This is Who They Are.

Ohio governor puts libertarian ideology into practice:

Kasich turns down federal disaster aid

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.

John Kasich, a man said to have presidential aspirations, would rather do a little political grandstanding than allow the federal government to help the people of his state in a time of tragedy. Never mind that the good people of Ohio pay in to the federal disaster relief program with their income taxes and are absolutely entitled to receive funds from it. No, Kasich would rather burnish his anti-government bona fides than do the sensible, practical, moral thing. Your house got knocked down? You have nothing left? Too bad, I'd rather thumb my nose at Washington than allow you to get help rebuilding.

Apparently, he's been listening to Ron Paul:

Ron Paul: No federal tornado aid

• 03/05/12 at 12:30pm 

Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul said he doesn’t think the federal government should help. “The people who live in tornado alley, just as I live in hurricane alley, they should have insurance,” Paul said
“There is no such thing as federal money,” Paul said, on the show, according to the National Journal. “Federal money is just what they steal from the states and steal from you and me.”
He also said FEMA has led to nothing but “frustration and anger.”

Okay, if the Federal Government has "stolen" this money from the states and the people, why would you object to getting some of it back?  How does it help anything to refuse needed money that, according to you, belongs to the people anyway? Do you not see the flaw in your logic here? Also, does it really need to be pointed out that the "frustration and anger" at FEMA is based on the perception that they haven't done ENOUGH to help in recent disasters?
And I'm quite sure that most people in tornado alley do have insurance, but the deductibles on these policies generally run in to several tens of thousands of dollars before the insurance companies begin to pay a dime. If, like most people, you don't have 25 or 50 thousand dollars in the bank, your insurance policy isn't going to do you a lot of good.

This is who these people are. When they talk about "small government," this is what they mean. They don't mind a government large enough to force trans-vaginal ultrasounds on unwilling women. they have no problem with a government big enough to tell people who they can marry. They don't mind a government big enough to invade every country in the world where a Muslim looks at us funny. They only want government to be small in areas where it it might help people.

Because the whole point of tea-party libertarian, small-government conservatism is the fear that somehow, somewhere someone might be getting over on them. Their world-view is based on the resentment they feel when they think that someone might be getting something paid for by their tax dollars. They have no problem with their tax dollars being used to hurt someone, like, say an Iraqi civilian or an Occupy protestor, they just can't stand the thought that someone might be getting helped at their expense.
For some reason, the fact that the government funnels billions of their tax dollars to companies like Haliburton or Blackwater, but if some farmer in Illinois gets help rebuilding his house at their expense, it's time to put on the pointy hat and throw tea in the fucking harbor!