John Kasich has been making all sorts of news lately, but probably not the type he wants to be showing up in conservative chat rooms. Kasich has a pretty solid conservative portfolio from years past, and he’s still pushing for lower tax rates at home (in most cases) but even some of his more ardent supporters were shocked when he went on tour promoting Medicaid expansion for Obamacare. He also didn’t do himself any favors when he began dancing on the head of a pin for Common Core. (Wait.. this guy wants to run for President as a Republican?)

But getting back to the Ohio tax rate situation, he’s running into some deficit issues following the cuts in income taxes. So how is he going to resolve that problem? Find more places to cut spending until the cuts stimulate the required economic growth? Nope. He’s going to reach for the brass ring with our old friend… sin taxes.

“You’re not going to get this done by just slashing government spending,” Kasich said.

Kasich also said the fact that Ohio’s cigarette tax isn’t higher is “nonsense.” Earlier this year, Kasich proposed raising cigarette taxes as much as 60 cents per pack as part of a plan to reduce the overall tax burden. Lawmakers stripped the tax out of the off-year budget bill. Kasich said Thursday the only reason cigarette taxes aren’t higher is because of lobbyists.

“Everybody’s going to have to be part of tax reform,” Kasich said. “We have to have a system that encourages economic grown, that allows us to collect the revenue we want.”

The Governor apparently doesn’t follow the news much these days (nor Hot Air, for that matter) because he’s looking to jack up prices in a way which primarily hits the poor and working class voters far more than the wealthy. And as we have shown here repeatedly for years now, higher sin taxes rarely if ever deliver the hoped for increase in revenue, and in some cases actually result in lower revenue as piracy rises.

But apparently Kasich isn’t alone. Perhaps he’s been talking to Sam Brownback, another person with a long standing conservative reputation who has recently seen the big government lights.

Brownback, who was in a tough re-election race in part because of a budget deficit fueled by the tax cuts, recently called for raising cigarette and liquor taxes and slowing planned reductions in the income tax rate to help reduce the shortfall.

Brownback is looking to increase both cigarette and booze taxes to shore up the budget. In this effort, Sam is bringing about some bipartisan cooperation, since both Democrats and Republicans in Kansas are turning a jaundiced eye to the proposal. Brownback was already getting himself into trouble with conservatives when he supported Sarbanes-Oxley, wind farm subsidies and ethanol. Adding in some sin tax love may be the icing on an unpleasant tasting cake.

But hey… with a platform like that, maybe he could be Kasich’s running mate.