The GOP’s stubborn refusal to close frivolous tax loopholes is receiving flak from an unexpected corner. This morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Ohio Gov. John Kasich scoffed at the GOP’s unwillingess to “be a leader” in the debt ceiling negotiations.

Aghast that the GOP would push “caps and gimmicks” to address the debt, he demanded to know whether the GOP would “put [its] head in the sand” and “let America default?” “You gotta be kidding me,” he exclaimed, pushing Republicans to get a debt deal “in the middle.” When asked by columnist Mike Barnicle whether he’d consider closing loopholes in order to avoid tax increases, Kasich said “Yeah! There’s enough in that [federal tax] code” to seriously address the deficit:

BARNICLE: Closing loopholes..

KASICH: Great!

BARNICLE: Closing loopholes would provide you with enough revenue, widen the revenue stream, that you wouldn’t have to go to tax increases.

KASICH: Yeah I think there’s enough in that code.

BARNICLE: If you really go after it.

KASICH: If you really do it. And here’s the thing, when you do that, that ought to come a little later. Because I’ll tell you what Congress will do. Republicans blew the big surplus, Joe! They went on a spending binge we couldn’t believe it, after 2000!

Watch it:

In this instance, Kasich is correct. As Center for American Progress’s Seth Hanlon and Michael Ettlinger note, there’s more than $1 trillion of wasteful spending hidden in the federal tax code to go after. These include billions in subsidies to highly profitable oil and gas industry, a tax loophole or hedge fund managers, and tax breaks for horse breeders, for corporate meals and entertainment, for vacation homes and yachts, and for corporate jets. Those tax breaks alone would save taxpayers more than $75 billion over the next ten years.

Incidentally, Kasich’s new found sense of national leadership doesn’t seem to apply to Ohio. Since taking office in January, he has slashed and burned vital public programs in his budget while cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy. If Kasich preaches a rational approach on the national stage, perhaps he should practice it in his state.

Will Brown defend the welfare of his state's children by closing the "Amazon Tax Loophole"?

Now, the provision is sitting on the desk of California Gov. Jerry Brown (D), who has to decide whether he will approve it or veto it. As of Friday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that lawmakers who are pushing for ending the tax loophole currently are unsure of what Brown will do.

As the Associated Press reports today, ending the online sales tax loophole nationwide could bring in $23 billion of revenue annually. In California, ending this loophole for just one retailer — Amazon.com — would bring in enough revenue to reverse the state’s cuts to child welfare services:

State governments across the country are laying off teachers, closing public libraries and parks, and reducing health care services, but there is one place they could get $23 billion a year if they could only agree how to do it: Internet retailers such as Amazon.com. That’s enough to pay for the salaries of more than 46,000 teachers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In California, the amount of uncollected taxes from Amazon sales alone is roughly the same amount cut from child welfare services in the current state budget.

Amazon has previously responded to legislative efforts to close the tax loophole by threatening to cut ties to affiliates in the state of California. Some estimates say that California could collect as much as $1.1 billion annually from online retailers if it closed the online sales tax loophole.

Large online retailers like Overstock.com and Amazon.com have exploited a loophole in state tax codes to avoid paying sales taxes. As ThinkProgress has reported, this brazen tax dodging has cost states across the country hundreds of millions of dollars in desperately needed revenue. Last month in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) vetoed legislation, passed by a bipartisan majority in the state Legislature, to end the loophole.

However, Republicans in the Legislature have struck back at Amazon.com lobbyists and are circumventing Perry’s veto. State Rep. John Otto (R) added an amendment to a “must-pass” spending bill restoring language to the tax code that would end the Internet sales tax loophole. Perry’s allies in the legislature moved to table the Otto amendment, only to be rebuked by a landside vote:

Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, filed an amendment to strip the language from SB 1, but his provision did not survive a spirited debate in the House, where members voted 106-34 to table it. [...] The fiscal matters bill still has to pass the House, and then likely would have to go back to the Senate for approval. If the online sales tax-related language from Otto survives that process, Perry would have to veto the entire fiscal matters bill to remove it.

The success of the Otto amendment to close the loophole shows the growing bipartisan support for ending corporate welfare and other tax giveaways. As Otto explained during the debate over his amendment, the effort has less to do with “raising taxes” and is actually about creating a “level playing field” with other “retailers who are competing against these companies.” Tax fairness creates a better business environment, and it strengthens the state’s finances.

Earlier this year, Texas Comptroller Susan Combs filed a report showing that Amazon.com’s exploitation of the loophole has cost the state $269 million in sales taxes it failed to collect from 2005 to 2009. As Texas struggles with a large deficit, Perry has moved to slash education, health, and other vital services.