Kasich Cabal Put's it to Ohio's Middle Class

"Gang of Seven"

While they are still in office, Ohio governor, John Kasich,  and his Republican cohorts in the Legislature  are making an all-out effort to redistribute wealth by taking from the middle class and giving to the the wealthy and empowering private corporations while emasculating government agencies.

And why are we surprised? John Kasich and many of the Republicans who came to power in 2010  are puppets of the Koch brothers and are proposing and passing legislation written for them by ALEC, a Koch creation which writes corporate-friendly legislation for state Republican politicians to push through their legislatures.

The latest example in Ohio is a last-minute (one of their tactics) tax-cut plan which is part of a new $61.7 billion budget. The Toledo Blade describes the plan as one "that would reward their party's wealthy constituents while imposing new burdens on middle-class, working-class, and poor Ohioans."

The Ohio GOP tax plan is very simple: raise the Ohio sales tax rate in order to slash the income tax. In addition, it would scale back future local property tax rebates to compensate for the money lost as a result of the income tax cut.

This budget, and similar state budgets based on the Koch Brothers' model, is the latest assault on the middle class and working class Americans, and is a continuation of the redistribution of wealth initiated by the Reagan Administration.The graduated income tax is based on the ability to pay; a sales tax is the meat cleaver approach to taxation -- tax everyone the same regardless of their ability to pay. If a working mother wants to purchase a new blanket for her infant daughter, she pays the same rate as Donald Trump does when he purchases a yacht the size of some small countries. It takes no genius to understand that reducing the income tax and raising the sales tax is moving our wealth from the middle class to the wealthy class. But don't the wealthy deserve it? After all, they threw tons of money at Kasich and the other GOP politicians. (Today GOP is not the Grand Old Party, it is the Good Old Pawns, or perhaps, the Good Old Puppets?)

As the Cincinnati Enquirer said of the state budget:

"This new $2.6 billion tax package will increase the sales tax to 5.75 percent [...] This means every time you go to the store and buy necessities for your family, your bill will be higher so that wealthy Ohioans can get out of paying their fair share in taxes. The state of Ohio should not be funding income tax cuts for the rich with tax increases that will disproportionately hurt the middle class."

And, as usual, the GOP  budget socks it to senior citizens. The budget limits homestead property tax exemptions to senior households that earn less than $30,000 a year. God forbid that middle class senior citizens get a break. It's all about moving their money to the wealthy class.

In addition, we now learn that these all-knowing white males slipped in unconstitutional restrictions on abortions at the last minute. (What does that have to do with a state budget, you may ask. Absolutely nothing, but it does reveal the arrogance of the Kasich Cabal: we do it because we can.)

Most recently we learn that they also slipped in a  juicy carrot for their big business contributors. Buried in the state budget somewhere is a provision that "local cities and townships can now meet  secretly behind closed doors to discuss economic development deals with businesses...." (The Toledo Blade, 7/8/13)  So much for openness and transparency! Ohio is now open to back-room deals that the citizens will never be informed of.

Apparently,  the Ohio GOP strategy is quite simple: we are going to to assuage the evangelical Christians zealots by throwing them a carrot or two (the abortion provision) but the main game is to do the bidding of the Koch Brothers and our wealthy contributors.