PLYMOUTH, N.H. – Governor John Kasich says he will balance the federal budget within eight years if he’s elected president and keep it balanced with a constitutional amendment.
That promise is part of a sweeping domestic agenda the Republican unveiled Thursday morning in the first major policy speech of his campaign, in which he vowed to transfer “money, power and influence out of Washington” to state and local governments, starting with policies he plans to implement in his first 100 days in office.
Kasich told a small, friendly crowd of supporters that America would be a “stronger, kinder and better place” under his leadership.
His plan includes tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy, a big boost in military spending and the end of the federal role in handing out education and transportation dollars. He also vowed to ask Congress to approve a balanced budget amendment resolution.
The policy rollout at New Hampshire’s Nashua Community College comes as Kasich fights to stand out in the packed Republican presidential field.
Democrats in Ohio called it a plan to cut taxes for the wealthy while cutting programs that benefit the middle class.
Claiming that states are mostly responsible for interstates and other national highways, he proposes returning the lion’s share of federal gas taxes to them, leaving the federal government only a small amount for “truly national needs.”
The nation’s education system should devolve to state and local school officials, so he is promising to shift tax dollars from the Education Department to states, leaving the federal agency in place only for research and support.
Kasich’s campaign predicts that economic growth sparked by the tax cuts — backed by an eight-year freeze on non-defense spending — would eventually balance the federal budget for the first time since Bill Clinton was president.
Democrats claimed Kasich’s administration has wasted on Ohio’s charter school system and the development agency JobsOhio, which his opponents claim is plagued with conflicts of interest and a lack of oversight.
“Under Kasich’s leadership, Ohio’s for-profit charter school system costs taxpayers $1 billion, and it’s rife with waste, fraud and abuse,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper. “Kasich’s JobsOhio agency is a cesspool of waste and self-dealing.”
Borrowing a phrase from his administration’s effort to ease government regulations on businesses in Ohio, he called for taking a “common sense approach,” declaring a one-year moratorium on new regulations and establishing a “common sense court” to review federal regulations.
He called for a diversified energy supply and promised to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and to protect American businesses from cyberattacks and espionage from overseas.