Govs differ over Obama economy strategy

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WASHINGTON, June 3 (UPI) -- The Democratic governor of Massachusetts said government investment sparked job growth in the state after his predecessor, Mitt Romeny, left office.

Gov. Deval Patrick said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that support for education and infrastructure in particular boosted Massachusetts from 47th in the United States under Romney to No. 30.

"We've [also] turned around an income decline when Gov. Romney was in office to an income gain today," said Patrick, who debated economic policy with Republican Gov. John Kasich of Ohio.

Kasich said the Obama administration was actually hampering its own recovery by focusing on complex new regulations that effect business. "People are uncertain," Kasich said. "If you're a small business person you can't deal with uncertainty so you sit on the sidelines. If you're a big company you don't know what you're going to do, you sit on the sidelines."

Patrick countered that the business community already realizes taxes must go up if they want to realize the level of debt reduction the Republicans want to see. He said Congress was adding to the uncertainty by refusing to act on Obama's economic legislation.

But Kasich said higher taxes hamper economic growth, and blamed Obama for failing to act aggressively enough. "They need to say we're not going to raise taxes," Kasich said. "We might close some loopholes…. We're not going to kill investment. We are going to stream line our regulations and we're going to have certainty."