Whoa! OH GOPer says he earns his pay, Dems don't

Is he nuts?

We're not kidding. Ohio state Rep. Lou Blessing went on the radio to talk about why he's against a pay cut for lawmakers -- you know "shared sacrifice."  Because if Ohio can't afford to maintain the pay for nurses, firefighters, teachers and snowplow drivers, then how Ohio we afford it for legislators?

Blessing's answer: "Because I earn my pay."

Here's the whole quote:

Because it’s not merited. I earn my pay. I think that was just political baloney. So they can say in an ad, `Gee , you know, they didn’t support a pay cut.’ Well, no, I don’t support a pay cut. Republicans earn their money. Apparently Democrats don’t. They feel they should be paid less. That may be true. Maybe we’ll just cut the Democrats’ pay. 

Greg Sargent at the Washington Post writes,

With the Ohio labor referendum coming to a vote in two days — and with the Occupy Wall Street protests continuing — I wanted to point you to something that neatly captures what all this is really about.

In recent weeks, proponents of Governor John Kasich’s law rolling back the bargaining rights of public employees have argued that their sacrifice is necessary for the state’s fiscal health. But labor and Dems have pointed out that some Ohio GOP legislators are not agreeing to a pay cut of their own — so why no shared sacrifice?...

Blessing’s clumsy attempt at sarcasm is awfully revealing. He simply doesn’t think the sacrifices needed to right the state’s finances should fall on himself or fellow GOP legislators. When people say, “Hey, if you’re asking others to give something up to help the state, maybe you should do the same in the name of shared sacrifice,” the rejoinder is nothing but scorn and contempt, as if the idea is plainly ludicrous on its face.

These people really do think they're better. Charming.