Republican Ohio Governor and presidential candidate John Kasich says he will eliminate the U.S. Department of Commerce if he wins the White House. Ohio Public Radio's Karen Kasler reports.
In a statement, Kasich called the Commerce Department “a cluttered attic”, and says he’d transfer some of its work to other agencies.
David Niven is a political science professor at the University of Cincinnati, and said it’s interesting to see Kasich propose this after blasting other candidates – though not by name – for their ideas on immigration, Medicaid and Medicare and the tax code. “What he’s offering is the mainstream version of something you can’t do,” Niven said, adding thatthere’s a lot that the department of commerce does that’s important and even constitutional, such as registering patents and conducting the census.
But Kasich’s campaign notes President Obama proposed eliminating the Commerce Department in 2012, but that idea was shelved.