Scary Ideas That Never Seem To Die, Plus A Few New Creatures

Ghosts, goblins, zombies -- they're all scary. But so are a few ghoulish ideas from right-wing legislators in the General Assembly.

Replacing individual and corporate income taxes with a greatly expanded sales tax. In 2009, state lawmakers considered a proposal that would have eliminated the state's individual and corporate income taxes, and replaced them with a greatly expanded sales tax.  The switch would create a significant tax increase for low and middle income Missourians -- in fact, the only folks who wouldn't pay higher taxes under the new system are the wealthiest 5%.   There's nothing "fair" about this tax at all.

Injecting  more partisanship into judicial selections
Despite their curious inability to give any examples of what's wrong with the current system, right-wing legislators are expected to again try to pass legislation like the competing ballot initiatives to politicize the selection of judges.

Creating new Photo ID requirements for voting
Sadly, there's no sign that Republicans will ever give up their attempts to enact onerous and unnecessary photo id requirements for voting. These efforts have nothing to do with combating voter fraud -- they're all about making it harder for individuals that generally vote for progressive candidates to cast their ballots.

And Two New Super-Duper-Scary Ideas

"Opting out" of federal health care reform
Perhaps shifting his focus from trying to prove that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, Rep. Tim Jones is partnering with Sen. Jane Cunningham to "protect Missourians from federal health care mandates."

Opting out of Medicaid
This is an even scarier idea -- unspecified "Republican House leaders" openly discussed the idea of "'opting out' of Medicaid" with the Joplin Globe editorial board. Say what??! (h/t to Duane Graham)

Image credit: The Fayetteville Observer