Rep. Pillich to run for State Treasurer in 2014

Cincinnati Democrat Rep. Connie Pillich has announced her candidacy for state treasurer in 2014. She'll face incumbent Treasurer Josh Mandel.

“I’m running for Treasurer because working families, small business owners, and seniors need someone who will fight for them. Ohioans deserve a Treasurer who will do the job she was elected to do and will make sure our tax dollars are protected and used wisely,” her press release stated.

Pillich, is an attorney and a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.

Sherrod Brown's 'stuck-on-stupid' economics

In yesterday's Washington Post, our Democrat Senator Sherrod Brown said:

“Everybody knows that government creates jobs.”

I kid you not.

He continued:

“Government creates jobs in highways. We hire private contractors. That creates other jobs. It builds an economic foundation for job creation.

“During the fifties, the sixties, the seventies, the eighties, the United States had great infrastructure programs. We were the envy of the world. Those are clear formulaic job creating strategies that we know.”

Can you say 'stuck-on-stupid'?

To be fair, he is technically correct that government spending can create temporary jobs - but he fails a basic economic lesson when he refuses to acknowledge that such spending comes at a cost to the private sector, which is the only true place where growth can occur.

You see, there is a difference between jobs and growth.

Government could pay us all to dig ditches. And if they wanted to employ us for a long time, they could give us only spoons to move the soil. Think about how many people could be employed if only the government did that!

But growth - the economic engine that results in long-term jobs and employment - does not come from government. It comes from the private sector when a company creates a product that others choose to purchase, creating the need for supplies and employees and transportation and marketing, etc... This is what builds "an economic foundation for job creation."

Government infrastructure projects do best when they're responding to the needs of the private market - not when they are 'busy work' in order to artificially inflate employment numbers or when they are nothing but pork or special interest projects of politicians (high-speed rail, anyone?).

Josh Mandel, Brown's opponent for the Senate seat in November, obviously has a better grasp of economics (emphasis added):

"Sherrod Brown's statement demonstrates that after two decades in Washington and 38 years running for political office, he is out of touch with struggling private sector job creators and millions of Americans looking for work but can’t find it. I believe the only way forward is to empower hard working Americans. If more wasteful Washington spending was the answer, the problem would have been solved long ago."

No matter where you stand on any other issue, the fact that Brown thinks more government spending is the solution to our economic woes should cause you to vote for Mandel in November.

BlogCon - Charlotte - 2012

I'm at BlogConCLT in Charlotte, NC, today for training and networking.  This is a great conference with something for everyone, no matter how long they've been blogging.

One of the things that surprised me today is the number of bloggers who have not been to a BlogCon before.  Last year in Denver was my first time and I learned a lot about being a better blogger.  I know this will be very worthwhile with new friends and new contacts, along with a host of new blogs to read as we endeavor to provide an alternative to the MSM.

I won't be blogging all the topics like I've done with other conferences, but will definitely cover Katie Pavlich, author of Fast and Furious: Barack Obama's Bloodiest Scandal and the Shameless Cover-Up, who is our lunch speaker today.  There will be a memorial to Andrew Breitbart this afternoon and then a FreedomWorks candidate reception this evening.  Josh Mandel, running for Senate here in Ohio, is one of their endorsed candidates, though I do not know if he is able to attend tonight's reception.

Tomorrow's agenda includes an update on health care, Deneer Borelli, Stephen Moore, and a session on the Constitution and today's issues.

BlogCon is presented by the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity. 

Benjamin Franklin, a printer by trade and publisher of one the United States’ most prominent early newspapers, once said, “a newspaper in every house… [is] the principal support of virtue, morality, and civil liberty.” Today, Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity carries on that legacy, animated by the belief that voters need real information to make informed decisions about their government – and that the American public simply does not have enough.

Franklin Center was established in 2009 to answer this need – and already provides 10 percent of all daily reporting from state capitals nationwide. We support an in-house team of state-based reporters and act as a capacity-building service provider for organizations that sponsor investigative journalism.

With transparency, accountability, and fiscal responsibility as our watchwords, Franklin Center identifies, trains, and supports journalists working to detect and expose corruption and incompetence in government at the state and local levels. Our competitive advantage lies in our ability to train reporters, to produce investigative news content, and to hold government officials accountable.

They will be offering a Citizen Watchdog Training in Westerville, OH, on May 12th. 

In 2012, we launched our information activist training program, Citizen Watchdog. Recognizing that many of the greatest threats to our freedom and prosperity occur at the local level, where there are often no reporters or citizen observers to hold elected officials accountable, we will raise an army of citizen journalists, trained and equipped to serve as watchdogs in their local communities.

I will be one of the speakers at this training and will be covering Ohio Public Records Law.  I hope you'll join us!