Kansas Shows What Happens If Far Right In Charge
[su_right_ad]Sam Brownback became governor of Kansas in 2010. His already Republican legislature moved further right in the 2012 elections. The results of the types of policies that the right wing of the Republican Party has long advocated but rarely been able to enact are coming in:
By June of 2014, the results of Brownback’s economic reforms began to come in, and they weren’t pretty. During the first fiscal year that his plan was in operation, which ended in June, the tax cuts had produced a staggering loss in revenue—$687.9 million, or 10.84 percent. According to the nonpartisan Kansas Legislative Research Department, the state risks running deficits through fiscal year 2019. Moody’s downgraded the state’s credit rating from AA1 to AA2; Standard & Poor’s followed suit, which will increase the state’s borrowing costs and further enlarge its deficit.
Brownback had also promised that his tax cuts would vault Kansas ahead of its higher-taxed neighbors in job growth, but that, too, failed to happen. In Kansas, jobs increased by 1.1 percent over the last year, compared with 3.3 percent in neighboring Colorado and 1.5 percent in Missouri. From November to May, Kansas had actually lost jobs, and the labor participation rate was lower than when Brownback took office. The cuts did not necessarily slow job growth, but they clearly did not accelerate it. And the effects of Brownback’s education cuts were also glaring—larger class sizes, rising fees for kindergarten, the elimination of arts programs, and laid-off janitors and librarians.
Brownback is now in trouble in one of the reddest states in the country. This result should be used when any candidate proposes draconian cuts in services and shrinking of government.[su_csky_ad]
arc99 September 30th, 2014 at 1:01 pm
Naturally, when confronted with his failure, Gov. Brownback resorted to the standard right wing fall-back strategy, e.g. a metaphorical equivalent of BENGHAZI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When states like North Dakota are doing well, it is despite the President. When states like the very red Kansas are faltering, it is because of the President.
Hopefully everyone is now clear on the concept of the “party of personal responsibility”. Republican screw-ups are the personal responsibility of the President.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article348062/Brownback-Obama-blame-game-as-Kansas-bond-rating-is-cut-amid-revenue-shortfall.html
Brownback blames the national economic climate and President Obama’s policies for the shortfall.
“What we are seeing today is the effect of tax increases implemented by the Obama administration that resulted in lower income tax payments and a depressed business environment,” Brownback said in a statement.
“The failed economic policies of the Obama administration are affecting states throughout the nation. It is more important than ever that we continue our focus on growing jobs and creating a business-friendly environment that benefits Kansans,” Brownback said.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article348062/Brownback-Obama-blame-game-as-Kansas-bond-rating-is-cut-amid-revenue-shortfall.html#storylink=cpy
tracey marie September 30th, 2014 at 1:25 pm
their stupidity and willfull ignorance is astounding.
tiredoftea September 30th, 2014 at 1:26 pm
It is exceeded only by their hubris.
SteveD September 30th, 2014 at 3:47 pm
It’s an absolute rule of economics that a monetarily non-sovereign entity such as Kansas cannot survive long-term without money coming in from outside its borders. Like Kansas, you and I are monetarily non-sovereign. To survive long term, we must have income. We could not survive by paying taxes to ourselves.
Similarly, no city, county or state in America can survive long term by taxing itself.
The long term survival of any monetarily non-sovereign government requires money coming in from outside its borders. North Dakota “survives” by exporting (i.e. importing dollars). Long term, most of the American States can only survive by having a positive balance of payments with the federal government.
The larger the federal domestic deficit, the healthier are the states. The economic formula is: Federal Deficits + Net Exports = Private Saving (Income).
(Of course private banks create dollars by lending. Actually, banks create most of the dollars. But these all are temporary dollars. However, when the loans are repaid, those bank dollars disappear. The only permanent dollars come from federal deficit spending.)
mea_mark September 30th, 2014 at 1:14 pm
The best thing Kansas has done for the nation was to clearly show, here in the states, how horrible austerity and the economic plans of the far right really are. Apparently the austerity in Europe and its failures was just to far away for Americans to understand and relate to. Now we can proudly look at our own failures and begin to understand that when you cut back on spending, everybody has to cut back on spending and the economy begins to collapse.
tiredoftea September 30th, 2014 at 1:23 pm
“This result should be used when any candidate proposes draconian cuts in services and shrinking of government.” They haven’t learned this lesson since Reagan! Now, Laffer’s flawed thesis has, again, been proven wrong. It is the definition of lunacy, but it’s the perfect economic model from the lunatic fringe.
tracey marie September 30th, 2014 at 1:24 pm
Wisconsin is another example, walker cut taxes to corporations and the wealthy then borrowed money to close the deficit.
Dwendt44 September 30th, 2014 at 1:30 pm
AND push the true deficit off a couple of years so that Walker is in Washington and the blame can be transferred to the next governor.
tracey marie September 30th, 2014 at 2:01 pm
of course
William September 30th, 2014 at 1:45 pm
Hey relax. Everything is going to be fine. Trickle down will kick in any time now.
tracey marie September 30th, 2014 at 2:00 pm
🙂
StoneyCurtisll October 5th, 2014 at 12:20 pm
Any year now..:)
Suzanne McFly September 30th, 2014 at 1:29 pm
Republicans obviously do not support smaller government (policies that support placing laws upon my uterus is evidence of that), they actually support a smaller educated population the will question the policies supported by our elected officials.
juicyfruityyy September 30th, 2014 at 1:29 pm
Brownback and the Coke Brothers did exactly what they had intended to do. Not an accident.
William September 30th, 2014 at 1:31 pm
Thanks Obama.
Bunya September 30th, 2014 at 2:50 pm
Kansas is crawling with morons, too stupid to vote in their own self interest. If he’s re-elected, then Kansas deserves him.
Hal Donahue September 30th, 2014 at 3:31 pm
Conservatism fails wherever tried
majii September 30th, 2014 at 8:28 pm
Although everything in this post is true, Brownback and his buddies are still saying that it will take more time for the tax cuts to work. I’ve taken many graduate level economics courses, but nothing I studied supports Brownback’s claim that he needs “more” time. His economic policies have had a minimum of three years to work. If they haven’t worked at this point, they won’t. The “more” time meme is a very lame excuse Brownback’s using to cover for his incompetence. In spite of all of the evidence that trickle-down economics does not work, Brownback and other GOPTP governors and politicians are still obsessed with it. My governor, the ethically-challenged Nathan Deal, and his RW buddies who control the state legislature have driven GA’s economy into the ground, and they’re still lying, saying that his policies have spurred “tremendous” economic growth here.
Yeah, right, if one can call having the highest unemployment rate in the nation economic growth. The truth is that on every measure of well-being and economic progress, GA is at the bottom of the list of the 50 states.
AnthonyLook September 30th, 2014 at 10:48 pm
Economic growth from the masses, the many millions— “Liberal Trickle Up” economics- trumps 1% repeated, recycled GOP trickled down and out failures.
R J October 1st, 2014 at 2:20 am
I blame the ignorant people that buy into the right wing thinking
eddie1247 October 9th, 2014 at 10:14 pm
Congratulations to all the saps that bought into this crap.