Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ohio Governor John Kasich got into a confrontation over taxes and Kasich’s time at Lehman Brothers at Wednesday’s Republican part two presidential debate on CNBC.
Kasich said, “I’m the only person on this stage that actually was involved and the chief architect of balancing the federal budget. You can’t do it with empty promises. You know, these plans would put us trillions and trillions of dollars in debt. I actually have a plan. I’m the only one on this stage, that has a plan that would create jobs, cut taxes, balance the budget, and can get it done, because I’m realistic. you just don’t make promises like this. Why don’t we just give a chicken in every pot, while we’re coming up with these fantasy tax schemes? We’ll just clean it up. Where are you going to clean it up? You have to deal with entitlements. You have to be in a position to control discretionary spending. You’ve got to be creative and imaginative. Now, let me just be clear John, I went into Ohio, where we had an $8 billion hole, and now we have $2 billion surplus, we’re up 347,000 jobs. When I was in Washington, I fought to get the budget balanced. I was the architect. It was the first time we did it since man walked on the moon. We cut taxes, and we had a $5 trillion projected surplus, when I left. That’s hard work. fiscal discipline, know what you’re doing, creativity. This stuff is fantasy. Just like getting rid of Medicare and Medicaid. Come on, that’s just not — you don’t scare senior citizens with that. It’s not responsible.
When asked about proposals that he thought were “crazy,” Kasich stated, “right here, to talk about we’re just going to have a 10% tithe, and that’s how we’re going to fund the government. And we’re not — we’re going to just fix everything with waste, fraud and abuse. Or that we’re just going to be great, or we’re going to ship ten million Americans — or ten million people out of this country, leaving their children here in this country and dividing families. Folks, we got to wake up. We cannot elect somebody that doesn’t know how to do the job. You’ve got to pick somebody who has experience, somebody that has the know-how, the discipline, and I spent my entire lifetime balancing federal budgets, growing jobs, the same in Ohio, and I will go back to Washington with my plan.”
Trump responded, “First of all, john got lucky with a thing called fracking, okay? He hit oil, he got lucky with fracking, believe me, that’s why Ohio is doing well. And that’s important for you to know. Number two, this was the man that was a managing general partner at Lehman Brothers, when it went down the tubes, and almost took every one of us with [it], including Ben and myself. Because I was there, and I watched what happened, and Lehman Brothers started it all. He was on the board, and he was a managing general partner. And just thirdly, he was so nice, he was such a nice guy. And he said, oh, I’m never going to attack, but then his poll numbers tanked. He’s got very — that’s why he’s on the end ,and he got nasty. So, you know what? You can have him.
Kasich answered, “First of all, Ohio does have an energy industry, but we’re diversified. We’re one of the fastest growing states in the country. We came back from the dead, and you know what? it works very, very well. And secondly, when you talk about me being on the board of Lehman Brothers. I wasn’t on the board of Lehman Brothers. I was a banker, and I was proud of it, and I traveled around the country and learned how people make jobs. We ought to have politicians, who not only have government experience, but know how the CEOs and the job creators work. My state is doing great across the board. And guess what? In 2011, I got a deal, an agreement with Ford, and he tried to take credit for it four years later. It’s a joke.”
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