Politics, Society, Uncategorized

Supply Side Kansas and ALEC

Sam_Brownback,_official_Governor's_portrait

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor

In these post Recession days, we have seen various stories of state and municipalities economies make positive strides toward recovery.  According to economist Paul Krugman, the state of Kansas is not one of those success stories.  If you don’t recall, the Republican Governor, Sam Brownback, signed legislation granting huge tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy.

Brownback crowed that these tax cuts would lead Kansas into the promised land of economic nirvana.  Unfortunately for regular, non-wealthy Kansans, the recovery has not materialized.  As Krugman states, the economy in Kansas tanked.

“Sam Brownback, the governor, proposed the legislation — in percentage terms, the largest tax cut in one year any state has ever enacted — in close consultation with the economist Arthur Laffer. And Mr. Brownback predicted that the cuts would jump-start an economic boom — “Look out, Texas,” he proclaimed.

But Kansas isn’t booming — in fact, its economy is lagging both neighboring states and America as a whole. Meanwhile, the state’s budget has plunged deep into deficit, provoking a Moody’s downgrade of its debt.” New York Times 

I guess this story may have garnered more national coverage if the Hobby Lobby decision had not consumed the mass media last week.  Should anyone be surprised that supply side economics would fail on any level?  If you were alive during the Reagan years and seemingly ever since, the Right continues to bang the drum of tax cuts for the wealthy and too many times a compliant Congress or in the case of Kansas, the Kansas State Legislature has agreed. I consider the constant Republican call for austerity for social programs to be part of this supply side mantra.

You know the argument.  The wealthy and big corporations will only succeed if we give them big tax breaks and then the trickle down of gains for the whole economy will lift all boats. However, it did not work for the Reagan Administration so why would the Kansas Legislature think it would improve the Kansas economy?

As Krugman suggests the answer to why Kansas took this ill-advised economic course is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and an economist named Art Laffer.

“For the Brownback tax cuts didn’t emerge out of thin air. They closely followed a blueprint laid out by the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, which has also supported a series of economic studies purporting to show that tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy will promote rapid economic growth. The studies are embarrassingly bad, and the council’s Board of Scholars — which includes both Mr. Laffer and Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation — doesn’t exactly shout credibility. But it’s good enough for antigovernment work. 

And what is ALEC? It’s a secretive group, financed by major corporations, that drafts model legislation for conservative state-level politicians. Ed Pilkington of The Guardian, who acquired a number of leaked ALEC documents, describes it as “almost a dating service between politicians at the state level, local elected politicians, and many of America’s biggest companies.” And most of ALEC’s efforts are directed, not surprisingly, at privatization, deregulation, and tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.” New York Times

If anyone was on the fence as to the ALEC connection to these austerity and tax cut for the wealthy and for corporations, this Kansas story should convince you.  Prof. Krugman suggests that these cuts and policies are not designed to help anyone but the wealthy and the corporations that are paying for the ALEC service.

“But how can you justify enriching the already wealthy while making life harder for those struggling to get by? The answer is, you need an economic theory claiming that such a policy is the key to prosperity for all. So supply-side economics fills a need backed by lots of money, and the fact that it keeps failing doesn’t matter.

And the Kansas debacle won’t matter either. Oh, it will briefly give states considering similar policies pause. But the effect won’t last long, because faith in tax-cut magic isn’t about evidence; it’s about finding reasons to give powerful interests what they want.”  New York Times

It seems evident that ALEC and Brownback and Laffer are not serious in their stated desires to help all the citizens of Kansas.  Am I just being cynical?  Are we expecting too much from State legislators and governors when we ask them to do what is best for all citizens?  Or at least most citizens?  Supply side economics has been long discredited, but Governor Brownback threw his unwavering support to principles and policies that only work to make certain people richer.  The facts seem to indicate that Brownback and the Kansas State legislature are only concerned about corporations and the wealth.

I guess I should not be surprised since the Republicans and some Democrats in Congress are hell bent on boosting the corporate profits at the expense of the rest of us.  Maybe the citizens of Kansas will remember this come election time.  Maybe the debacle in Kansas will convince other States and Congress to stop the corporate entitlements and tax cut rhetoric and start legislating with all of us in mind.  I can dream can’t I?

Does it surprise you that state legislatures and Congress for that matter never seem to be interested in tax cuts for the 99%?  What do you think?

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103 thoughts on “Supply Side Kansas and ALEC”

  2. Scott Supak wrote “Bush’s economy netted a loss of jobs”

    It is certainly true that, up until Obama, Bush II had the worst job creation record on record (actually since WWII).
    WSJ: “Bush On Jobs: The Worst Track Record On Record”

    But to say that Obama has been creating jobs is pure horse patties. I posted on this in JT’s “HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!” but all you need to do is look at the BLS graph “Labor Force Participation Rate” (data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000). For Obama’s entire time in office, the country has shed jobs. People are being laid-off and then officially forgotten. This is the way the BLS does its job and has done so since 1994, so I am not saying that Obama is cooking the books any more than his predecessors. But to say that Obama is creating jobs is highly disingenuous.

  4. rafflaw:

    Another example of middle class folks voting against their own interests on account of ideology. Thanks for the reminder.

    Not long ago, Kansas would have responded to the current situation by making the bastards pay. This would have been a political certainty, as predictable as what happens when you touch a match to a puddle of gasoline. When business screwed the farmers and the workers – when it implemented monopoly strategies invasive beyond the Populists’ furthest imaginings – when it ripped off shareholders and casually tossed thousands out of work – you could be damned sure about what would follow.

    Not these days. Out here the gravity of discontent pulls in only one direction: to the right, to the right, further to the right. Strip today’s Kansans of their job security, and they head out to become registered Republicans. Push them off their land, and next thing you know they’re protesting in front of abortion clinics. Squander their life savings on manicures for the CEO, and there’s a good chance they’ll join the John Birch Society. But ask them about the remedies their ancestors proposed (unions, antitrust, public ownership), and you might as well be referring to the days when knighthood was in flower.

    (Frank, T. 2004 “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”, pp. 67-68)

  6. Obama’s crony corporatism is a disaster too. Maybe it’s time to stop voting for the same idiots from your “party” very election. Like Jerry Seinfeld said about baseball- The players change, you’re just rooting for a uniform.

  7. Some how common sense dissipates when you add more economic degrees. If you read carefully, or perhaps just read, a PHD world famous economist can argue 180 degrees in the opposite direction to another PHD world famous economist.

    The running of a state or of the capital has little if anything to do with economic theory. It frequently and perhaps almost always has nothing to do with common sense. You don’t water a tree’s leaves. You water the roots. The problem is that most voters don’t take the time to imagine the roots spreading out there in the earth. They see the leaves and hear trickle down so think gravity and it makes enough sense to vote in idiots. Well, that doesn’t say much for Kansas. It doesn’t say much for anybody who votes republican either.

    The silver lining is that close to half of all Americans do have a working brain.

  12. “He is sanctimonious, condescending and a weasel, a perfect match for Dem cultists.”

    Hey spinelli, why don’t you get on twitter where we can drop the niceties you ignore anyway and talk like men?

    Krugman has been right. So has Dean Baker and Reich. Laffer and the rest of your right wing heros not only lied us into a $2 trillion war we should have spend on infrastructure, but they’ve predicted runaway inflation for years that hasn’t happened, they told us the wealth would trickle down when the opposite happened… And now they’ve screwed Kansas.

    Meanwhile, states with higher minimum wages are seeing faster job growth. Bush’s economy netted a loss of jobs while now, even while the public sector is being cut (the opposite of what happened under every other recovery, including Reagan’s) we’ve seen about double the non-recession job growth Bush managed, a paltry 68k a year.

    Get real.

  13. I have updated the article since it was originally published before it was completed. I apologize for the delay.

  15. “and weasel”

    I see Spinelli is still living up to the Civility Policy.

    You people are hilarious. Where’s the inflation? Leffer told us the whole economy would collaps from the QE in a couple of years. It’s been 6.

    Krugman has been right more than he’s been wrong, which is more than I can say for Laffer or any other supply-sider that’s been telling us the wealth would trickle down.

    http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/new-study-says-paul-krugman-top-prognos

    But what’s really funny is how you trickle downers completely avoid the facts and attack the messenger. Genetic fallacy.

    Tell us OH WISE ONES… what’s going on in KS? Tax cuts not big enough? Cuts not big enough? They just need to double down on a theory that has been proven disastrous time and time again. I don’t need Paul Krugman to know what a disaster Republican economics are. All I have to do is look around.

  16. Dave, The love affair progressives have w/ Krugman is perfect. He is sanctimonious, condescending and a weasel, a perfect match for Dem cultists. Then there’s his “Mini Me” Robert Reich.

  17. Kansas desrves all that Brownback sows. You reap what you sow. If any state wants to follow ALEC into the gutter then just follow Kansas. It is a Dorothy and Toto thing.

  18. Well, quoting an economist who has been thoroughly demolished on every level is a non starter. Paul Krugman, is a central bank apologist, and a government lackey. So if you care to have an article that anyone other than liberal, socialist apologists will read, you’ve succeeded.

  19. “According to economist[and weasel] Paul Krugman.” Do all your posts have to be propaganda? How about just a light sports one for chrissake? I know it’s panic time for Obama cultists. That’s why you need to lighten up. “Never let ’em see you sweat.”

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