John Kasich in Two Paths, by John Kasich
On Budget & Economy:
1995 shutdown on phony budget led to real balanced budget
In 1995 the Republicans looked to shut down the government. People thought we were being reckless and irresponsible, but I thought it was a powerful, principled stand against a Clinton budget filled with phony, trumped-up numbers and built on false
assumptions. It was, in many ways, a career high note for me, and out of that we were able to begin negotiations on a budget that made sense for the country.Understand, the numbers supporting Clinton's budget didn't actually support his budget at
all, and as soon as we were able to convince enough members of Congress to stand against it, we started battling long and hard over priorities. I was not willing to stand behind Clinton's counterfeit numbers and tell the American people that we were
achieving something when I knew we were not. Out of that shutdown we were finally able to balance the budget in 1997--for the first time since man walked on the moon, according to the headlines that dominated the newspaper coverage that followed.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p.106-7
Apr 25, 2017
On Budget & Economy:
1990s successful reform and leadership can happen again
The proven solutions are right in front of us. There is no better and quicker cure for America's challenges than to grow the economy and stimulate private-sector job creation. To have the resources to solve problems, we need economic strength.
In the '90s, when we balanced the federal budget, paid down the federal debt, cut taxes, and created surpluses, the result was a sustained period of economic growth, lower interest rates, job creation, and national prosperity. Businesses were growing,
unemployment was at historic lows, and nearly anyone who wanted a job could have one.
We didn't only balance the budget. We were able to reform welfare, end generational dependency, reform the Pentagon to strengthen our defenses, cut the capital
gains tax, and much more.
You know, I tell younger audiences about this, and they look at me like I'm crazy. They don't believe it ever happened. But we know it did, and it can happen again [if we] challenge the status quo & work across the aisle.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p.237
Apr 25, 2017
On Civil Rights:
Court has ruled on same-sex marriage & we have to accept it
When I was asked how I'd explain my opposition to same-sex marriage to a daughter who might be gay. I answered with my heart, and with the full force of my faith. I said, "Look, I'm an old-fashioned person, & I happen to believe in traditional marriage.
But the Court has ruled, and we have to accept it. Just because somebody doesn't think the way I do, doesn't mean I can't care about them or I can't love them. If one of my daughters happened to be gay, of course I would accept her, of course I would
love her. That's what we're taught when we have a strong faith. And I've got to tell you, issues like that are planted to divide us, but let's treat everybody with respect, and let them share in the great American dream we have here in this country.
I'll love my daughters no matter what they do, because God gives me unconditional love, and I'm gonna give it to my family and my friends and the people around me." (My daughter Emma took the time to set the record straight and tweeted, "I am not gay.")
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p. 159
Apr 25, 2017
On Drugs:
Presidents can't solve drug problem; local communities can
[At a town hall meeting], a man asked "If you're elected president, what are you going to do to fix the drug problem?"I said, "Let me ask you something. What are you doing to fix the drug problem?" I had stopped at a baseball game on my way to the
event and asked this man if there was an anti-drug message delivered to those kids before the game. I asked if the local schoolteachers were warning kids of the dangers of drugs. I asked if whatever church or civic group this man belonged to was taking
on the drug problem as an important part of its mission. I said, "So, what do you think?" I'm going to fly in here on Air Force One and fix your drug problem? YOU have to fix your drug problem."
The folks at that town hall seemed to get that the solutions to some of the very real problems facing the country were on them--AND they got that I was passionate about this.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, pp. 277-8
Apr 25, 2017
On Education:
Unfair to shift tax decision from people to school board
My relationship with Gov. Rhodes didn't exactly get off to a rousing start. [in 1982], soon after I was sworn in, I was called to a meeting in his office with a group of legislators, whereupon the governor announced a initiative to raise school taxes.
His plan, he said, was to shift the vote away from the people who lived in the district and to place it with the school board.I didn't think that was fair to the taxpayers. We were seated in a semicircle, and everybody just kind of sat there, not
saying anything, Finally I spoke up. I said, "Governor, I just have to make this clear. I could never support this plan."
I'll never forget the look on this man's face: he was so aggravated with me that I thought steam might start coming out of his
ears. We never did approve of this measure, but at the time, I was one of the very few voices of dissent in the room. I just didn't want to sit there and use my silence to indicate any kind of approval for an approach that I thought was all wrong.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p. 71-2
Apr 25, 2017
On Energy & Oil:
1978: Citizens Committee on Energy to discuss solar & wind
[In 1978] I was going to run against a incumbent state senator named Robert O'Shaughnessy, a household name in [Ohio's Fifteenth District]. Before I started my campaign, I created a group called the Citizens Committee on Energy, which talked about solar
and wind and related environmental issues. It turned out to be a meaningful platform, a way to get my name in the newspaper. The committee also served a dual purpose--it forced me to figure out if I could get people together on an issue.
I'd invite various energy experts to seminars, and then I'd invite the media. I figured this was a good way to build some credibility. Somewhere in there it occurred to me that if I was passing myself off as the chairman of the committee,
I ought to be duly elected, so a few friends I'd put on the "board" of the Citizens Committee on Energy shrugged their shoulders and elected me.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p. 62-4
Apr 25, 2017
On Foreign Policy:
FactCheck: Yes, U.S. economy bigger than next two combined
John Kasich claimed, regarding the size of the U.S. economy, that "We're bigger than the next two economies--China and Japan-combined," (p. 236 of his book, "Two Paths"). Is that true?Quick answer: Yes.
We checked on the existing GDP numbers
(Gross Domestic Product, the usual international measure of the size of an economy). The figures for 2018 (in trillions) are: - US $20.4T
- China $14T
- Japan $5.1T
- China and Japan combined $19.1T
We wondered if that would still be true
by the time of the next presidential election, which is the context of Kasich's remark. The estimated figures for 2019-2020, from "Focus Economics", are- US $21.5T/$22.3T
- China $14.2T/$15.6T
- Japan $5.2/$5.4T
- China and Japan combined
$19.4T/$21.0T
Bottom line: Kasich's claim is accurate for when he wrote the book, and will certainly be accurate during the upcoming 2020 election, and likely for the 2024 election too.
Source: OnTheIssues Fact-Check on Two Paths, by John Kasich, p.236
Apr 25, 2017
On Government Reform:
Post-truth environment makes us intolerant of other opinions
Many Americans get their news from [sources that reinforce their opinions]. When we silo ourselves, when we surround ourselves only with affirming views and selective reporting and analysis, we became more and more convinced that our way is the only way.
We become intolerant of other people's opinions or alternative approaches, In a post-truth environment, where utter falsehoods have become the order of the day, we give no quarter to any politician who doesn't line up with us on each and every issue.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p. 166
Apr 25, 2017
On Government Reform:
1979: refused $5,000 raise as State Senator
My own party voted itself a token pay raise and I refused to accept it, at a time in my life when I really could have used the money. A $17,500 state senator's salary didn't stretch very far, even in 1979, and a bump to $22,500 would have made a world
of difference to me, but I sent the money back. (I still had to pay taxes on that extra $5,000). Still I didn't think it was right for the legislature to vote for a pay raise. It was self-serving. Sure, we were underpaid, but a lot of people in
Ohio were hurting. More to the point, many of my colleagues had campaigned on a promise not to raise taxes, so I couldn't even endorse it. Voting against it wasn't enough in my opinion.This got a lot of attention, my returning the money the way
I did. It set me up as a kind of maverick who wasn't afraid to go against his own party, but that wasn't why I did it. No, I did it in principle, because it felt like the right thing to do.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p. 73
Apr 25, 2017
On Homeland Security:
Focused on excess spending on Armed Services Committee
[In 1983], my first committee assignment as a young congressman was on the House Armed Services Committee, where I quickly became immersed in some of the lingering cold war tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.Perhaps the biggest
headline I made on the House Armed Services Committee was my focus on excess spending. Like most Republicans, I'd always been strong on defense, but once in Congress, I started paying particular attention to some of the costs in our federal budget.
The one didn't always go hand in hand with the other, I was realizing. However, this realization put me in conflict with some of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, who came to see me as a part of group they viewed as "cheap hawks."
No matter where I saw wasteful spending, I believe it needed to be eliminated, even in our military, but Republicans weren't supposed to think in this way, so my position set some people off.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p. 98-99
Apr 25, 2017
On Homeland Security:
Cutting Pentagon budget doesn't weaken defense
[In the 1980s when I sought to cut wasteful spending in the military], my thinking was this: Just because you're out to curb some of the ridiculous costs doesn't mean you're out to weaken the nation's defense. The Pentagon budget was bloated; yet only
a few people were speaking out against it. The talk all over Washington was about the need for cuts in our social welfare and entitlement programs, while there was an unspoken agreement that we were not supposed to be critical of our defense spending.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p. 99
Apr 25, 2017
On Homeland Security:
1980s: B-2 didn't make financial sense nor strategic sense
The B-2 was supposed to be an essential weapon in our Cold War arsenal. I didn't quite see it that way. I couldn't justify or even understand the projected long-term cost of a single plane (nearly $2 billion). It wasn't just that the program didn't make
financial sense; it didn't make strategic sense, either. Why spend all that money for a bunch of planes capable of dropping multiple nuclear bombs over the Soviet Union when one bomb would certainly get the message across? It was the very definition of
overkill.We set about trying to pare back the B-2 proposal, and perhaps redirect some of those monies to the development of standoff weapons, which we believed would be more strategically effective as well as more cost-effective. We were never out to
kill the proposal entirely; in response to an initial proposal of 132 bombers, we proposed a more modest plan of just 13. The projected squadron was cut to a final compromise of 20 B-2 bombers. So that's where we landed on this issue--an incredible win.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p.101-2
Apr 25, 2017
On Jobs:
Work is a good and noble thing, for purpose & satisfaction
I once read a study that said that people would rather live in poverty than live in a community where there was no work, and I gave that a lot of thought. Work is a good and noble thing. It helps people realize a purpose in their lives. It gives them
satisfaction. But once that's addressed, I start realizing, a leader needs to start looking out for the people in his state or the people in his country the way a father would his children. Once your kids are educated and land a good job, you then help
them with a myriad issues related not to money, but to the challenges they are made to face along the way. Too often these challenges can lead to fear, to a feeling that things are spinning out of control.That fear turned out to be a driving emotion
of the 2016 presidential campaign, and the front-runner tailored that image to stoke that fear. In response, the American people elected a strong-man who they believed could help them address that fear and get control of their lives once again.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p.207
Apr 25, 2017
On Principles & Values:
Democracy rises up from the many, not down from the few
Imagine that we will find a way through the darkness of today and into the light of tomorrow. Imagine that we will come together to reject those who would prey on our weaknesses and our basic human nature, and instead choose leadership that serves &
strengthens this nation, leadership that honors the American people, leadership that helps us look up instead of down, forward instead of back.
Imagine a bottom-up form of government that starts with each of us as individuals, recognizing that the true
power of our democracy rises up, from the many, and that it doesn't rain down on us at the pleasure of the advantaged few.
Imagine that the future of this country rests with you and me--that it's on us to ensure that we survive and thrive for
generations to come, just as we have survived and thrived for centuries.
This is the path I believe in, the America I believe in. It's the path I laid out in the "Two Paths" speech I gave that became one of the signature moments of my campaign.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p. 24
Apr 25, 2017
On Principles & Values:
Republican Party is my vehicle, not my master
The Democrats [held the majority in 1982] during my first 2 years in the Ohio legislature. Then we won the majority, and my world was changed overnight. All of a sudden, I was the chairman of the Health Committee, and I had to start working with my
colleagues on the other side of the aisle. I couldn't hold a grudge over the way I'd been treated during my first two years in the legislature. Why? Plain and simple: I hadn't gotten into politics to serve the Republican Party. From the very beginning,
I've told people the Republican Party was my vehicle, not my master, and I realized that, as a chairman of the Health Committee, I now had the job to try to accomplish something. It wouldn't do to shut out my Democratic colleagues just because they'd
shut me out.My new role was to get all these proposals through the Senate, so I believed I had no choice but to find a way to work with everybody. This wasn't a game to me. I wasn't there to punish the other side. I was there to get stuff done.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p. 69-70
Apr 25, 2017
On Principles & Values:
The sun is going to rise to the zenith in America again
For my announcement for 2006, I wanted [the venue] to be personal, and the same time to offer an iconic setting. In the end, we settled on the student union at Ohio State.I allowed myself a small, sweet moment of reflection. "The Lord wants our
hearts to reach out to those who don't have what we have," I said at one point. "That shouldn't be hard for America. That's who we are."
I also said this: "The sun is rising, and the sun is going to rise to be the zenith in America again..
The light of a city on a hill cannot be hidden. America is that city, and you are that light."
I'd been down this road before, with that short-lived run for president in 2000, but I told myself that this time would be different--but only in terms
of the outcome. I'd go at it in much the same way, the same way I'd run all my campaigns. I'd run on my record; I'd run on the issues; I'd run as if I were 20 points behind. But this time the results would be different.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p.136-7
Apr 25, 2017
On Principles & Values:
Leaders need vision that excites the team they've built
I've spent a lot of time thinking about what it means to lead. I want to offer up my observations on what it takes to move any enterprise forward.- You need to be a leader with a vision--a vision that excites people, challenges people.
-
That vision needs to be something that can take people to a better place.
- The leader needs to develop a team.
- A leader needs followers, but not just any followers. You need followers to assent to the direction the leader lays out.
-
From among followers, there must emerge a group of leaders.
- Within each group, you must have a few disruptors. The purpose here is to have people in place who might question authority, not challenge it. What you require are other sets of eyes and
insights to compliment your own.
- An effective leader must keep reinforcing the message, keep laying out the vision.
- Finally, an effective leader must constantly drive the team.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p.175-7
Apr 25, 2017
On Principles & Values:
Civilization's enemies seek America's fall
I am going to talk today about the choice that America faces in this election. It is the choice between two paths--two very different paths. As we make this choice, the world is watching. The world is watching because America is civilization's brightest
beacon. Freedom-loving people depend on our leadership for peace and stability. Civilization's enemies only seek our fall. Presidents come and presidents go, and while the president does really matter, it's the democratic principles that have made us
that leader for more than two centuries and that have been sturdy enough to transcend political and ideological differences, a civil war, two world wars, and a century of technological and societal upheaval.
Through it all we have remained history's greatest force for good because we have stayed true to who we are--one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p.232
Apr 25, 2017
On Principles & Values:
Path to darkness is seeing America broken by "the other"
For some, the challenges we face, could give rise to fear or anger. The response for some is to retreat into the past--to yearn for "the way things used to be." To these people, today's America is only seen as a broken place, and the people who did the
breaking are 'the other.' People with more money or less money; people with different-sounding last names or different religious beliefs or different-colored skin or life-styles or--whatever. You get the idea. We have been told that because of all
this change, America has become more dark, that we have succumbed and that we are no longer strong. This picture of America in economic and moral decline is, of course, always followed up with warnings of our impending destruction.
When we come
together, when we unite as a country, America always wins. For those who are angry or afraid, I want to assure you there is another, better way. I say to you that this path to darkness is the antithesis of all that America has meant for 240 years.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p.233-5
Apr 25, 2017
On Principles & Values:
Cast vote in 2016 presidential race for John McCain
I cast my vote back home in Ohio for my good friend John McCain. To those who suggest that my vote would have been more meaningful, more impactful if I had cast it for Hillary Clinton, I offer this: I could not have stood with her any more than I could
have stood with Trump. I was opposed to her political philosophy: she represented bureaucracy, more taxes, more regulation--all the things that I believed were choking out our country. We live in a world of smartphones & autonomous vehicles & drones.
There are exciting innovations all around, but I looked at Hillary Clinton and the people who would likely make up her administration, and all I could see were the slow, tired, worn-out approaches of the past.As to Hillary Clinton's demeanor during
the campaign, she struck me as out of touch with blue-collar workers, as if she'd forgotten the very people who'd strengthened her party. Yes, she offered a clear alternative to Donald Trump, but it was an alternative I wasn't buying.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p.271-2
Apr 25, 2017
On Social Security:
Fix Social Security: keep the promise
I've proposed a 100 Day Agenda for when I am president:- Restore our economy with a fiscal plan to balance the budget
- Freeze all federal regulations, and rebuild our rule-making system to stop crushing small businesses.
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Simplify and reduce the taxes on individuals.
- Reduce taxes on businesses and end double-taxation.
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Send welfare, education, Medicaid, highway infrastructure, and job training back to where we live in the states.
- Protect the border and use common sense on immigration reform that includes a guest worker program.
-
And, we will fix Social Security so that we keep the promise to our seniors and future generations.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p. 239
Apr 25, 2017
On Technology:
Americans now get news from "reinforcing media"
It's tough to say which came first, the decline in the breadth and scope of our traditional news coverage or the growing disinterest in that traditional coverage. What's clear is that newspapers are folding or are cutting back on publication because
advertising revenues are down.As a result, viewers and readers are looking at fewer, more effective ways of staying informed. What that can mean for a lot of viewers and readers, though, is they wind up getting misinformed.
They believe they know all there is to know because the news outlets they choose to follow keep telling them their deeply-held opinions are right and good and true.
These days, many Americans also seem to want to get their news and information from a reinforcing media--meaning, from news organizations inclined to tell them what they want to hear or what they think they already know.
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, pp. 165-6
Apr 25, 2017
On Welfare & Poverty:
Champion the underdog, those discounted by society
I'd always been a champion of the underdog. I got that from my parents. So, as I became a leader of our great state, I became more of a servant to the people, rather than just being a strong force for change, particularly around issues that had to
do with people who lived in the shadows. The mentally ill, the drug-addicted, the working poor, the developmentally disabled--these are the folks society tends to discount and dismiss, yet I felt a tremendous sense of responsibility toward them.
For example, once we balanced the budge in our state, we were able to expand Medicaid--angering a lot of people in our party--and in the fallout, I said something that got a lot of attention. I said, "when you get to Heaven,
St. Peter is not going to ask you if you balanced the budget. He's going to ask you what you did for the poor. And you had better have a good answer."
Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, pp. 157-8
Apr 25, 2017
On Drugs:
If we all marched against drugs, we'd win that battle
Q: You suggest "common action" for "fighting drug addiction." What does that mean?KASICH: I was in Atlanta for Martin Luther King Day. And somebody asked, "what about Trump?" I said, "well, what about your neighbor? What about your kids?" MLK did not
change America by going to the big shots. They wouldn't even meet with him. He brought [together people] who had moral outrage of what was happening in this country, and then the politicians got it.
Q: But MLK marched for racial equality and jobs.
What is the march today?
KASICH: Right now in Columbus, we should be marching against the scourge of drugs. And it brings people together even in the political parties, the fight against drugs. The ability to keep our eyes open and to do things
against the issue of human trafficking. The issue of racism. In my hometown, if we all marched against drugs, we'd begin to win that battle. People sometimes look at the problems and they think they're so big that I'm just one little person.
Source: CBS Face the Nation 2017: Two Paths, by John Kasich
Apr 23, 2017
On Principles & Values:
America's divided; reunite by thinking bigger than ourselves
Q: What is the message of your new book "Two Paths: America Divided or United"?KASICH: I have been fortunate enough to have so many different experiences in my life, both in politics and in business and the media, across the board. And this book is
about "How did we get to where we are?" Which is today divided; and "How do we get out of it?" And it really gets down to living a life a little bigger than ourselves. I think that in some sense we kind of lost it. And what's most important is for
people to realize that they matter. I mean, they matter as much as a CEO, even if they're turning off the lights at night. And we need to come together as a nation. We need to focus on the things that bring us together, not the things that divide us.
And we need to listen to one another. I wrote this book because I have observed what has been happening in our country. I'm concerned about it. But I believe that with an awakening the country can be refreshed and brought together again. I have no doubt.
Source: CBS Face the Nation 2017: Two Paths, by John Kasich
Apr 23, 2017
On Principles & Values:
Focus on common humanity and fix problems where we live
Q: You want people to read your book "to understand their responsibility and their ability to bring this country together and stop waiting" because politicians won't "get it right until they get a message from us." So what can people do?KASICH: A lot
of it is to focus on common humanity. Why don't we focus on the things that pull us together? Are we concerned about drug addiction in our neighborhoods? Of course, we are. It's not Republican or Democrat. Are we worried about veterans who come home and
can't get a job? Can we look out for them? Of course. What about a senior citizen that lost their spouse? You know, what about the issue of human trafficking? Can we keep our eyes open? There are families that are in war with one another over politics.
It's ridiculous. There are more things that bring us together. If we can focus on common humanity and sit down and fix problems where we live and believe in ourselves, it will open our ears to people who might not think like us.
Source: CBS Face the Nation 2017: Two Paths, by John Kasich
Apr 23, 2017
Page last updated: Apr 03, 2019