. . . Have Decided That They Need to Go Somewhere Else to Realize Their Hopes and Dreams. That’s a Terrible Situation.                              —Ohio Governor John Kasich

The citizens of Wisconsin and their representatives courageously took the first step. Governor Walker signed the landmark legislation into law Friday. That there are miles to go for them doesn’t matter. They are on their way. The “Ship Wisconsin” is under the firm hand and clear mind of Governor Scott Walker.

Right along with Wisconsin is Ohio. Ohio has been offered a plan to, not just balance the State budget but to return to economic competitiveness. Kasich’s job may be tougher than Walkers. If it is easier, it is only because Wisconsin was first.

Governor Kasich gave his State of the State address this past week. Read these portions of his remarks to get your mind around the size of Ohio’s challenge:

Before we begin to talk about what we need to do, I need to spend a little bit of time and talk about the problems we have in this state. We have to recognize the difficulty we have before we understand the challenge and why we need to meet the challenge of our difficulties.

Folks, we’ve lost 600,000 jobs in the last 10 years. Let’s think about this: Only California, which has completely lost its way, and Michigan, which has been devastated by the auto industry, have lost more jobs. Only California and Michigan have fared worse than our beloved Buckeye State. And, of course, we’ve lost more than 400,000 jobs over these last four years. Things have been accelerating. As a result, we have experienced unacceptable levels of poverty and homelessness.

I can remember during the campaign going to Ashtabula County and having a young girl walk up to me and say, Mister, please don’t tax my eggs. I go door to door and this is how I make a living. Please, Mister, don’t break my business. You don’t forget that.

Young people, you know, our kids and our grandkids are leaving this state for better opportunities. One-third of Ohio college graduates are leaving this state within three years of graduating. Our best and our brightest, our seed corn, have decided that they need to go somewhere else to realize their hopes and dreams. That’s a terrible situation.

Too many of our successful entrepreneurs flee the state to escape high taxation. And what I would say to all of you, Republicans and Democrats alike, you talk to those folks that have moved to Naples and you ask them why they have left. And they will tell you because they get a better deal. They get to keep more of what they have earned in their lifetime. And when they leave, we lose their money.  

You know, that’s one thing. We lose the jobs, we lose their entrepreneurial spirit, we lose their ingenuity. See, they’re the ones that can see the future. They’re the ones that can take ideas from the back of their head and translate it into something that can change Ohio, change America and change the world, and they’ve been leaving. And now they take their charitable giving and they give it to a faraway place to maybe build an opera house in Naples, Florida, rather than helping to rebuild the opera house in our small communities across Ohio. . . .

. . .To my friends here, we cannot tax our way to prosperity. We’re one of the highest taxed states in America, and we’re not competitive. You get these calls from — from companies saying we’re thinking about going, we can’t make a profit here, we can’t make the numbers work. Well, Ohio has been under siege and not just from India and China. And, oh, yes, we live in a global world, and they’re looking every day to take our simple products and move them overseas. And I want all of you to know that I have told one Chinese delegation after another that we don’t like the fact that you manipulate your currency, we do not like the fact that you don’t play on a level playing field when you trade with us, and it will stop. And we will be a strong voice in Ohio to make sure we get our fair share, India and China – they have us under.

But, you know, we’re also under siege from Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia. Those from Dayton, NCR, gone. An empty building. We’re under siege from North Carolina, from Florida, from Texas. They all come inside the boundaries of Ohio and they try to lure away our best and brightest. They take our jobs, sometimes they take our job creators out of our beloved Buckeye State. We’re not going to let that continue. We cannot afford to let that continue. But I must also tell my colleagues here today that while I believe we can’t tax our way to prosperity, we can’t cut our way there either.

If you examine any successful business, it’s absolutely critical that that business controls its costs. Ohio is going to have to control its costs only to set the stage for the creation of new products just like businesses. You see, they control their costs, they create new products, they find new customers, and they develop innovative solutions. And this is what allows the great companies to flourish, whether it is Google or whether it is Yahoo, whether it’s Oracle. Every day they think about controlling costs and devising new and exciting ways to solve problems. Google is in the dictionary.

I met those guys when they drove in a Volkswagen with their inline skates tied to roof, and they’ve changed the world. They have changed the world. And the same formula that allows businesses to flourish, it’s the same formula that can allow us to build a strong Ohio. Yes, control our costs and begin to innovate. We are putting a budget together that can transform our state.

If you’ve seen a lot of change in these first seven weeks, you ain’t seen nothing yet. We are going to transform this state. READ IT ALL HERE.

It seems reasonable that Ohio Democrats could work with that vision and that tone. But remember Wisconsin was the national focus because President Obama knew, if the people of Wisconsin fix their public union costs, he will lose Wisconsin in 2012. By his calculation, if he loses Wisconsin, he loses reelection. Obama also considers Ohio and Michigan are essential as well. There is no doubt he is right.

SEIU and other union thugs were in Wisconsin at Obama’s direction. This is the major reason national media attention remained focused there. Be alert. The Thugocracy will focus on Ohio in the next days. Watch —the opportunity for Ohio Democrats to be constructive will vanish.