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 ...
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.
Red flag phrase.
[the wealthy] == [those not getting EITC].
Three things have driven them nuts.
1. Tax cuts, not for the wealthy, but for the small business owners and producers of the state who generate most of the revenue that creates jobs, drives the economy, and keeps Kansas going.
2. Curbing the teachers union. Brownback wants education funds to go towards educating children not enriching the teachers union and subsidizing mediocrity among their members. They are in the trees over this one.
3. Cutting the heart out of the liberal Republican cabal that has served as the Democrat surrogates in Kansas politics for years. They have been tossed and are not at all happy.
Orman indeed is a shill for the unions and the socialists, but, incredible as it may sound, many FReepers openly are rooting for him to be elected to the U.S. Senate because they want to “teach a lesson” to conservative Republican Pat Roberts for having had the audacity of defeating in the primary a self-appointed “Tea Party leader” with no record and questionable judgment.
so much stupid... so little time
BTTT
Yes, a very special kind of stupid at work.
Oh, I have every intention of voting for Brownback. Just not Roberts.
Your screen name says it all. Keep the name, change the behavior.
You need to balance the budget. Cutting revenue means you have to cut spending to do that. Cut spending in a state where 67% of the budget goes to education means you have to cut school funding. Cutting school funding angers a lot of voters. Anger a lot of voters and you’re down 4 to 6 percent in the polls with 5 weeks to go. It’s as simple as that.
Yes. I’m insane to have principles. You GOPe types have taught me that.
Judis was born in Chicago. He attended Amherst College and received B.A. and M.A. degrees in Philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley. In 1969 he was a founding editor of Socialist Revolution (which was later renamed Socialist Review and then Radical Society before ceasing publication in 2009). In the 1970s he was a founding editor of the East Bay Voice. Judis started reporting from Washington in 1982, when he became a founding editor and Washington correspondent for In These Times, a democratic-socialist weekly magazine.
It must be nice to be able to rationalize doing exactly what this commie wants you to do. I would never do that to my fellow conservatives.
WHen this article says “In addition to his sweeping tax cuts, Brownback wanted to eliminate the earned-income tax credit, which had benefited the working poor.”
How is it that Brownback has any effect upon the administration or validity of part of the Federal tax code?
Or am I just being deluged under a big load of liborrhea in this article?
Wants me to do? Huh?
I don’t see “Roberts” in the article. Again, you GOPe types have to erect strawmen and lie.
Any vote against Roberts (or no vote either) would be a giant step backwards, since we sent those Lefties packing!
Now all we need to tackle is sending the Sebelius-packed KS not-so-Supreme Court!
Federal EITC doesn't reduce your taxable income for state taxes. Kansas has its own EITC which is being phased out as part of Brownback's tax reforms.
“How is it that Brownback has any effect upon the administration or validity of part of the Federal tax code?”
Some states have a state EITC in addition to the federal one. Michigan had one but got rid of it when Republicans took total control of state government.
I suspect that was also the case in Kansas.
Appreciate the clarifications, thanks!
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