Leadership Quote by John Kasich

Kasich’s line is a politician’s attempt to pull a moral bright line through the fog of economic development deals, where “jobs” is often a magic word that suspends scrutiny. The key move is definitional: he doesn’t argue about whether subsidies are good or bad in the abstract; he claims the right to name the boundary. “That’s our definition” is a subtle power play, presenting a contested terrain - incentives, tax abatements, sweetheart loans - as if it can be policed with common sense instead of ideology.

The intent is triangulation. Kasich signals pro-business pragmatism (“when we give a subsidy”) while borrowing the language of populist suspicion (“corporate welfare”), a term designed to shame executives the way “welfare” has historically shamed the poor. He’s trying to make conservative fiscal discipline and middle-class resentment shake hands.

The subtext, though, is that the “public benefit” test is harder than it sounds. How do you measure benefits that arrive as promises, projections, and press conferences? Companies can quantify their gains down to the penny; the public’s gains are diffuse, delayed, and easier to inflate. The quote is also a preemptive defense against the charge that any subsidy is corruption: Kasich is saying the issue isn’t influence, it’s math.

Context matters because Kasich governed in a Midwestern state competing in the national subsidy arms race, where refusing to bid can look like unilateral disarmament. The line tries to rebrand restraint as competitiveness: not anti-business, just anti-bad-deal.