Strickland speaks — like a Republican

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland gave the Democratic Party’s national radio address on Saturday. You can find audio of it here.

The speech was a fairly bread-and-butter Democratic critique of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, and a spirited boost of Democrat Barack Obama.

As far as I could tell, there was absolutely nothing new in the speech.

Obama and McCain are different, for sure. But it’s interesting how the Democrat essentially has adopted Republican logic: namely, that tax cuts are good.

Strickland, speaking approvingly of Obama’s economic plans, said in his speech that “If you make less than $250,000, you won’t see your taxes go up one single dime.  In fact, your tax rates will be lower than they were under Ronald Reagan.”

When Democrats and Republicans fall over themselves to cut taxes, they send a unified message to Americans: paying for government is bad.

Democrats, who support expanded government programs, should be pro-tax as well. But they aren’t, because they see that position as politically untenable. State Rep. Matt Lundy, D-Elyria, has vowed not to vote for any new taxes, for instance.

Strickland announced last month that the state needed to make $540 million in cuts. He said he didn’t want to raise taxes, but that it would be irresponsible to rule out such hikes.

Right. So what does Lundy do when his governor asks him to vote for a tax increase? And what do they tell Ohioans, when the leaders of both their parties, McCain and Obama, agree that taxes generally are bad?