My response to the Indiana state legislative survey for 2012

(Items 1-9 were asking for my name and address, I have not included that here)

10. Do you support the elimination of township government?

Yes


11. Would you support a Right to Work law in Indiana, meaning that a worker cannot be required to join a labor union or pay labor union fees in order to get or keep a job?

No


12. Do you support eliminating township boards and transferring their fiscal authority to the county?

Yes

13. Do you think that we need to reduce the sentences for non-violent criminal offenders due to the fact that we have limited space in our prisons?

Yes


14. Do you believe that providing tax incentives to new and expanding businesses is a good strategy for increasing employment opportunities available to Hoosier workers?

No

15. Do you support Indiana Attorney General’s legal challenge to Pres. Obama’s federal health care law (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) that requires all citizens to either have health insurance or face a tax for noncompliance?

No

16. A legislator has filed a legal challenge against the fines levied on legislators who walked out during the 2011 legislative session. Do you support fining legislators who do not attend session for an extended period of time which prevents legislative work from being done?

No

17. Have you accessed the online video of House proceedings on the Internet?

No

In response to,

Items 10 and 12: Township level government is a relic from many years ago. It does not serve the taxpayers to fund several layers of bureaucracy below the level of city government.

Item 11 is a thinly veiled attack on workers. Specifically living wages and health insurance. There's nothing that the State of Indiana can do to attack overtime pay and clean air and clean water laws since the federal government and the EPA is in charge of that. The national Republican party is hard at work to convince people it's their constitutional right to drink poisoned water and choke on smog.

To quote George Carlin: “You know what they [the wealthy] want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paper work and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly s---ier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the moment you go to collect it. And now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something. They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you sooner or later ‘cause they own this f-----g place.”

Item 13: Under the laws of the State of Indiana, someone with a small amount of marijuana can conceivably do less prison time than someone convicted of first degree murder. Again, largely the result of "tough on crime" Republicans. I saw a study a few days ago that said that by the time an American is 23 years old, they have a 1 in 3 chance of being arrested (not necessarily convicted). This is due to the police state that your Republican party has created where minor nonviolent offenses can get the state to lock you up and throw away the key (or let you out and brand you for life so you can never go to school, get a good job, and are more likely to re-offend). Thanks for that. :)

Item 14: Another failed Republican strategy. Give tax cuts to things like Walmart stores which can't possibly locate anywhere outside the area they serve. Even if the business is less predatory in nature, it has been repeatedly shown that the companies tend to pack up, fire everyone, and leave as soon as the corporate welfare from the Republicans has stopped raining down on them.

You're probably quite well aware that individial Indiana residents get stuck with the bill for corporations that are addicted to corporate welfare such as tax breaks and low minimum wage laws.

15. No, I don't support the state lawsuit against the healthcare reform bill. The Medicaid expansion and low income and middle class subsidies will guarantee that Indiana residents pay less and get higher quality coverage than the "Healthy Indiana Plan" which I call "I Can't Believe It's Not Insurance, from Ditch Mitch". :)

Item 16: The Republicans run this state like a dictatorship and it's like Christmas every day for the corrupt special interest groups on your watch. I don't see that the Indiana Democrats had any other choice than to walk out. The Republicans are running this place like the Soviet Kremlin.