Ohio has the dubious distinction of being the laboratory for GOP government. Since the early 80's, the GOP has made it the testing ground for dirty campaign tactics, election stealing and corruption, but its greatest achievement has been using Ohio as the incubator for ideas to destroy democracy and take our country back to the dark ages.
Sadly, the GOP took over state government last night, narrowly electing the disreputable Kasich governor and his slate of statewide candidates. Ohio is now fully in the grip of GOP control.
As goes Ohio, so goes the nation. Want to know what's in store?
Though Kasich only won the governor's office with 49.3% of the vote over Strickland's 46.7%, he's assumed a strong mandate and plans for sweeping reforms.
Never ones to waste time, Kasich has come fully loaded with his own GOP government staff and a detailed policy agenda that he plans to prepare now for enactment as soon as he and his cohorts are sworn in.
Here's a partial GOP laundry list of changes:
- Fix the state budget. Cut taxes, reject any future federal stimulus funding, and restore the final phase of the 21% income tax cut that Strickland had postponed to fund the education budget. And, oh yes, Kasich plans deep cuts in the state education budget.
"We are very interested in starting immediately in terms of revenue numbers, the spending, the whole series of things that budget geeks get into," Kasich said.
- Dismantle the Department of Development and privatize all job creation efforts. I'm guessing they'll want some state taxpayer money to do that.
- Consolidate state agencies from 24 to 11. Not completely drowning government in the bathtub, but close.
- Hold hearings on completely eliminating Ohio's income tax. Just a formality, you know. They're ginning up the legendary GOP campaign money laundering machine.
- Challenge the federal health care law. Apparently our "moderate" former senator Mike DeWine, good buddy of DLC Dems, has plenty of money in his state budget to wage an expensive, protracted legal battle to fight health care reform.
Former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, who defeated Democratic Attorney General Richard Cordray by about 2 percentage points, said his first action will be to join other state attorneys general challenging the new federal health care law. Cordray refused to do so, saying the challenges had no legal merit.
- Overhaul the Apportionment Board. New Secy of State, John Husted, will make sure Dems will lose more Congressional seats. On the downside, Secy of State-elect Husted isn't telling us how he'll reform Ohio's electoral process. Not yet, anyway.
More here
Update: Kasich says "Passenger Rail is Dead". Would have included this in the original list, but story was just published.
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