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Remember the phrase “Social Security Lock Box” that Al Gore was so fond of when he ran for president in 2000? And how Democrats ever since then have spoken of the evils of mortgaging future benefits in exchange for addressing the issues that face us today?

Well today in his first State of the State Address, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland just raided Ohio’s lockbox like a pirate come ashore.

Strickland proposed today during his speech at the Statehouse that the State “securitze” the tobacco settlement funds for approximately $5 billion and use that money to underwrite the expense of new school construction and to offest a property tax reduction for Ohio’s seniors. In essence what he wants to do is build new school buildings (for a shrinking student population) at the risk of not being able to pay for the huge number of tobacco-related illnesses that we will see in the future.

It was called the “TOBACCO SETTLEMENT” for a reason Governor, and that reason was not to give tax breaks and build schools.

Oh, by the way didn’t Ken Blackwell propose doing something like this with the state’s turnpike system for which he was villified? Interesting how his proposal posed no risks to paying for the state’s fuure healthcare burden… I guess the only time it’s OK to liquidate a state asset is when a liberal does it.

Strickland didn’t finished his raping and pillaging of our state’s future with the tobacco money.

No, he also wants to get rid of the state voucher program (although Cleveland’s means-tested prgram will be allowed to continue… I guess that our schools are so bad that even in the eyes of a socialist school choice may be the only answer). Apparently parents trapped in lousy school districts who give a damn about their children’s future don’t have the right to seek better educational opportunities for their kids.

But eliminating vouchers isn’t enough for Ohio’s new Lenin.

The new Supreme Leader, err Chairman, err comrade, governor (who has been in the pocket of the state’s teachers’ unions since the beginning) has been annointed in the oils of the “more money equals better public schools” dogma of the OEA. So he’s certainly not going to allow someone other than the state to educate our children. That’s why as an accompaniement to his we know how to raise your kids better than you plan also includes outlawing the right of private for-profit entities to own and operate charter schools in the state (something tells me that David Brennan and his White Hat Management cohorts are not going to just pack up their erasers and go quietly).

Thank God he said he didn’t want those Iraqi refugees coming here, they might have ended up in some Southeastern Ohio Gulag strip mining by hand.

The next few months should be very interesting as we see how strong Bill Batchelder and the conservatives in the state legislature will be in thwarting the tide of socialistic plans laid out in “Trotsky Ted”’s new budget.