review of federal policies to identify and eliminate barriers to research, innovation, commercialization of new breakthroughs and start-up business success.

Reform the Internal Revenue Service to eliminate inefficiency, bias and corruption: The Kasich Administration will launch an independent, top-to-bottom review of the Internal Revenue Service and its practices with the goal of improving simplicity, fairness and integrity. No more will the IRS be used to target individuals or groups based on ideology or other irrelevant factors.

Health Policy

From “Kasich’s “Balance the Budget Factsheet”

Reform Entitlement Programs: The cost of entitlement programs like Medicaid and Medicare are growing uncontrollably and must be fundamentally reformed to reduce their growth rates and become more efficient while still providing the services that Americans want and need.

• Medicaid: Providing per-member per-month allocations to the states, along with the flexibility to innovate and tailor their programs to their individual health care markets, can help hold Medicaid’s spending growth to 3 percent annually.
• Medicare: Increasing care coordination through Medicare Advantage, as well as other changes like reforming payment practices to increase value and quality, can help restrain Medicare spending to an average of 5.3 percent annually.
• Social Security: Social Security’s fiscal health is deteriorating rapidly and it will soon be unable to meet its obligations to retirees. John Kasich’s balanced budget framework does not include changes to Social Security or its benefits to achieve balance, nor does it include the costs of filling Social Security’s deficits. As President he will lead a bipartisan Paid for by Kasich for America, www.johnkasich.com 2 effort to assemble the best ideas from the various reform plans that have been proposed to preserve its solvency. Most important, he will draw upon his experience as a reformer to bring people together and lead them to have the courage we need to save this important program for America’s seniors.

Drug Policy

Quotes

Sending mixed signals to kids about drugs is a disaster. Drugs is one of the greatest scourge in this country, and I spent five years of my administration working with my team to do a whole sort of things to try to reign in the problem of overdoses, and it goes on and on. We could do a whole show on that. (Source: CNBC 1st-tier debate Oct 28, 2015)

"Start Talking": Do you know about this? We've got a lot of new members here. If a young person hears "do not do drugs," there is a 50 percent less chance they will ever do it. A 50 percent less chance. Now, in your districts, you can spread it. We've spoken now, I think--well, I know the last time I checked--to over 26,000 kids. We've gotten teachers involved. And, ladies and gentlemen that are here in Wilmington, I don't care where you are. You're in a restaurant? You walk over there and you see those kids. You tell them to stay off the drugs. [Look at] the tsunami of trouble we have in this community because of addiction. We need to be in our schools. We need to be in our communities. We need to be in our synagogues. We need to be in our churches. We need to be everywhere. Don't leave it to somebody else. (Source: State of the State address to 2015 Ohio Legislature , Feb 24, 2015 )

From OnTheIssues: John Kasich section: On Drugs

Middle East

From Kasich’s “American Security Factsheet”

Defeat ISIS: Wiping ISIS off the map requires a complex, collaborative strategy involving mutual defense action by NATO—as well as regional allies—in the wake of the attack on France, intensifying international intelligence cooperation, increasing support to the highly-effective Kurdish military, creating safe havens and no-fly zones, combating human trafficking in refugees, a NATO & regional coalition with ground troops, and more aggressively fighting the war of ideas to discredit ISIS.

Trade

From Kasich’s “Economic Revival Factsheet”

Open New International Markets, but Get Smart About Unfair Trade: When American products and services are accessible around the world American businesses and workers benefit. Trade also enhances global security and stability. It can’t come at the cost of common sense, however. If other countries want access to the American market they should provide access to their markets, and trade violations must be quickly addressed to prevent significant economic damage to businesses and workers.

• The International Trade Commission and other U.S. trade bodies must be reformed to expedite consideration of complaints from companies that are negatively impacted by unfair trade practices.
• America must seek more favorable terms in trade negotiations including better protection against currency manipulation, intellectual property theft and cyber-attacks.

From Kasich’s “Dismantling Washington: the Commerce Department Factsheet”

Strengthen Trade Promotion & Expedite Trade Violation Enforcement: The Department’s International Trade Administration ineffectively brings together trade promotion, trade agreement enforcement, and data collection and analysis functions that are not natural fits.

• Expanding Markets for American Businesses and Workers: The trade promotion work of the Commercial Service and Global Markets division would function better in the State Department, especially since the overseas offices are usually located in embassies where they work closely with the State Department’s economic officers. Many of these functions would be augmented by coordination with U.S. Trade Representative.
• Enforcing Trade Agreements: Trade enforcement and compliance work, as well as industry analysis functions, are better suited at the International Trade Commission, an independent agency that already responds to trade violations. Aligning these functions more directly will help speed up responses to trade violations to better protect American workers.
• Improve Protection of Sensitive Technology: The Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security regulates exports of sensitive technologies to prevent them from being used against America by unfriendly nations or terror groups. Combining these national security and international engagement function is better suited at the State Department, which already coordinates closely with the Bureau on its work.

Immigration

Quotes

In 1986 Ronald Reagan basically said the people who were here, if they were law-abiding, could stay. But, what didn't happen is we didn't build the walls effectively and we didn't control the border. We need to control our border. But if people think that we are going to ship 11 million people who are law-abiding, who are in this country, and somehow pick them up at their house and ship them out to Mexico, think about the families. Think about the children. So, you know what the answer really is? If they have been law-abiding, they pay a penalty. They get to stay. We protect the wall. Anybody else comes over, they go back. But for the 11 million people, come on, folks. We all know you can't pick them up and ship them across, back across the border. It's a silly argument. It is not an adult argument. It makes no sense. (Source: Fox Business/WSJ First Tier debate , Nov 10, 2015)

Q: in 1993 you co-sponsored a bill in Congress that would take away "birth right citizenship": that is the citizenship automatically given to babies born in the US, even if they are born to undocumented immigrants. In 2010 you reiterated that, is that still your position? A: First of all, we ought to finish the fence. The 11 million who are here, we ought to find out who they are. If they've been law abiding over a period of time they ought to be legalized and ought to be able to stay here. If you have violated the law, we're going to ship you out. Once that fence gets built, we should make it clear, anybody who sneaks in, you're going back home. And in addition we need a guest worker program so that people can come in and work and be able to go back to support their family. Q: Would ending birthright citizenship be part of this larger immigration approach? A: I don't think we need to go there. (Source: CNN SOTU 2015 interview series: 2016 presidential hopefuls , Aug 9, 2015)

From On The Issues: John Kasich section: On Immigration

Environmental

From Kasich’s “Energy Factsheet”

Keep Energy Affordable And Reliable by Pursuing All Sources of Energy: Diversifying our energy supply is the best strategy for economic growth. Government policies that encourage or discourage energy from any single source are economically counterproductive.

• Increase energy from all sources: More energy from oil and gas, nuclear, coal, alternatives and renewables and emerging technologies will provide the affordable, reliable energy our economy needs.
• Conservation is an energy source: The cheapest, cleanest energy is the energy we never have to produce. Efficiency and conservation are fundamentally conservative strategies for increasing energy supplies and should be pursued.

Achieve Energy Independence: Sourcing all our energy from North America and eliminating our reliance on overseas energy makes America safer and stronger.

• Approve the Keystone XL Pipeline: Increasing access to the oil produced along this new pipeline’s route only reduces our need for imported oil.
• Tapping more energy resources from federal land: Increasing access to oil and gas production on our nation’s vast system of non-sensitive public lands, when guided by responsible management plans, supports the goal of energy independence, and can be done safely with proper environmental protections.

Use Common Sense In Energy Regulation: Washington assumes authority that does not exist in pursuit of reckless regulations that will kill jobs. John Kasich will bring common sense and science to energy regulation in order to properly balance environmental stewardship and job creation.

• Scrap extreme regulations like the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan: This extreme regulatory proposal will drive needed electrical generation offline before it can be replaced. It will also force costly and unnecessary controls on remaining plants that will drive up electricity costs and make entire economic sectors uncompetitive. It must be scrapped and not replaced. Regulations on energy production which are counterproductive, extreme should be repealed. Paid for by Kasich for America, www.johnkasich.com 2
• Keep fracking regulations at the state level: Most states have strong regulations for hydraulic fracturing, and efforts by Washington to heap extra regulations on the industry would be costly and counterproductive. States that meet quality benchmarks should be allowed to regulate hydraulic fracturing themselves without job-killing federal interference.
• Overturn the ban on U.S. oil exports: Given the increased production of American oil and gas, we can and should end the artificial, counterproductive market distortion of the ban on U.S. oil and gas exports.

Encourage Research In New Technologies: Both the economy and environment benefit from technological breakthroughs. High-capacity, long-life batteries; fuel cells; the high-efficiency “smart” electricity grid; clean coal and other technologies can help improve the environment, increase efficiency and conserve energy. Unreasonable barriers to their development should be identified and removed to help make them a reality.

Quotes

Stewardship of the environment is nothing less than a moral obligation -- because God made it and gave it to us to properly manage. It will be part of the bequest we make to our children and grandchildren. We should take care of it. If we intend to provide a better life, and a better world, for future generations, we can’t ignore the quality of the environment we leave them. (Source: Speech to National Environmental Policy Institute, 4/27/9 , Apr 27, 1999)

For nearly 30 years, we have behaved as if protecting the environment was somehow at odds with the economic growth and prosperity that also are so important to us. This is a false and dangerous dichotomy; it forces unnecessary divisions between those who want to protect the environment and those who want economic progress. [We must get past] the “us- versus-them” rhetoric.. Economic progress and environmental conservation can and must go hand in hand for the sake of this generation and the next. (Source: Speech to National Environmental Policy Institute, 4/27/9 , Apr 27, 1999)

Note: These quotes are both from 1999

From OnTheIssues John Kasich section On Environment

Entrepreneurship/Small Business

From Kasich’s “Regulatory Reform Factsheet”

Regulatory Reform: Using Common Sense to Remove Barriers to Job Creation

• A One-Year Moratorium: A one-year moratorium will be imposed on all major, new regulations. This will give businesses a respite from the costs of Obama Administration regulations and allow time to overhaul the regulatory process.
• Mandatory Cost-Benefit Analysis: The benefit of regulations must outweigh their costs. John Kasich will call on Congress to make cost-benefit analyses mandatory for all new regulations to make sure that is the case. It will also ensure greater transparency in the rulemaking process so Americans have a better understanding of the impact of new regulations.
• Congressional Approval For Rules Over $100 Million: John Kasich will urge Congress to enact legislation requiring it to approve any regulation that is projected to impose more than $100 million annually on the American economy.
• Rein-in Agency Abuses: Stronger oversight of agency rulemaking is necessary to ensure cost-benefit analyses are performed, regulations align with congressional intent and to identify and remove abusive or unreasonable regulations.
• Two-Year Permitting Deadline: Permits should be issued in a timely manner to reduce uncertainty for businesses. A maximum two-year deadline will be imposed for agencies to issue permits for major new infrastructure projects.
• Independent, Common Sense Appeals: To give job creators a fair chance when they object to an agency’s permitting, enforcement or other regulatory action, John Kasich will create new appointed common sense reviews comprised of real Americans. Today a small business that wants to fight an agency decision can sue in federal court and go bankrupt hiring lawyers, or it must often use an agency’s own appeals process staffed by its own bureaucrats. Only an independent administrative review can ensure businesses get fair, reasonable treatment.

From Kasich’s “Dismantling Washington and taking back… Factsheet”

Workforce: Washington should provide more flexibility from rigid guidelines so states can align programs to the skills and positions for which local job creators are hiring. Issuing block grants to the states while streamlining multiple programs into a few large grants will afford them the opportunity to be innovative and responsive. To be successful and accountable, states will need to ensure their efforts prioritize the following principles:

• Meet Business Needs: Government bureaucrats should not identify needs and priorities; businesses need to be engaged in the development of the state’s workforce programs to ensure they help maximize economic potential.
• Measure the Right Outcomes: Federal accountability measures often prioritize volume over success and fail to capture meaningful factors such as job placement and retention, or earnings growth over time. Federal accountability measures will be reformed to eliminate unintended negative outcomes and instead encourage states to look at those served as individuals, not numbers.
• Help Prevent Unemployment: Unemployed workers need help to upgrade their skills or acquire news ones, but efforts are also needed to help them avoid unemployment to begin with. Giving states the ability to use existing federal training funds to help workers with jobs upgrade their skills can help their employers stay in business and stay competitive.

From Kasich’s “Dismantling Washington: the Commerce Department Factsheet”

Link Basic and Applied Science to Put New Ideas to Work and to Create Jobs: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a powerhouse of scientific know-how, with strong industry relationships via its standards-setting work. Additionally, the National Technical Information Services (NTIS) collects and disseminates scientific and technical information from government-funded research to expand knowledge. To help get new ideas out of the lab and into the marketplace—a longtime priority of Gov. Kasich—he would merge NIST and NTIS with the basic science research functions of the National Science Foundation. This new combined science center would create a well-aligned pipeline from basic research, through applied research and into industry, while also providing a robust platform for disseminating new breakthroughs. NIST’s programs in support of manufacturers would be separated and merged with the Small Business Administration to provide these job creators a more seamless one-stop experience for the support they need.