John Kasich Quotes

In my eight years as governor, I did everything I could to resist federal control of issues that belong to the states.

What is good for Alaska is good for the country. Transferring power from the federal government to the states provides opportunity to all states, not just Alaska.

States should have enormous input into the decisions that affect them.

The arm of the Federal government is long, but it is far too short to protect the rights of individuals in the interior of distant States. They must have the power to protect themselves, or they will go unprotected, in spite of all the laws the Federal government can put upon the national statute-book.

Our best protection against bigger government in Washington is better government in the states.

I think that the more we, as a state, yield and cede decisions to the federal government, the lesser we'll be for it as a state.

I don't think the federal government should be a part of everything. I think that governing should be done state-by-state... so that you can tailor your governing to the people's needs.

We have to allow people in the states to make their own decisions, to get government agencies out of the way and let local people make decisions about what's best for them.

I would support a devolution of power out of Washington for education, health care, transportation.

Texans can run Texas without the federal government telling them what to do.

Many states have legalized medicinal marijuana. I believe the president and the Department of Justice ought to respect the will of these separate states... We are capable of self-government. We don't need some federal gendarme to come and tell us what to do. I believe comity toward the states...ought to govern the policy.

Whenever Washington makes a one-size-fits-all decision, it doesn't work in states all around the country.

What can we do to put more Colorado in Washington and less Washington in Colorado?

That's what the founding fathers intended, that most decisions be made at the state level, not at the federal level.

Being the governor of a state is a more pivotal job in the future. I do indeed hope there's someone that says, "I'm going to go to Washington, try to get back to our constitutional roots, devolve the centralization of government back to the states." So why would you want to be up there if the action is down here in the states?

I don't want to be the president of the United States. I do want to work with the governors across the country to make the states more pivotal, more powerful, as they should be.

Taking legislative authority away from the federal government doesn't necessarily mean freer individuals. It might just mean granting vastly more authority to the states--which already have far broader police powers than most of us would care to admit.

Our goal is to displace the entrenched powers in Washington, restore the rightful balance between the state and federal government.

The Federal Government should be the last resort, not the first. Ask if a potential program is truly a federal responsibility or whether it can better be handled privately, by voluntary organizations, or by local or state governments.

Our founders insisted that protecting the states' power to govern themselves was vital to limit the power of Washington and preserve freedom.

It is a fundamental principle of American law that the regulation of the local police of all the domestic affairs of a State belong to the State itself, and not to the Federal Government.

The proposed system [of American government] is like the solar system, in which the states are the planets, and they ought to be left to move more freely in their proper orbits.

I am going to make Washington as irrelevant to your lives as possible

You can’t secure the country from inside the Beltway. The Federal government has got to trust the state Attorney’s General with critical information.

I don't want to tell Gov. Brewer what to do; she can do what's best for her state.