Dennis and Stephene MooreHarry Truman once said: "If you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog."

The same thing could be said for Topeka. And Yoder, who is preparing to battle Stephene Moore in the general election for the 3rd District Kansas Congressional seat being vacated by Stephene Moore's husband, is looking out for #1.

You see, his campaign this year is for a job in Washington, D.C., where people are up in arms over deficit spending, the stimulus bill and Obamacare. He would be politically weakened if he helped raise taxes in Topeka this spring. The Tea Party would throw a fit. And keeping the Republican base happy on federal issues is smart politics this year. Democrat Stephene Moore has never raised anybody's taxes, and Yoder can't go into the general election being the only tax-raiser in the field.

So Yoder is doing the right thing politically for him. But his colleagues who are going along with his program of more budget cuts for Kansas schools, prisons, roads and social services are taking an unwise gamble, in my view, by sticking with Yoder's slash and burn budget plan.

If Yoder and other House leaders are successful in blocking any and all tax increases this legislative session, more draconian budget cuts will be coming, and the cuts will hit the fan all summer and next fall, as state House members are running for reelection back home.

And back home is where the schools are suffering, where the judicial system is shutting down on certain days, where highways are going to deteriorate, and where there are a lot of unhappy voters who finally woke up and realized that this budget crisis was affecting their health, safety and checkbook.

And an increasing number of voters (not just school board, county commission, and city council members) are realizing that legislators like Yoder are simply offloading the dirty work of raising taxes on local units of government, which results in the most unpopular tax increase of all: local property tax increases.

I might be wrong about this. It might be that the smart thing for Republican state legislators to do is what they always do: never, ever raise taxes. But I live in a small town, and see lots of people every day in my law practice, at the grocery store, and on the street corner. And this is the first election cycle I can remember when a critical mass of Kansas voters are willing to bite the bullet and pay more taxes rather than watch schools, roads and law enforcement deteriorate further. The budget cuts hit small towns disproportionately, so maybe my reading on this is overstated.

If Democrats continue to recruit good House candidates, especially in rural areas,
those Republican House members who joined in Yoder's gamble may get burned. They may be cleaning out their desks after November 2, and spending a long winter of discontent as they watch the 2011 session from the sidelines.

Stephene Moore with her husband Dennis and their grandchildren