New Mexico governor Susanna Martinez, often thought of as a potential vice-presidential nominee, set up her own state exchange and expanded Medicaid without any objections. Michigan governor Rick Snyder signed a bill increasing the state’s minimum wage, and Scott Walker has been campaigning on a pledge to freeze tuition at Wisconsin universities, a pledge that will require increased state spending to keep the universities going. Governors Walker, Snyder, and Kasich all cut taxes, but they did so in the classic Reaganesque way: by lowering taxes on everyone through the use of increased tax credits or special exemptions in addition to rate cuts so that the benefits would be widely spread and not concentrated at the top. They all eschewed the “broaden the base/lower the rates” approach advocated by establishment types in Washington.

It’s not like these governors have been do-nothing, “me too” types. Scott Walker famously took on the state’s powerful public-sector unions and won. Governor Snyder signed a right-to-work bill, enraging Michigan’s still-powerful autoworkers union. As noted, all cut taxes and limited the growth of spending. None, though, have engaged in the sort of comprehensive government restructuring the establishment economic playbook would recommend.