

Cell phone footage of tornado damage to Moscow, Ohio, March 2, 2012.

Despite the Republicans' continual insistance that climate change isn't a real phenomenon, the tornado season started a full month earlier than most years in the Midwest. To date, there have been 46 confirmed deaths.

Wide swaths of the Midwest have been destroyed, leaving American people to pick up the battered pieces of their lives and rebuild.

But Governor John Kasich has just made it that much harder for Ohioans to do just that:

Ohio Gov. John Kasich said thanks but no thanks to immediate federal disaster relief Saturday, even as governors in Indiana and Kentucky welcomed the help. Kasich did not rule out asking for assistance later, but his decision means tornado-ravaged towns in Ohio will not get federal aid now and are not eligible at this time for potentially millions of dollars in payments and loans. The governor said Ohio can respond to the crisis without federal help and he would not ask federal authorities to declare the region a disaster area. “I believe that we can handle this,” Kasich said while visiting a shelter for storm victims at New Richmond High School. “We’ll have down here all the assets of the state.” Clermont County Commissioner Bob Proud said he is confident the state can handle cleanup in hard-hit areas, such as Moscow. But he said federal help might be needed in the near future, especially with temporary housing for residents.

Just more proof for all those Ohio Republicans now looking at utter destruction of their homes and their property that elections do have consequences. Hope they remember that in November.