Jon Husted and Bill Harris Chair Campaign Against Economic Freedom

Naugblog:Jon Husted and Bill Harris Chair Campaign Against Economic Freedom

From the Naugblog:

From the AP:

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and Republican legislative leaders will fight an effort by payday lenders to repeal restrictive caps on the short-term loans they offer.

Strickland, Senate President Bill Harris and Speaker Jon Husted will serve as honorary co-chairs of a campaign fighting the repeal of Ohio’s new payday lending law. The law restricts annual interest on such loans to 28 percent, versus the 391 percent charged today, and limits consumers to receiving four such loans a year.

Husted and Harris seem to be working on a weekly basis to help Strickland with whatever position he may take on a ballot issue. Just last week, they teamed up to support some silly “Clean Ohio” bond issue. Not to mention they passed Strickland’s budget, Strickland’s energy bill (which is responsible for major rate increases), Strickland’s pork-filled stimulus bill, and countless other pieces of unfortunate legislation.

I know many of my fellow Ohio conservative brethren would like to see someone like John Kasich run for governor and see more principled Republicans in office…. But before any of this can happen, the Ohio GOP’s leadership might want to consider acting like an opposition party first.

Comment: Naugle is correct but unfortunately he offers no solutions. And certainly waiting around for change with the ORP or for John Kasich to take charge is along shot. One obvious way is to band together and for the rank and file to challenge the leadership. And we have to act this summer. Recently we have learned that Kevin DeWine will take over as the party chairman. Does anyone think that this young guy can take on the old entrenched party bosses like Alex Arshinkoff; highly doubtful. Besides, DeWine has proven to be just another in a long line of poor performing conservative imitators.

The time is now Mr. Naugle to support this boycott and show some leadership. We have received minimal assistance and we need Republicans to join on so we can get beyond the boycott and start protesting.

We can sit back, but Ohio has never sunk so low, and we know who has been at the helm…the Republicans.