Ted Strickland

Ted’s full remarks from today

In the 1950s, Ohio State defensive end Jim Marshall was one of the most dominant players in football. Jim Marshall accomplished a lot in the game, but he's remembered for one play in particular.

He was playing professional football for the Minnesota Vikings by this point, and as he and several teammates were tackling a receiver, the ball came loose.

The football was lying there on the field - so Jim Marshall picked it up and started running. He felt himself getting faster. He saw a clear path to the end zone and he just kept running.

He peeked behind him and all he saw were his own teammates. They were waving their arms and shouting. 

He knew this was his moment. The greatest play of his career.

He burst untouched into the end zone. He was so excited that he threw the ball into the stands in celebration. 

But as he rose to his feet he started to wonder why the fans were cheering so loudly. This was an away game after all.

He wondered why his teammates hadn't run over to congratulate him. 

Jim Marshall started questioning himself. Was this some kind of dream? He had just picked up the ball and run 66 yards into the end zone, hadn't he.

He had, of course. But then he realized one critical fact - he'd run 66 yards into the wrong end zone. He had just scored, but for the other team. 

When he made it off the field, his coaches didn't yell or scream at him. But one said something Jim Marshall would never forget. He said, "Son, it doesn't matter how fast you can run if you're going in the wrong direction."

And that, quite frankly, is what this election is really all about.  

This isn't about nuances and splitting hairs.

We flat out disagree. 

In physics, the third law of motion is that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  And this is a third law of motion election, because for every issue that matters, Congressman Kasich and I have opposite reactions.

For four years, we've invested in our people. 

For four years, we've fought to create jobs that can't be outsourced.

For four years, we have moved Ohio forward, building a solid foundation that will support our great middle class. 

And now Congressman Kasich says he wants to throw that all away. If he wins, he says Ohioans are, quote, "going to have to wear a seat belt because the changes are going to be enormous."

But just like Jim Marshall, it doesn't matter how fast he can move  because he wants to take us in the wrong direction. 

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Four years ago, I saw that Ohio's research strengths, our manufacturing base, our location and infrastructure could make Ohio a leading producer of advanced energy. But we needed policies that were as strong as our potential. 

So we made energy a core component of a bipartisan jobs bill that was one of the first in the nation to take on this international economic downturn. We made investments in companies working in wind, in solar,  even a company that can turn heaping piles of manure into energy. You know, sometimes I wonder if they might be willing to bring their equipment over to the statehouse.

The energy reform bill I proposed gave Ohio one of the nation's most aggressive renewable energy policies and has pushed our utilities to innovate. And while other states that failed to act saw electricity rates jump 70 percent, Ohio's electricity rates are 10 percent below the national average.

And just last month I signed a bill I proposed earlier this year that eliminates a tax on the generation of advanced energy to help spur new wind, solar, and other projects.

The point of energy policy isn't to create policies but to create energy, and jobs - and we have. 

In renewable and advanced energy manufacturing projects, Ohio now ranks first among the 50 states.

The Council of State Governments found that more green jobs were created in Ohio last year than any other state. 

Energy was just one commitment we made to building jobs in Ohio that can't be outsourced. We invested in public works, in logistics and distribution, and we saw voters overwhelmingly support a bipartisan effort to renew the Ohio Third Frontier.

In Indiana they cut 300 million dollars out of their school budget. In Hawaii they cut Fridays out the school calendar. In Utah, they debated cutting the senior year out of high school. 

In Ohio, we invested in our children, raising school funding by 5.5 percent in the last budget.

And one of the leading nonpartisan education research groups declared our school reform plan to be the best in the nation. 

And I'll tell you something I'm very proud of. This year, we had 65,591 more college students than when I took office.

Our senior citizens deserve our respect and our help so that they can live their lives in the homes they chose.  That's why I fought for an expansion of the Homestead Property Tax Exemption that is saving our seniors an average of 400 dollars every year on their property taxes. 

I want Ohio to be the best place in the nation for veterans to call home.

That's why I called for the creation of a new veterans cabinet department that can better serve those who served this nation. And now, Ohio veterans and veterans' programs received 1.8 billion dollars more in federal benefits last year than in 2006.  

And that's why I created unprecedented veterans benefits like the Ohio GI Promise, which allows veterans from any state in the union to go to college in Ohio tuition free. 

These men and women put their lives on the line for us - surely we can put opportunities on the table for them.  Because let there be no doubt, heroes are welcome in Ohio. 

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You know, before I was born my parents lost the family house in a flood.  

And they lost a house to the bank.

Then when I was five years old, we lost the house on Duck Run to a fire. 

The night of that fire, my mother stood beside us.  Gone was her third house. Gone were all our possessions. And there wasn't a penny's worth of insurance to bring any of it back.

But to my mother, it wasn't some sort of curse that her house burned down - it was a blessing that her 9 children lived to tell about it. 

And when my father made it home that night from working the second shift at the steel mill, we started all over again.

Growing up on Duck Run, there were 11 mouths to feed and 11 voices at the table. And everyone had an opinion about everything. 

We disagreed a fair amount of the time about most anything you can imagine. But we never questioned the generous spirit of my mother.

There were times when, if we weren't on the bottom of the barrel, we could surely see it. But my mother was never down on us, and she never looked down on the folks who knew hard times even better than we did. 

You know my mother, she never wanted anyone who visited our house to leave empty handed - even if it was just a piece of fruit - she put something in every hand.  She would scrape together some loose change to buy a newspaper from the local delivery man because she was afraid times were so tough he might lose his route, and she knew his family needed that money.

That's who she was. That's what she taught her children. 

I've tried to live up to her example in my work and in my life.

The scriptures say, "And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" 

I have those words in a frame, sitting in my office.  I've carried them with me for years. And they guide me every day as governor.

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I've heard this idea expressed a thousand different ways, but it's hard to put it much better than that old country music song where the singer wants to know: "Why is the rich man busy dancing, while the poor man pays the band?"

It's a tune you start to hum to yourself if you spend any time thinking about Congressman John Kasich's record. 

Congressman Kasich voted against raising the minimum wage.

His budget plan would have slashed food stamps and children's nutrition programs. 

Congressman Kasich fought to reduce the Earned Income Tax Credit - a key federal program that helps working people make ends meet.

This is tax rebate for people who punch in, work hard, and don't hide their assets in tax shelters and offshore accounts. 

And it's been called, quote, "the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress." Who said that? President Ronald Reagan.

But Congressman Kasich, unlike President Reagan, was so committed to cutting the program that he told one reporter that he would, quote, "walk over hot coals" to get his cuts implemented. 

He told another reporter that the thought of cutting these tax credits for people who work made him, quote, "so happy."

That was his plan. That's the sort of thing he's proud of. 

So I think it's fair to ask a question here. Congressman Kasich, whose side are you on?

In the 1990s, there was a tax code loophole that allowed American billionaires and other really wealthy people to evade taxes by renouncing their American citizenship. This was money made in America by Americans, but made by people who would rather turn their backs on their country than pay their fair share to a land that protected their freedom and made them rich. 

Congressman Kasich voted to allow the billionaires' loophole to continue.

Let me say that again so that we're all clear on this. Congressman Kasich voted to let really rich people turn their backs on our country and renounce their American citizenship just so that they could avoid paying taxes like the rest of us. 

Then he voted a second time to allow the billionaires' loophole to continue.

Then a third time. 

Then a fourth time.

It's not like he didn't have a chance  to think about this. So while he was walking over hot coals to take a hundred dollar tax rebate from a minimum wage worker he wouldn't so much as lift a finger to keep some of the richest and most unpatriotic Americans from slithering off with more than 7 billion dollars in ill-gotten tax giveaways. 

Congressman Kasich, whose side are you on?

Congressman Kasich voted repeatedly to increase the cost of college loans. He called that, quote, "the right thing" to do. 

He wanted to gut the Small Business Administration, with his budget seeking billions in cuts to programs that help fuel the growth and job creation of small businesses.

He shipped American jobs overseas with his enthusiastic support for NAFTA and for most-favored nation trade status for China. 

He wanted job training programs cut by 20 percent and he wanted to eliminate Trade Adjustment Assistance. Now, what is Trade Adjustment Assistance? It's a federal program that provides job training and job search assistance to people who lost their jobs to imported goods and unfair trade practices.

So first, Congressman Kasich voted to ship jobs overseas. Then, he tried to take away job training from Americans cast out of work by the trade policies he supported.

Congressman Kasich, whose side are you on? 

Congressman Kasich proposed cutting 7 billion dollars from veterans programs.

He proposed quadrupling what our veterans would have to pay for prescriptions. 

He proposed cutting benefits for veterans who suffered head wounds and mental traumas and could no longer care for themselves independently.

That sounds so awful as to be unbelievable. But check the record. And let me read from the May 15, 1995 committee report on Kasich's budget plan, quote : "The plan also calls for limiting compensation for certain incompetent veterans for a savings of 1.326 billion dollars." 

That was his idea. He put his name on it. He's proud of that.

Congressman Kasich, whose side are you on? 

The Appalachian Regional Commission provides vital programs and services to the region, helping to create jobs, fight poverty, improve the infrastructure and the lives of Appalachians here in Ohio and stretching across the hills.

First Congressman Kasich sought to freeze funding for the Appalachian Regional Commission, then two years later he tried to totally eliminate it. 

He said the people of Appalachia weren't, and I quote, "deserving of special federal attention."

Congressman Kasich, whose side are you on? 

So Congressman Kasich, you can go on fighting for Wall Street. I'll fight for Ohio.

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Because there's a difference between Wall Street values and Ohio values. You can see that difference in Congressman Kasich's budget and his votes.  And you can see it in his one signature proposal as a candidate for governor, a proposal that is every bit as reckless, radical, and wrong as the rest of his record.

If elected, Congressman Kasich vows to eliminate the state income tax. 

Again and again and again, he's said the income tax, quote, "has to be phased out" or, quote, "must be abolished."

He's said he's, quote, "absolutely convinced" it can be done. 

How would he replace 46 percent of our state revenue - revenue that helps pay for schools and universities, first responders and libraries, parks and prisons and most everything else our state does?

Well, apparently he believes in Tooth Fairy Economics. That somehow, some way, money will come in from some unknown source while he sleeps. 

Here's what he told a reporter who asked him how you pay for schools and police officers and everything else without 46 percent of your revenue: he said, and I quote, "We'll explain the math to you when I'm ready to explain the math."

He made that statement 514 days ago. 

Congressman, it's time to put your pencil down.

Let's see your answer, and remember to show your work. 

And while you have your calculator out, it's time to tally up how many millions you made on Wall Street.  For eight years you were a managing director at Lehman Brothers - the Wall Street investment bank that cooked its books and turned into the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history. So release your tax returns Congressman. Ohioans deserve to know how much that bankrupt company paid you to help pitch doomed investments to Ohio pension funds. Ohioans deserve to know how much money you stand to gain from your own tax proposals.

Middle class Ohioans deserve to know because they will bear the brunt of your anti-income tax crusade with either higher sales and property taxes or a gutting of everything Ohio does for everyone who doesn't have a yacht. 

When he peddles his anti-income tax snake oil, Congressman Kasich promises he can make us more like Florida, more like Nevada and the states without an income tax.  Because, he says,  quote, "these are the fastest growing...job creating states."

But it turns out, Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the nation and Florida has the fifth highest. 

Ohio, by the way, was among the nation's leading job creators in April and saw more job creation in May.

When the nonpartisan Pew Center reviewed the finances of every state they issued a report highlighting what they called "states in fiscal peril." 

Nevada's on the list. So is Florida.

But Pew ranks Ohio's financial condition ahead of most other states. 

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You know, for a time after we lost our house in the fire, my family lived in our chicken shack. 

We nailed cardboard to the walls and tried to make do while my father and older brothers worked on converting our barn into a house.

My mother cooked dinner in an old smokehouse. We bathed in water trickling down from a hillside pond. 

I've spoken of that experience many times.  Not because I want you to feel sorry for the Stricklands - we never felt sorry for ourselves - but because I think it tells you a little bit about how I see the world.

Quite frankly, I've never thought that living for a time in a chicken shack qualified me for office. But I'll tell you this, a humble beginning doesn't disqualify me or my neighbors or anyone else from serving the people. 

And that's why I was almost amused when Congressman Kasich's campaign said that because I had, quote "grown up in a chicken shack on Duck Run" that I didn't understand the economies of our cities.

I have some advice for you Congressman, don't you ever talk down to the people of Ohio. Maybe that's the way you and your friends on Wall Street see the world, but you're in Ohio now. 

Congressman Kasich likes to say that Ohio is in, quote, "a death spiral." You know, he learned a thing or two about death spirals at Lehman Brothers.

But here's some more advice for you Congressman, don't you ever count Ohio out. 

This truly is an election of opposites.

And unlike the Congressman, I believe in Ohio. I believe in Ohioans. I believe in our workers and our students. I believe in serving our seniors and our veterans.  I believe we can look to the future with confidence. And I believe in brighter days ahead.  As scripture says, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."