Gov. Kasich: US needs to balance its budget

By Marc Kovac | December 31, 2014 at 12:02a.m.

Second of a three-part series

COLUMBUS

A little more than a year ago, Gov. John Kasich joined the Republican leaders of the Ohio Legislature in a ceremonial letter signing, noting the state’s adoption of a resolution urging President Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress to pursue a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

Days earlier, state lawmakers gave their final approval to the resolution calling for a constitutional convention, making Ohio the 20th state in the nation officially on record in support of an amendment barring the federal government from spending more money than it collects.

“Eighteen trillion dollars — at what point do things start falling apart?” Kasich asked during a recent speech before chamber of commerce groups. “We know right now that our foreign policy leverage is reduced because we’ve got the Chinese that own ... our debt. You can’t keep spending what you don’t have and get away with it. We’re so strong as a nation, we’re surviving. ... If you delay this thing so long, the kinds of things you’re going to have to do in the middle of a cataclysmic financial crisis will be devastating. It’s going to happen, folks. So if we can delay this and put this discipline in and start to eat away at this thing, we’re going to be so much stronger as a country.”

He added, “To me there’s no more important issue.”

Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, two-thirds of state legislatures can adopt resolutions to force Congress to call a convention to consider amendments. Delegations would then meet to hash out amendments, which would require ratification by three-fourths of the country (38 states) to take effect.

Ohio’s Senate Joint Resolution 5 also includes language attempting to limit the topics considered if a constitutional convention is called, with Ohio delegates authorized to “debate and vote only on” the balanced budget issue, according to an analysis by the state’s Legislative Service Commission.

Numerous resolutions have been passed by states through the years calling for Article V conventions on various issues, including some with language related to a balanced budget amendment.

Senate President Keith Faber, R-Celina, said 10 or so other states need to sign onto the balanced budget effort to force the issue.

On the Road

Kasich traveled to Arizona in recent weeks to lobby support for a federal balanced budget amendment. He and legislative leaders plan to continue that push in the new year.

“My view is, you get three or four more [states] to do it ...,” he said. “I think we can maneuver through it. How much time is it going to take? It won’t take an excessive amount of time to keep me from being able to do this job [as governor], and we plan all these things carefully. But if we can get three or four states, it will become a forefront issue. I was there [in D.C.] for 18 years, I was there when we balanced the budget. When I left, we had trillions in surplus. And one of my buddies back here said, ‘Now that you and all your pals are gone, this will all get spent.’ And I said, ‘There’s no way you can spend trillions of surplus.’ And sure enough, the Republicans did it. There’s all this thing about Republicans don’t want to spend and Democrats do. The conservatives on the Republican side say, ‘We want smaller government.’ Well, go and talk to them about how much smaller government they really want. It’s great in theory, but then when you start getting down and making the changes, it gets to be pretty hard. [In our state], I know that there’s no way we would have wiped out that $8 billion hole if we’d not been required to. ... There are moments of time when Washington can get it right, but those moments in time are few and far between. ... I don’t know anybody that doesn’t think the federal government ought to balance its budget. You don’t have to do it in a day, but there has to be some discipline and some restraint.”