Horse-and-buggy ideology doesn’t turn this into wind power

❝ Republican lawmakers in Kansas put an end to the state’s failed tax reform experiment on Tuesday, overriding the governor’s veto after three attempts to pass a tax-hiking bill this year.

The new law raises income and business taxes closer to pre-reform levels — a move Republicans had been resisting for years. But pressure had been mounting to do something. The drastic tax cuts enacted five years ago left the state in a fiscal mess, unable to balance its budget and properly fund its public schools.

❝ Gov. Sam Brownback’s signature tax reform closely mirrors the tax plan that President Donald Trump is trying to get through Congress. In fact, they were designed by the same supply-side economists.

❝ The fate of Kansas’s tax experiment provides many clues about what could happen if Congress goes along with Trump’s vision for tax reform.

❝ Economic growth predictions were wrong…

Instead, the Kansas economy tanked. For two years in a row, the state’s credit rating has been downgraded because of its budget problems. Job creation and economic growth is far below the national average. The state is facing a budget shortfall of about $889 million in the next two years…

❝ Moderate Republican lawmakers in Kansas are now in open rebellion, scrambling to find ways to roll back the tax cuts as the state looks for ways to balance its budget.

Republicans have been offering the same golden lies about trickle-down economics since the days of President Herbert Hoover. Failure has resulted every time voters and Congress hand over a chance to put theory into practice. Reagan came closest to succeeding for a year or two – only because he didn’t try to support the theories with the massive level of lying estimates of successful growth – and tax cuts – demanded by Brownback and Trump Republicans.

The inevitable still resulted. Recession, downgraded credit ratings, working families and their children get the bill – and screwed, as usual.