First they decide not to back Governor
Kasich’s income tax cut proposal despite the fact that it will put an
additional $500 million back into taxpayers and small businesses hands. I
understand their concern with keeping Ohio competitive, but even with Kasich’s
proposal in place our severance taxes would maintain Ohio’s advantage over
other states.
Bytor goes into more detail here but it’s important to recognize that this
is a reasonable request by the Governor that should be enacted by the
legislature. If you need more convincing just check with the Columbus
Chamber and Columbus Partnership, both have encouraged the legislature to support
this plan.
Next they insert very vague
language into the MBR designed to de-fund Planned Parenthood. Again, good
intentions for the pro-life crowd but this language was so poorly worded that
it could have potentially restricted a massive amount of funding to hospitals
and welfare centers that provide services to the poor.
Thankfully they realized how poor this
language was and pulled it yesterday before a vote was
held. However, that still gave plenty of political ammunition for
Democrats to repeatedly beat Republicans over the head with. All we
did with this effort was give Democrats another talking point to use against us
in the fall.
Now some are suggesting that we spend the surplus that they, and Governor
Kasich, have worked so hard to build. Throwing another $30 million to
nursing homes is exactly the type of thinking that got us into an $8 billion
hole in the first place.
Fortunately, Governor Kasich recognizes
this and has already said no to additional spending. In remarks yesterday
to the Toledo Regional Chamber, Kasich said: “I want to let you all know, they
can pass whatever they want to in the legislature, we’re not spending the
surplus.” “We’re not going back to $8 billion in the hole.”
House Republicans have a lot to be proud
of; they have fixed the deficit and helped create jobs across Ohio. With
their support, Ohio has turned a corner and is back on track.
As I said before, I know that their
intentions are good but I think it's possible we've lost sight of the big
picture lately. I hope they will move away from ill-advised legislation and
ideas and get back to what has been working, creating jobs.
Nailed it.
ReplyDeleteThe House is turning into what we thought we voted out in 2010.
(actually, Anonymous #2)
ReplyDeleteNo. You nailed it, #1.
House Republicans are fearful of being in lock-step with Kasich. They are very afraid still of the repercussions of Issue 2 and want to be able to say, look we are not on board with all of Kasich's policies. Look at congressional democrates and how being a rubber stamp for Pelosi was used to annihilate them.
ReplyDeleteI think this will changes as JK's popularity continues to increase. I don't blame them totally, but I do think House Repubs have overread the results of issue 2, I think voters were against some parts of it and voted it down. The same election the Anti-Obamahcare vote was just as strong.
At the end of the day, republicans think they can please voters at home by spending. Bad politics, bad policy.
ReplyDeleteKasich ought to drive the bus over some of these lobbyists representing rich industries alone without regard to taxpayers. Otherwise, they will lose the election for him, not issue 2 no matter how ill conceived it was. He's creating jobs, a more efficient government, and he's asking for sensible oil and banking reform. So get the heck on board!
ReplyDelete