[Satadru]

Well, well...who voted for this idiot anyways. Why is it that politicians would rather raise taxes than cut spending? If Medicare is draining money out of the state budget, then why doesn't he cut Medicare? I bet he doesn't because then his political career will end sooner than usual. It is time to vote out all politicians who like to stay in power at the taxpayer's expense.

[William McKinley]

That sound you hear, that resembles a locomotive going over some really old and worn rails?

That's the sound of Taft's dad and grandfather spinning in their graves.

[dalebert]

CUT SPENDING

[GraniteStateConservative]

It's conservative lore that Reagan the icon cut taxes, while George H.W. Bush the renegade raised them. As Stockman recalls, "No one was authorized to talk about tax increases on Ronald Reagan's watch, no matter what kind of tax, no matter how justified it was." Yet raising taxes is exactly what Reagan did. He did not always instigate those hikes or agree to them willingly--but he signed off on them. One year after his massive tax cut, Reagan agreed to a tax increase to reduce the deficit that restored fully one-third of the previous year's reduction. (In a bizarre bit of self-deception, Reagan, who never came to terms with this episode of ideological apostasy, persuaded himself that the three-year, $100 billion tax hike--the largest since World War II--was actually "tax reform" that closed loopholes in his earlier cut and therefore didn't count as raising taxes.)

Faced with looming deficits, Reagan raised taxes again in 1983 with a gasoline tax and once more in 1984, this time by $50 billion over three years, mainly through closing tax loopholes for business. Despite the fact that such increases were anathema to conservatives--and probably cost Reagan's successor, George H.W. Bush, reelection--Reagan raised taxes a grand total of four times just between 1982-84.

Reagan continued these "modest rollbacks" in his second term. The historic Tax Reform Act of 1986, though it achieved the supply side goal of lowering individual income tax rates, was a startlingly progressive reform. The plan imposed the largest corporate tax increase in history--an act utterly unimaginable for any conservative to support today. When Reagan's conservative acting chief economic adviser, William Niskanen, was apprised of the plan he replied, "Walter Mondale would have been proud."

[spald]

"...The budget also is expected to call for continuing the tobacco and alcohol tax increases..."

Taft wants to DOUBLE the alcohol tax in Ohio and increase state gasoline tax by 6 cents per gallon.

[hedley]

Help get Taft OUT OF OUR POCKETS.Contact your rep. as soon as you can to stop this clown.
Isn't funny how the outlook for Ohio's budget got so much worse after this idiot was re-elected?
To use the threat of education cuts as leverage to get his money is in my opinion nothing less than extortion!