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This Is What's the Matter With Kansas
The New Republic ^ | September 29, 2014 | John B. Judis

Posted on 09/30/2014 9:19:34 AM PDT by centurion316

The midterm elections of 2010 were good for Republicans nearly everywhere, but amid the national Tea Party insurgency, it was easy to overlook the revolution that was brewing in Kansas. That year, the GOP won every federal and statewide office. Sam Brownback, a genial U.S. senator best known for his ardent social conservatism, captured the governor’s mansion with nearly double the votes of his Democratic opponent. And having conquered Kansas so convincingly, he was determined not to squander the opportunity. His administration, he declared, would be a “real live experiment” that would prove, once and for all, that the way to achieve prosperity was by eliminating government from economic life.

Brownback’s agenda bore the imprint of three decades of right-wing agitation, particularly that of the anti-government radicals Charles and David Koch and their Wichita-based Koch Industries, the single largest contributors to Brownback’s campaigns. Brownback appointed accountant Steve Anderson, who had developed a model budget for the Kochs’ advocacy arm, Americans for Prosperity, as his budget director. Another Koch-linked group, the Kansas Policy Institute, supported his controversial tax proposals...

Brownback established an Office of the Repealer to take a scythe to regulations on business, he slashed spending on the poor by tightening welfare requirements, he rejected federal Medicaid subsidies and privatized the delivery of Medicaid, and he dissolved four state agencies and eliminated 2,000 state jobs. The heart of his program consisted of drastic tax cuts for the wealthy and eliminating taxes on income from profits for more than 100,000 Kansas businesses. No other state had gone this far. He was advised by the godfather of supply-side economics himself, the Reagan-era economist Arthur Laffer, who described the reforms as “a revolution in a cornfield.”

(Excerpt) Read more at newrepublic.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Kansas
KEYWORDS: brownback; elections; governor
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To: centurion316

The Democrats have ALREADY scored a victory of sorts in KS.

They have forced the Republicans to commit resources in state which should be slam dunk for them.

I do think that in the end cooler heads will prevail as Kansans realize that the alternatives to Brownback and Roberts are not acceptable to their values and beliefs.


21 posted on 09/30/2014 10:39:00 AM PDT by Trapped Behind Enemy Lines
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To: Crazieman
Yeah, so Orman will get in and fight hard to reverse what Brownback has done.

Not such smart thinking.

22 posted on 09/30/2014 10:44:24 AM PDT by what's up
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To: Crazieman
Just not Roberts.

Yup, because getting 0% of what you want is so much better than getting 50%.

23 posted on 09/30/2014 11:04:10 AM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: centurion316

Kansas is full of idiots


24 posted on 09/30/2014 1:01:04 PM PDT by 12th_Monkey (One man one vote is a big fail, when the "one" man is an idiot.)
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To: centurion316
The left are fit to be tied by what Brownback has done in Kansas and they intend to undo it. They are being helped by many conservatives, including some very misguided ones on this forum.

I've always liked Brownback and still do. This is a shame. The fact that this will not affect the Senate race and that the same "bunch" is not going after Roberts, just Brownback, tells me that they must be pleased with "their" Senator.
25 posted on 09/30/2014 4:06:28 PM PDT by Din Maker (I've always been crazy, but, that's the only thing that's kept me from going insane.)
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To: centurion316
what's the best way for us to rebut this? 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.
26 posted on 09/30/2014 5:23:41 PM PDT by RightCenter
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To: RightCenter
what's the best way for us to rebut this?

If you come up with an answer I'm sure the Brownback campaign committee would love to hear it.

27 posted on 09/30/2014 5:27:00 PM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: Din Maker

Of course it’s the same bunch going after Roberts. Don’t know where you got that idea


28 posted on 09/30/2014 7:21:26 PM PDT by centurion316
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To: centurion316

Of course it’s the same bunch going after Roberts. Don’t know where you got that idea
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Every time I read about these various groups and individuals going after Brownback, they NEVER mention Pat Roberts. Pat Roberts name is nowhere in this article. If what you say was true this article would be about Brownback AND Roberts; but, not so. That’s where I “got that idea”.


29 posted on 09/30/2014 9:03:54 PM PDT by Din Maker (I've always been crazy, but, that's the only thing that's kept me from going insane.)
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To: Din Maker

The article is about Brownback and written by a flaming socialist. You might want to be more careful reaching conclusions


30 posted on 09/30/2014 11:39:06 PM PDT by centurion316
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To: centurion316

You might want to be more careful reaching conclusions
__________________________________________________________

GOOD GRIEF Centurion!!! What is wrong with you? I was just expressing my observation that whenever I read of the tactics being used by certain groups to defeat Brownback, that Pat Roberts is never mentioned. That leads me to believe the liberal group(s) trying to oust Brownback are not going after Roberts.

Why do you always have to be so mean-spirited and nasty? You must be a horrible person to live with.


31 posted on 10/01/2014 5:51:40 AM PDT by Din Maker (I've always been crazy, but, that's the only thing that's kept me from going insane.)
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To: Din Maker

Not trying to be mean sprited, but you seem to be quite adamant that there is no connection. There are plenty of articles out there, many of them posted on this forum that would lead you to a very different opinion. If you get a chance, get some of them a look.

The Left and the Democrats are trying to sell a very false story that Greg Orman is just a grass roots Independent with no connection to anything that the Democrats are doing. He’s just going to be a Jimmy Stewart going to Washington to help get things done. It’s all a lie and you shouldn’t fall for it. This whole operation is being planned and executed by a small group of Kansans with help from Claire McCaskill. The usual Leftie suspects have their fingerprints all over both races.


32 posted on 10/01/2014 7:17:08 AM PDT by centurion316
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To: centurion316

regardless of which groups is involved, it’d be good if we can get facts to show that either

1) the touted “hell” that brownback allegedly created in the article is NOT true

or

2) the negative effects are NOT the result of his policies


33 posted on 10/01/2014 12:19:02 PM PDT by RightCenter
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To: DoodleDawg

so you’re saying he should’ve cut some other part of the budget?


34 posted on 10/01/2014 12:19:34 PM PDT by RightCenter
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To: centurion316

Bump!!!

Rats want Orman and Davis, RINOs want Orman and Davis. Conservatives should want Roberts and Brownback to ream them, period.


35 posted on 10/02/2014 8:03:02 AM PDT by Impy (Voting democrat out of spite? Then you are America's enemy, like every other rat voter.)
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