Today, voters in Texas and Ohio will cast ballots in one of the most consequential presidential primaries in recent memory. While both are large states, an article last week on Politico.com and yesterday’s editorial in The Wall Street Journal reveal that their governing philosophies and future outlooks could not be further apart.
As the Journal put it, “the eyes of America will be on these two states moving in different directions. Ohio has an economy burdened by high taxes and work rules that impose heavy costs on employers. Texas embraces free trade, keeps taxes low, doesn’t impose unions on business and has tooled itself for 21st century global competition.”
What have those differences meant? While Texas has added 1.6 million jobs over the last decade, Ohio has lost jobs. Texas is the nation’s #1 export state – exporting four times as much as Ohio. Our income growth over the last decade is much higher, while our unemployment rate is much lower.
Regardless who wins today’s balloting, I’m going to be interested in hearing from the presidential candidates on their model for the national economy. Will they move America toward Texas, or back to Ohio?
– David Guenthner