Republican Tax Folly Fails Miserably in Kansas

GOP Has to Raise Taxes to Avert Ultra Conservative Disaster

When an extremist took the Governor’s seat in Kansas he vowed to show the world that cutting taxes would be the perfect policy to stimulate huge growth in the state.  He was wrong, and now the GOP controlled legislature has voted to override a veto of that Governor and raise taxes to stem the fiscal nightmare that the previous policy created.

The Senate and House voted 27-13 and 88-31, respectively, to override Brownback’s veto. The action took place on the 109th day of the legislative session and paves the way for lawmakers to wrap up their work quickly, potentially this week.

The override represents a blow to the legacy of one of the most unpopular governors in America, amid speculation that he may not serve out his remaining time in office but instead take a federal position.

Brownback did not respond immediately to the override votes. The night before, he had said he would veto and issued a statement: "Senate Bill 30 is a $1.2 billion tax hike, making it the largest in state history. This is bad for Kansas and bad for the many Kansans who would have more of their hard-earned money taken from them.”

Lawmakers who supported the bill and the override said the 2012 policy was a mistake that had drained the state of revenue, leading to rounds of budget cuts and harming investments in roads and other priorities.

There are two takeaways here.  The first is that despite all the evidence that the tax cutting policy didn’t work the Governor refuses to greet reality and still insists his policy was correct.  This is faith based economics at its worst.  The second is that Trump and his equally inept cohorts want to duplicate the Kansas policy at the federal level. Gosh, can anybody guess how that will turn out?