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Crain's
Cleveland Business
John
Kasich could be
prototype for Republicans to follow
By Scott Suttell
August 15, 2013
Political
commentators
often call on the Republican Party to adopt a more centrist approach to
governing. This story in The Wall Street Journal says that's happening
in Ohio,
where Gov. John Kasich “is using his perch to promote a blend of
conservative
orthodoxy leavened with liberal policies meant to help the poor, the
mentally
ill and the uninsured.”
To
be sure, the story
notes, the Republican governor likes to talk about signing what he
calls
"the biggest tax cut in the country" — standard stuff for a GOP
politician.
But
The Journal says the
61-year-old former Lehman Brothers executive is more nuanced than that
and “wants
to rebrand the Republican Party by refashioning what it means to be a
conservative in the 21st century.”
From
the story:
On
the one hand, he tamed a
deficit by slashing funding to local governments and overhauling the
state's
Medicaid rules, among other things. He has eliminated the state's
estate tax
and wants to phase out all state income taxes, a step aimed at
stimulating
growth. A budget he signed in June included a range of new abortion
restrictions that drew sharp criticism from Democrats.
At
the same time, Mr.
Kasich has stirred strong opposition from tea-party leaders — and won
surprised
approval from liberals — by pushing to expand Medicaid coverage to
nearly
300,000 additional Ohioans, adopting a provision of the Obama
health-care
overhaul that he has taken to defending with an openly religious fervor.
The
former congressional
spending hawk has steered millions more dollars into local food banks,
forced
insurance companies to provide coverage for children with autism and
signed
legislation to make it easier for recently released felons to clear
their names
and find jobs...
Read
the rest of the
article at Crain's Cleveland Business
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