Sunday, May 1, 2011

The Wealthy Are Suffering. Won't You Please Help?


The Ohio House will probably vote this week on the state's two-year budget. After bingeing on Whip-Its and Jager-Bombs, House Republicans added their two-cents-worth. Among their "improvements":

Permits breweries to hand out free samples. (Very shrewd. The more we drink, the less we pay attention!)

Gives every possible advantage to for-profit charter schools, and encourages their proliferation (even if they're currently fucking up).

Prohibits the Ohio Consumers Council from "taking a position contrary to development of competitive utility markets." Translation: Sit down, shut up, and let utility companies maximize their profits.

And my favorite -- Eliminates Ohio's estate tax. Gone. History. No mas.

Republicans believe the estate tax drives wealthy Ohioans out of the state. And that's just so true, you know. Just a few weeks ago, I was travelling and I encountered a caravan of millionaires fleeing Ohio, bound for Florida. They had circled their limousines and were encamped for the night in hostile Tennessee territory. Such a sad sight.