Speaker Jase Bolger , R-Marshall, announced "guiding principals" focused on trimming government operations and spending, reconfiguring the tax structure and reforming business regulations.

Minority Leader Richard Hammel, D-Flushing, said his caucus will support a new, publicly owned Detroit River span, Hire Michigan First legislation and clean coal power plants.
Bolger said repealing and replacing the Michigan Business Tax and surcharge is a Republican priority. The caucus will vet all tax reform ideas, including Gov. Rick Snyder's proposed 6 percent corporate tax.

The Republicans introduced a repeal of the unpopular business tax surcharge as its first bill of the session Thursday.

"We don't view that as a half-measure, we view that as a head start," Bolger said.

Excuse me?  Did I understand Speaker Bolger correctly?  Republicans don't think they're preforming half-measures?  Certainly any reasonably competent individual in a majority position would see cutting deals of state taxpayers funding yet another scheme in a financially and ethically bankrupt city for reciprocal envirowhacko hostage held real source of electricity votes as a half-measure at best.  But, that's not my main thorn in the side...

Bolger also proposed cuts to the social safety net including a 48-month limit on welfare for able-bodied adults and eliminating the earned income tax credit for the working poor -- moves typically opposed by Democrats.

"We are OK with reforms, but we want to make sure families are taken care of," Hammel said.

Four years of free living?  And it's a "new" limit for sponging off of taxpayers?  OMG, why not just leave out the sign at the border for free loaders.  This is not a hand up, it is a hand out and definitely not motivational for the "able-bodied adult" to get off his or her duff and be responsible for their existence nor is it leadership by either side of the beltway.

Here's the problem.  If it hasn't dawned on those in this dependency riddled state that there is a reason other states are not suffering like we do then allow me to toss this out for discussion.  Our elected in Lansing seemingly have difficulties dealing with a $1.8 billion deficit.  Well, they're pikers in comparison to the state that has gained four congressional seats in Washington and they are going to whack away a $15 billion deficit.

The state comptroller announced Monday that the Texas Legislature will have roughly $8 billion less to spend in the next budget than it did in the last. The state will also be missing $7 billion in federal stimulus dollars it spent in the last budget. To make matters worse, state agencies have said they need an additional $12 billion just to maintain existing state services.

So if lawmakers want to maintain the status quo, they need to raise nearly $27 billion, roughly a third of all discretionary spending.

Other states with huge budget problems, such as California and Illinois, are looking at tax increases, but in the Lone Star State, where frontier self-sufficiency is exalted, the shortfall is another occasion to cut the budget. Every two years, in good economic times or bad, many state legislators pledge to cut spending, and they take those promises seriously.

"I don't think it's the end of the world," Gov. Rick Perry said in an interview after the new figures were released. "I think we have a budget of $76.5 billion and we're going to live with that. . . . It's only a budget hole when somebody has wished that they had more money."

Amen Governor!  Music to my ears...

But some legislators worried that, in a state that prides itself on having a minimal safety net, this year's cuts could go too far.

"There is a disconnect with reality," said Rep. Garnet Coleman, a Houston Democrat. "This Legislature and this state government have always been efficient, and I'll add to that, we're very tight."

A Democrat said that?  My surprised look...

Facing a similar crisis in 2003, state agency heads told lawmakers they were no longer cutting fat, but cutting muscle. In 2009, they said lawmakers were cutting into the bone.

Texas spends less per resident than any other state. It scores among the bottom five states in spending on public education, higher education, and health care. For most Texans between 18 and 50 who do not have a child at home, food stamps are limited to three months in a three-year period.

Whaaaa... the "able-bodied adults" only being able to mooch from the government teat for three months?  And, people are flocking to Texas in droves?  Pinch me, I'm dreaming!

But the gap is substantial. The state could cut all spending on natural resources, public safety, criminal justice and the judiciary and still not have enough to cover a $27 billion shortfall. Cutting that much from the Health and Human Services Commission, which handles Medicare and Medicaid, would eliminate state funding to the agency entirely.

The Legislature making the choices increased its Republican majorities in the recent midterm election.  Republicans currently hold a 101-49 supermajority in the state House, a majority in the state Senate and Perry, a Republican, has appointed the senior leadership in every state agency.

Perry has promised there will be no new taxes, and other lawmakers know that pledge is a winning strategy in Texas. Perry won an unprecedented third term in November, and the tea party helped win Republicans their first supermajority since Reconstruction by espousing libertarian values.

Texas is also a place where the constitution forbids both a budget deficit and an income tax, limiting what lawmakers can actually do. But that doesn't mean voters don't want any state assistance for the young and needy.

In a poll by Texas's five major newspapers released Sunday, registered voters said they opposed any new taxes, but also opposed any cuts to public education or health spending.

"No one should govern on their rhetoric because that's how you get really bad public policy," Coleman added. "There are 101 Republicans and if 101 Republicans want to slash and burn, that's what they will do."

Lansing should learn some accounting skills from Texas.