Wait...What?

Most of the rationale behind most of the GOP's efforts to downsize government, and to cut spending, and to ease the 'tax burden' has been built around the basic tenet that "the government is broke" - especially the state governments.  So Repubs have been runnin' around making a lot of the usual weird noise about how the voodoo bullshit of Tax-Cuts-Equals-More-Tax-Receipts isn't just a fever dream due to an overuse of Rectum-Derived Statistics (hat tip = Bill Maher).

Anyway, they keep saying they have to fire cops and teachers and firefighters and street maintenance crews, and kill the unions because those rotten unionized workers just cost too darned much.  Every shitty thing they wanna do is because the gubmint don't got da money no mo'.

But then, this headline from Cincinnati.com:

Kasich turns down federal disaster aid

Ohio Gov. John Kasich said thanks but no thanks to immediate federal disaster relief Saturday, even as governors in Indiana and Kentucky welcomed the help.

Kasich did not rule out asking for assistance later, but his decision means tornado-ravaged towns in Ohio will not get federal aid now and are not eligible at this time for potentially millions of dollars in payments and loans.

The governor said Ohio can respond to the crisis without federal help and he would not ask federal authorities to declare the region a disaster area.

Oh, I get it.  The state's too broke to pay a decent wage to people who bust their asses to teach the kids and chase the bad guys and make sure the roads are safe, but there's plenty to go around when a camera hound like Kasich gets a chance at a little national exposure.  And of course, this can't possibly have anything to do with setting himself up for a run at The Oval in 2016, now can it?

The normal scenario here is that Kasich makes the news by "bucking the system" (he's a maverick; a take-charge guy; somebody who knows how to get shit done).  Then once the news cycle has passed and the Press Poodles are chasing the next shiny thing, the feds will come in quietly - "let's not be playin' politics with people's lives, Mr President" - and things will go along as they usually do, even if the help is too late for a few of the poor suckers who're always caught in the middle of this kinda shit; and the only thing that anybody will see or remember or care about is what makes it into the campaign ads or the coverage of Candidate Kasich - that he handled the tornadoes of 2012 like a seasoned executive blah blah blah.  And we can all be pleasantly surprised if the rubes don't just keep swallowing it.