Republicans don't like Senate budget offer

Republicans are whining about the Senate's latest budget offer, in which the Senate accepts part of Pawlenty's cigarette tax increase and puts forward their income tax increase. Pawlenty and Sviggum say it's a non-starter, job-killer, David Strom told us to do it, blah blah blah. They also says it's not a fair offer, which I don't get: the Senate accepted part of Pawlenty's tax (hopefully) in exchange for their tax being part of the mix. That sounds like compromise.

The key sentence in the Star Tribune story is this: "DFLers are opposed to Republican proposals for cuts in health-care programs for some 30,000 to 40,000 low-income workers, and DFLers favor a K-12 education plan with more in state spending and less reliance on property taxes than Republicans want." That about sums it up: Democrats are opposed to taking health care away from workers, and want the richest citizens of the state to pay their fair share in taxes instead of piling more taxes on the middle class. Republicans want what? To hose the working poor and make the tax system even more unfair? That's their plan?

I'm still waiting for somebody with gonads to ask Pawlenty whether he thinks the current tax system, where the wealthiest pay less than the middle class, is fair.