A Liberal House of Cards

The slogan for Ohio used to be "The Heart of it All," but has since been changed to "Birthplace of Lies." Alright, so it is really "Birthplace of Aviation," they meant to put soaring campaign promises and plummeting realities. I write this because our new, improved, liberal Governor Ted Strickland fails to keep up on his main campaign promise to assist education by listening to the people.

It hasn't received enough coverage, but Governor Strickland used the budget crisis last fall to cut education funding after making it a key issue on his election campaigns. He was sneaky too. He issued at the state level, that state grants and scholarships would be cut by up to 25%. Then the schools were given there own decision to also cut them by 25%. That is back to back cuts on money students need for schools. I didn't see any cuts in pay or staff at the state level, just student money. Good thing the unemployment rate is at 10%, so those students who need the extra money from jobs to support their education, will have to think about high risk loans and the prospect of dropping out.

For the rest of the country, Ohioans pay, on average, over $9,000 a year for in-state tuition. It is painful to think about the average being almost half that a decade ago. I paid almost $11,000 alone for this year, and I am glad I graduate when I do. My debt is enormous, but I don't get any bailout, just bills. My taxes pay for single mothers with 5 kids in 4 bedroom homes while I scrape by on rent. I don't have a flat screen TV or entertainment center, just an off-brand set I got at a garage sell with cash. I don't have a brand new government subsidized car, just a 20 year old beater I afforded after earning it with cash. I don't need a bailout because I was wise in my financial decisions.

Somehow, Ohio will get out of the red. Mr. Strickland wants to use "casinos" to generate the cash needed. I hate that mentality, finding schemes to pay for wasteful governments. The casino idea has been rejected by Ohio voters four times, and will continue to be, because the plan is too ludicrous for the media to spin. The idea was that Ohioans fork over millions to a casino company in money needed to fun the design, development, construction and staffing for a facility. They were asking Ohioans to pay all the upfront costs in the hopes that the casino would meet or exceed expectations on expenses and starting generating money. When the casino generates the required revenue, a variable figure, then Ohio could start to see money returned on it's investment. It was looking like paying millions of dollars over the next ten years, to start seeing money that might take another ten to pay off the investment. 

It literally was a scheme to buy a casino for a company to profit off of, and they campaigned hard to do so. The 2009 campaign for a casino in Ohio cost $60 million. Sounds philanthropic, right? This was to be 1 of 4 to be built, so the investment may have gone into the billions. Gov. Strickland scoffed at the latest election showdown as voters just not understanding what is good for them, and he vowed to do everything in his power to get more gambling into Ohio. You had to be the least bit curious as to where Keno suddenly came from?

STRICKLY OPPOSED TO GAMBLING, GOVERNOR OK'S KENO

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