Ohio Action Coalition News Release: U.S. House: “Protect the Rich, Forget the Rest”
U.S. HOUSE: “PROTECT THE RICH, FORGET THE REST”
Ohio Action Coalition Says Republicans Show True Colors
Millions of Ohio Families Will Pay the Price
For Immediate Release: December 21, 2012 Columbus – The Ohio Action Coalition, a grass roots movement that is urging Congress to let the Bush tax cuts expire for the richest 2% of Americans, said today that Republicans in the U.S. House “showed their true colors” by rejecting a proposal by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) that would have raised taxes only on those earning more than $1 million per year. Boehner was forced to cancel a formal vote on his so-called “Plan B” when it became clear his fellow Republican members of Congress would not support it. Said Coalition Director Joanne Pickrell: “It was bad enough when Republicans refused to support raising taxes on those earning over $250,000 per year; now they’ve made it clear they won’t raise taxes even on those earning over $1 million a year. Let’s be clear. There are 311 million Americans – and only a few hundred thousand of them earn over $1 million. So, Republicans are holding 99.7% of the country hostage to millionaires and billionaires. They intend to stop anyone from getting a tax cut unless millionaires and billionaires get a bonus tax cut on top of the one everyone else will get on the first $250,000 they earn. This is ‘class warfare’ —Republican-style.” [Read more…]Romney, Kasich Lie About Auto Rescue
ROMNEY, KASICH LIE ABOUT AUTO RESCUE IO; Auto Czar Rattner Say Jobs & China Claims are “Cynical Deceptions”
COLUMBUS — Steven Rattner joined Innovation Ohio today at a Columbus news conference to “blow the whistle on the Romney campaign’s cynical attempt to mislead Ohio voters about the auto rescue.” Rattner was Lead Advisor to President Obama during the 2009 rescue of the auto industry. Innovation Ohio is a progressive think tank headquartered in Columbus. Rattner and IO cited numerous instances in which the Romney campaign and its GOP allies – including Ohio Gov. John Kasich – have attempted to mislead Ohio voters, including:- At an October 25 campaign rally in Defiance, Romney claimed that “Jeep is thinking of moving all production to China.” The company emphatically denied the charge the same day, saying “Jeep has no intention of shifting production out of North America” and criticizing Romney’s claim in unusually blunt language as “a leap that would be difficult even for circus acrobats” and lamenting “unnecessary fantasies and extravagant comments.” In fact, Jeep intends to restart production in China by hiring additional workers, not moving U.S. jobs there. It’s akin to Honda or Toyota opening plants here to build cars for the American market.
- Despite the company’s rebuke, on October 27 the Romney campaign began airing a television ad misleadingly saying that “Obama … sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China.” The ad also contains three additional distortions:
- It states that Obama “took the auto companies through bankruptcy” — conveniently omitting that was Romney’s plan as well;
- It says that the conservative-leaning Detroit News “endorsed Romney” — conveniently omitting that the endorsement criticized his position on the auto rescue, while praising Obama’s “extraordinary leadership” on the issue.
- It states that Romney has a “plan to help the auto industry” — when neither he nor his campaign has ever announced or spelled out such a plan.
- As a result, the ad has been rated false by numerous media fact-checkers, including the Tampa Tribune’s “Politifact” which rated it “Pants On Fire.”
- On October 28, in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Gov. Kasich that Ohio is only “up a total of 400 auto jobs when you count the companies and suppliers.” In fact, Innovation Ohio has shown that the industry has created over 17,300 Ohio jobs since the rescue. And according to the Kasich Administration’s own Department of Development, 34% of private investment in 2011 – including 11 of 29 investments over $50 million — were in the auto industry. These deals accounted for 18% of all private sector job announcements reported by the Department.
- On October 30, the Romney campaign tripled down on its deceit with a radio ad which not only repeats the debunked claim about Chrysler shipping American jobs to China, but claims that GM is planning to do so too. The ad also falsely blames President Obama for GM “cutting 15,000 American jobs.” In truth, these losses occurred prior to the President’s rescue plan in the summer of 2009. Since then, more than 152,000 American auto jobs have been created.
Kasich Budget Cuts = More School Levies
KASICH BUDGET CUTS = MORE SCHOOL LEVIES IO SAYS 83% OF OHIO COUNTIES ASKING FOR “NEW MONEY”
Columbus — Innovation Ohio, a progressive think tank headquartered in Columbus, today released an analysis which finds that 62 of Ohio’s 88 counties (83%) will have school levies requesting “new money” on the November, 2012 ballot. All told, 194 school levies will be on the fall ballot, 124 of which are requests for new money. The rest are renewals of existing levies. The analysis found that the number of new money requests is the highest since November, 2008 when just over 40% were passed by the voters. The passage rates of new money requests have been falling in recent years, with just 22% passing in November 2010 and 28% passing in November, 2011. New money requests have become more prolific since Gov. Kasich and his legislative allies cut $1.8 billion from school districts in the state’s current two year budget. [Read more…]IO Release: Husted Refuses to Take “No” for an Answer
HUSTED REFUSES TO TAKE “NO” FOR AN ANSWER Chief Elections Officer Asks Supreme Court To Help Him Suppress African-American Votes
Columbus — Innovation Ohio, a progressive think tank headquartered in Columbus, today accused Secretary of State Jon Husted of betraying the core mission of his office by appealing a ruling by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court that prohibits him from barring early voting on the last weekend before the election. Last Thursday, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a previous ruling by a federal district court judge which overturned Husted’s order barring voting on the three days prior to Election Day. In 2008, some 93,000 Ohioans — a significant portion of whom were African-American — voted on the final weekend. [Read more…]Report: Votes at Risk – Ohio’s Context in a Battleground Nation
IO: Voting Rights Under Assault in 6 of 9 Swing States
Study Highlights Voter Suppression Efforts in OH, FL, PA, WI, VA, NH
Columbus: Innovation Ohio, a progressive think tank headquartered in Columbus, released a report today, “Votes at Risk,” which finds that Republican Governors, state legislatures, and other elected officials have systematically pursued voter suppression efforts in six of the nation’s nine battleground “swing states.” Given that Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Virginia and New Hampshire account for 94 electoral votes (out of the 270 needed to win the Presidency), lowering overall turnout in those states could have a major impact on the 2012 election. Visit our report page here. While the precise suppression mechanisms vary from state to state, “photo ID laws in some states; a reduction in early voting hours in others,” the study says they constitute “a concerted and coordinated effort to strip millions of people from the voting rolls before the presidential election.” Targeted are “those most likely to support Democrats –minorities, students, the poor, the elderly, and people with disabilities.” The report notes that although Republicans routinely justify voting restrictions as necessary to combat “voter fraud,” such fraud is exceedingly rare. Even in the hotly contested 2004 Presidential race, for example, Ohio’s rate of voter fraud “was just 0.00004% —about the same frequency as people being struck dead by lightning.” [Read more…]Report: Romney Plan Would Clobber Ohioans
IO-CAP study says Ohio would lose $106 Billion and middle class would pay higher taxes
Columbus–A new collaborative analysis by Innovation Ohio and the Center for American Progress Action Fund has found that Ohio and its middle income taxpayers would be hit hard under the economic plan put forward by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. IO and CAP Action are progressive think tanks. IO is headquartered in Columbus, while CAP Action is based in Washington, D.C. The study, “The Real Cost of the Romney-Ryan Plan to Ohioans”, is the second project undertaken jointly by the two organizations. The full report is available at innovationohio.org. Among the study’s main findings are:- Under the Romney tax plan, Ohio’s 5,800 millionaires would receive an additional tax cut of at least $87,000, while middle class Ohio families would pay $1,900 more in health care taxes and $1,066 more in taxes on their home mortgages.
- Under the Romney budget plan, Ohio would lose over $106 billion in federal funding from 2013-2022, or an average of more than $10 billion per year. Programs that would be subjected to huge cuts include health care, law enforcement, highway repair, job-training and, especially, education —which would suffer cuts of nearly $100 million in 2013 and 2014 alone. Ohio college students would lose 5,390 work-study positions, and Ohio’s 363,000 Pell Grant recipients would have their awards cut by $830 per year.
- Under the Romney energy plan, investment in green energy technologies like wind and solar would be slashed, jeopardizing 125,000 Ohio clean energy jobs, including the 6,000 jobs that currently exist in wind energy.
- Under the Romney health care plan, 70,000 Ohio seniors would pay at least $660 more per year for their prescription drugs due to a re-opening of the Medicare “donut hole”, while the 97,000 young Ohio adults now covered under their parents’ health care policies would lose insurance. Insurance companies could go back to charging women more than men for the same policies, and nearly 2 million Ohio women would lose the no-cost preventive care and disease screenings they currently have.
- Under the Romney plan to “voucherize” Medicare by 2023, health care costs for current Medicare recipients aged 65 and over would increase by $11,000 per year. Costs would be even greater for future retirees.
Special Elections Expose Kasich’s Shell Game
Special Elections Expose Kasich Shell Game
State Cuts Lead To 55 Local Tax Levies All Across Ohio
Columbus — Innovation Ohio, a progressive think tank headquartered in Columbus, says that today’s special elections — in 39 of Ohio’s 88 counties — are “proof positive of the Kasich administration’s cynical shell game: cut money for schools and local governments at the state level and shift the burden to local taxpayers instead.”
Of the 60 issues being decided today, 55 involve local taxes. 34 of the 55 are for schools. The other 21 are for police and/or fire, emergency medical services, road repair and local government operations. An eye-popping 71% are new funding requests. For over a year, Innovation Ohio has repeatedly warned of the scenario unfolding today.“While vowing in his State of the State speech not to raise taxes, the Governor merely proposes to shift the burden from the state to local communities which, in turn, will be forced to raise taxes simply to maintain the levels of police, fire and other services they currently have.” March 15, 2011 IO News Release “At a time when Gov. Kasich is proposing to cut the Local Government Fund by 50%, Ohio’s cities, towns and municipalities simply can’t afford another major hit to their revenue. If the estate tax is killed, many will have no alternative but to raise local taxes.” June 9, 2011 IO News Release “School cuts, and especially cuts to local government funds which are used to pay for police, fire and emergency response, will require communities either to hike taxes or make do with fewer educational and protective services.” June 30, 2011 IO News ReleaseSaid Innovation Ohio President Janetta King: “Today, Governor Kasich’s chickens are coming home to roost. Even wealthy communities like Cleveland’s Shaker Heights are having to ask local taxpayers to approve a 0.5% levy. As Mayor Earl Leiken has pointed out, the state budget and repeal of the estate tax has cost Shaker $6 million. In response, the city has done everything Governor Kasich said local communities should do: they’ve renegotiated labor agreements, frozen wages, tripled employee contributions for health insurance, outsourced and consolidated services, and cut 58 positions, including 10 police officers and 14 firefighters. Any further reductions would, in the Mayor’s words, “severely impact public services and the quality of our life.” (Read his letter here). “Sadly, the Shaker story is not unique. It’s the same in city after city and community after community. Today, 55 local levies are on the ballot. There will be more in November, and who knows how many others in the months to come. Still, Governor Kasich and his legislative allies refuse to budge. They won’t restore any of the money they cut, and they won’t ask the wealthiest Ohioans to share in the sacrifice. But Ohioans aren’t stupid. They know a shell game when they see one. They know we can’t cut our way to prosperity. They know we shouldn’t balance the budget on the backs of the middle class. And sooner or later, they will hold Governor Kasich accountable. “
Medicaid Expansion Could Save 3,400 Ohio Lives
MEDICAID EXPANSION COULD SAVE 3,400 OHIO LIVES
IO Urges Kasich To Support Expansion; Be “Consistently Pro-Life”
Columbus — Innovation Ohio, a progressive think tank headquartered in Columbus, today cited a new study in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine which suggested that expanding Medicaid eligibility as called for in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could prevent 3,400 Ohio deaths per year. The think tank also called on Gov. Kasich to support Medicaid expansion, saying that “being pro-life should include more than just being anti-abortion.” According to the study, published July 25th, Harvard University School of Public Health researchers found that for every 176 adults covered under expanded Medicaid, one death per year would be prevented. The study compared three states (Arizona, New York and Maine) that have already expanded Medicaid coverage for low-income citizens with four neighboring states that had not. Deaths in the three expansion states dropped by 6% per year, while deaths in non-expansion states went up. Read the report here. According to the Kasich administration’s Office of Health Transformation, 597,500 adults would qualify for Medicaid in 2014 if the program is expanded according to ACA guidelines. Using the study’s formula of one death prevented for every 176 adults covered, expanded Medicaid coverage in Ohio would yield 3,395 fewer deaths per year than would occur without it. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the ACA, it made the law’s Medicaid expansion voluntary. Kasich and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor have said they are undecided about the expansion and have expressed concern over Ohio’s ability to afford it. The federal government, however, will pick up 100% of the cost in 2014, 2015 and 2016, an average of 93% of the cost in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and 90% of the cost in 2020 and all years thereafter. Said IO Communications Director Dale Butland: “By expanding Medicaid to the poorest of the poor, Ohio can prevent 3,400 needless deaths a year. Equally important, we can do it at no cost to ourselves initially, and then for just 10 cents on the dollar beginning in 2020. Most people would say that’s a moral no-brainer, and a fiscal bargain for the ages. “Yet Gov. Kasich, who never tires of telling us how ‘pro-life’ he is, remains undecided about the expansion. But surely being ‘pro-life’ should include more than just being anti-abortion. We strongly urge Gov. Kasich to do what’s right for Ohio’s poorest citizens. And if he should decide that Ohio cannot ‘afford’ to prevent these deaths, we hope he will also see fit to tell us exactly how much he thinks a life is worth. “
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