As we wait for the new, GOP-controlled Legislature to take office, Kurt Zellers K sends a message via a Strib Op-Ed that the age of the obsequious RINO is over:

The path begins with private-sector job creation. High taxes, mandates, and excessive and redundant regulation are hobbling Minnesota’s business community.

Pro-growth policies that provide incentives for business development and job creation, relief from taxes and regulations, and a freeing of market resources to enhance Minnesota’s competitiveness are needed to jump-start the state’s economy.

Music to my ears.

(Hint, hint, Representative Abeler).

Regulatory reform, a necessity this legislative session, is a common-ground issue for Republicans and Democrats.

Of course, the two sides have different definitions of “reform” – but it’s good to seize the term first.

Here’s the part I find interesting (emphasis added):

Incentives for economic recovery will require sacrifice. With a $6 billion budget deficit, some tough decisions will need to be made. Minnesota families have made changes in their spending habits to live within limited means. It is time for state government to do the same.

Each month Minnesota is spending $200 million more than it takes in. This is not a temporary problem.

Over the next two years, government spending is anticipated to continue to outpace available revenue by 14 percent.

That our DFL-choked government spent too much over this past four years is not a secret – but we know as well as Zellers does that the $6.2 Billion figure was an accounting extrapolation of the out-year budget’s hikes from the 2009 biennium.

So the only reason to use the figure is to…

…hoist the DFL by their own noxious petard.

Especially with a sendoff like this:

Republican leaders find this situation unacceptable and support a sustainable approach to government spending that looks beyond the two-year budget cycle and is grounded in living within our means.

Tax increases are not a viable solution for resolving the short-term budget deficit or stabilizing the structural need for reform.

Words to live by.