Saying that raising capital gains taxes is a recipe for economic slowdown, Ohio Gov. John Kasich blasted President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech that focused on what Obama called "middle-class economics."
"The fact is that you cannot build a little guy up by tearing a big guy down," Kasich said on
"Fox News Sunday."
Kasich has been criticized himself by conservatives in his own Republican Party for statements such as one he made in his inaugural address on Tuesday:
"Economic growth is not an end into itself," Kasich said. "Economic growth provides the means whereby we can reach out and help those who live in the shadows."
Kasich, who often mentions his Christian beliefs of helping the downtrodden, defended his words, saying that he believes in short-term help for people who need it. But he said that any such help should point people who are able toward getting jobs.
Kasich said that many of the same Republican governors who have criticized him for accepting expanded Medicaid funds are now trying to find a way to do the same.
"I will not turn my back on the mentally ill, who live under bridges too often of the time in this country. I will not turn my back on the drug addicted, and I won't turn my back on the working poor," Kasich told Fox News' Chris Wallace. "I'm a believer as a conservative that everybody has a God-given purpose, and it is our job on a temporary basis to try to give them a chance to fulfill their God-given purpose by helping them."
With his own state's budget in balance, Kasich is pushing for a constitutional amendment to do the same for the federal budget.
"I was budget chairman in '97, the last time we balanced a budget and the first time since man walked on the moon," he said. "We cut capital gains taxes and we ended up with a surplus of $5 trillion surplus, that was quickly spent, unfortunately, by Republicans."
Kasich also defended his support of Common Core, the education initiative that seeks standards for educational achievement across state lines. Kasich said that local school boards establish the standards, and not Obama or bureaucrats in Washington.
"I've asked the Republican governors that have complained about that to tell me where I'm wrong. And guess what, silence," Kasich said. "But you know, part of the problem is today politicians are running to try to get votes. You know what we try to do out here, we run out here trying to solve problems."
Kasich himself is thought to be considering a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016. He told Wallace that option is still "on the table."
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