A very sad thing happened on the floor of the Arizona state House on Wednesday.  From the Associated Press:  "Republican Rep. Steve Smith on Wednesday said the prayer offered by Democratic Rep. Juan Mendez of Tempe at the beginning of the previous day's floor session wasn't a prayer at all. So he asked other members to join him in a second daily prayer in 'repentance,' and about half the 60-member body did so. Both the Arizona House and Senate begin their sessions with a prayer."

According to Rep. Mendez, who identifies as atheist, "'I wanted to find a way to where I could convey some message and take advantage of the opportunity that people have when they offer these prayers,' he said. 'If my lack of religion doesn't give me the same opportunity to engage in this platform then I feel kind of disenfranchised. So I did want to stand up and offer some kind of thing that represented my view on what's going on.'"

Fellow Democratic state Rep. Jamescita Peshlakai was far more outraged by Smith's attack on Mendez' beliefs.  "'I want to remind the House and my colleagues and everybody here that several of us here are not Christianized. I'm a traditional Navajo, so I stand here every day and participate in prayers,' even without personally embracing them, said Peshlakai, D-Cameron. 'This is the United States, this is America, and we all represent different people ... and you need to respect that. Your God is no more powerful than my God. We all come from the same creator.'"

Yesterday, North Carolina Senate Republicans unveiled a multi-billion dollar tax bill, whose centerpiece is a massive tax break for the state's richest earners.  The GOP plan would cut the top income tax bracket nearly in half, "to 4.5 percent from the current 7.75 percent."  To pay for it, "A married couple with two children making $30,000 a year would pay an estimated $1,000 more in taxes each year, according to a calculator on a political website designed to support the plan." [emphasis added]

That's because the plan expands state taxes to include "Social Security," "prescription drugs and food," and "nearly 170 types of services" that aren't presently taxed - including legal, accounting, and doctors' visits.  Most of these new taxes will fall heaviest on low-income families and small businesses who can't afford, for instance, to hire their own in-house attorneys and accountants.

The plan also throws salt in the wounds of almost 500,000 working North Carolinians, who won't get access to affordable health insurance because GOP legislators already rejected Obamacare's Medicaid expansion.  Thanks to the GOP's new health care taxes, coverage will be even more impossible for these families to afford, and most of them now also be hit with that thousand-dollar tax hike.