With Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) at the helm, the Ohio GOP is successfully kneecapping the legs of Ohio’s middle class. The party’s first six months in power brought collective bargaining rights, the minimum wage, the prevailing wage, and education under the knife in the name of an $8 billion state budget deficit and “shared sacrifice.” Last week, the GOP-led state Senate passed Kasich’s $55.7 billion budget — the chief weapon in Kasich’s arsenal “that whacks schools, local governments, higher education, nursing homes, day care for children of low-income parents, the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, children’s hospitals and work-support programs for the poor.”
However, as the Columbus Dispatch noted, one group is notably exempt from this “shared sacrifice”: the wealthy. State Republicans coupled massive program cuts with an elimination of the estate tax for Ohio’s richest 8 percent of estates, restored $85 million in school funding for mostly affluent districts, and cut the state income tax so that “the largest dollar reductions” will go to “those with an annual income above $200,000.” TP Economy editor Pat Garofalo noted that measures like the estate tax elimination actually shift taxes on to the middle class.
When asked exactly “how the rich are being asked to sacrifice in the budget,” GOP lawmakers struggled to justify their lopsided favoritism. Kasich simply asked, “Why we would want to punish success?” and House Speaker William Batchelder (R) simply didn’t answer........
Once again we see that the Republicans continue to provide for the rich, and neglect the middle class, public school children, the poor, the elderly, and the disabled. I still want to know exactly which misguided fools voted for Kasich.
Some people continue to favor the greedy Republicans. In today's Dispatch, we have evidence that some people in Ohio still like Republican candidates for President:
The first votes for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination are still months away, with candidates bowing in and out of the race by the week, but Ohioans already have given nearly a quarter of a million dollars to would-be candidates.
Buckeye State residents have contributed almost $58,000 to former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's SarahPAC and more than $50,000 to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's Free and Strong America PAC.....
"I think Sarah Palin is a true, patriotic American," said Patricia Alderson, 62, a community organizer for charitable giving from the Cincinnati suburb of West Chester, who gave Palin's political action committee $2,000 in November 2009....
Excuse me. I just puked. Most people are patriotic. As the famous bumper sticker reads, "God is not a Democrat or a Republican."
Here is the graph printed in the Dispatch from the Center from Responsive Politics:
Want to know my opinion (a sixty year old, wife, mother, and grandmother) of these Republicans?
Sarah Palin - ignorant, definitely not a feminist, stupid, doesn't know much about American history (sources: 1, 2,)
Mitt Romney - This guy put his dog in a cage, tied the cage on the top of his car, and went on a long road trip with the family. I call that animal abuse. I need not say more. (sources: 1, 2, 3.....)
Tim Pawlenty - dull; a disciple of Grover Norquist (see CrooksandLiars), his release of Jeremy Geifer,...
James DeMint -anti-women's rights, anti-diversity, anti-everything...
Rick Santorum - ignorant. Just Google "Santorum" today.
Mike Huckabee - a fan of cooking squirrels (YouTube); his stance on reproductive rights is a problem....
Mike Pence - wants to forbid women from using birth control (note); against raising minimum wage (note); doesn't believe in climate change (source),....
Michele Bachmann - seriously? bizarre; doesn't know the Constitution; doesn't know much about American history.
Ron Paul - nonsensical
Haley Barbour - doesn't remember much about the Civil Rights Movement (note)
John Thune - who??????
Newt Gingrich - three wives? Notified one wife he was divorcing her while she was recovering from cancer surgery; pompous; would rather go on a Mediterranean cruise than talk with voters.....
There you have it!
**** Do you need more evidence that Gov. John Kasich is a complete jerk?
Dispatch:
Gov. John Kasich said he won't have politics on the brain when he tees it up with President Barack Obama on Saturday.
Instead, he'll be thinking about a links triumph over America's golfer in chief.
"Yeah, we're going to try to beat him, of course we are," Kasich said yesterday.....
Kasich, and his pal, Boehner, might beat President Obama on the golf course, but so what?
No matter what happens on the course or the court, we already know that Kasich is a twit, and pompous ass.